That Sudbury Sports Guy: Locals make their mark at OFSAA track

The steps to the podium of the OFSAA track and field championships are certainly not getting any easier to climb for the SDSSAA delegation.

And while Lo-Ellen Park sprinter Melina Doiron might be a tad disappointed she did not run her best time in Ottawa, perhaps there is some consolation in knowing that in finishing seventh in the novice girls 100-metre dash final (12.92, qualified in 12.66), she was surpassed by only one other local athlete at the provincial meet last weekend.

Lasalle Lancers graduating senior Riley Cornthwaite continues to distinguish himself amongst his intellectually impaired competitors, earning a sixth-place ribbon in the 800-metre final (2:42.47), while also placing 10th in the 100-metre dash (14.00).

Having broken both the 100-metre NOSSA record (12.57) and the 200, as well (26.13), one could see where Doiron, one of several local young up-and-coming athletes working closely with Robert Esmie and the Air Blastoff crew, might feel that she left something on the table as she clocked a time of 26.31 in the 200 on Saturday, falling short of making it to the final.

Still, many are the Sudbury reps who have struggled in meeting their PB standards at OFSAA, especially when participating for the very first time — all of which makes some of the next wave of breakthroughs all the more impressive.

Capturing gold at the city meet with a toss of 11.96 metres and following that up with another first-place finish at NOSSA (11.79), novice boys shot putter Evan Maksymchuk of the Lively Hawks could feel his confidence growing with each and every throw at OFSAA.

Mentored this spring by track and football coach Dan Yoisten, the high school freshman sailed the sphere 12.04 metres, then 12.31 and finally 12.50 in working his way up to 10th place in the province.

After playing second fiddle to Milena Kulik of Lo-Ellen at both SDSSAA/NOSSA meets, Bishop Carter multi-sport star Jillian Landry took full advantage of the push at OFSAA to drop her time even lower, her 10th-place finish in the 200 the best of the local contingent.

Times of 26.89 at SDSSAA and 27.21 at NOSSA gave way to a clocking of 26.33 seconds at OFSAA, leaving the young woman who focuses a great deal of her athletic training on her hockey career with the Sudbury U18 AA Lady Wolves just eight one-hundredths of a second shy of earning a berth in the final.

Finally, one other multi-faceted athlete cracked the top 10 at OFSAA as Lo-Ellen Grade 9 track and basketball star Sarah Guignard followed up a decent showing in the 80-metre hurdles (13.65 seconds, 16th) with her best in competition leap of the year in the novice girls high jump.

Guignard cleared the bar at 1.45 metres to slide into 10th place in Ontario, besting her golden performances at both cities (1.40) and NOSSA (1.36).

Falling just short of a top-10 placement were Kaeden Ward (open 2,000-metre steeplechase, 6:21.14) and Darren Joiner (NB 200, 23.58), both of Lo-Ellen and both finishing in 11th place.

Cards competitive

Though the St. Charles College Cardinals baseball team posted a record of 1-2 at the OFSAA west regionals last week in Windsor, head coach Jean-Gilles Larocque walked away more than a little pleased, realizing just how young this particular edition of his squad had been.

Knowing that much of his lineup is eligible to return and that more talent is coming through the local Sudbury Voyageurs baseball pipeline allows for plenty of reason for optimism as the Cards will look to show progress, undoubtedly, at the 2024 playdowns.

Last Wednesday, the team battled to a 13-10 setback at the hands of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from Burlington in Game 1, then bounced back to edge the St. James Lions from Guelph 7-6 in Game 2 and was leading 3-1 heading to the bottom of the seventh of a finale versus the Bradford Buccaneers, but walked off with a 4-3 loss thanks to a three-run rally by the GBSSAA champions.

Aigles, Cardinals come close

In OFSAA soccer action, the Horizon Aigles came ever so close to making their way through to quarter-final action at the girls A championships in London. The two-time city champions posted a round robin record of 2-1-1, but were eliminated thanks to a goals differential tiebreaker.

This outcome came after the Val Caron crew dropped their opener to Sainte Trinite, 3-1, but reeled off victories over Mackenzie Community School in Deep River, 5-2, and Hamilton District High-School, 2-1, before playing to a 1-1 draw with Esc EJ Lajeunesse.

The St. Charles College Cardinals boys team nearly duplicated this feat, splitting a four-game preliminary round set 2-2 and finishing one point shy of a playoff berth. The Cards were riding the teeter-totter at OFSAA, beaten by the Aldershot Lions, 4-3, beating the King City Lions, 4-2, then blanked by the Gisele-Lalonde Titans, 4-0, but blasting the Bayside Red Devils, 6-1, on the off chance that goal differential might come into play.

Both the Lo-Ellen Park Knights (OFSAA AAA) and the St. Benedict Bears (OFSAA A) boys had a tough time hitting the win column as the high school provincial championship calendar drew to a close.

Randy Pascal’s That Sudbury Sports Guy columns runs regularly in The Sudbury Star.