Avonlea School

Our school sent 34 athletes to compete at North Sections in Moose Jaw on May 19. They had a terrific day with 15 athletes qualifying to advance.  Congratulations to Niki Beingessner, Jolene Kirkpatrick and Cole Senchuk who won the Grand Aggregate Medals in their age groups, and to Ryley Ludwar who set the only record in Javelin.

   Districts were held in Moose Jaw on May 26.  Our athletes competed in 27 events and finished in the top 6 in 25 of those events!  Great job, everyone!  Finishing in the top two in their events and earning the right to advance to Provincials were

• Levi Beingessner (2nd in high jump)
• Dallas Funke (1st in javelin),
• Jolene Kirkpatrick (1st in 200 m, 1st in 400 m, 2nd in 100 m, 2nd in triple). She will also run in the 4 x 100 relay and the 4 x 400 relay.
• Cole Senchuk (1st in high jump).  He will also run in the 4x100 relay.
• Niki Beingessner (2nd in high jump).  Unfortunately Niki is unable to go to Provincials due to another commitment.
• Chris Walsh (1st in the 3000 metre )

Ryley Ludwar also had a great day finishing 1st in Javelin and Shot Put, but unfortunately Bantam age students cannot advance to Provincials.

At Provincials, Jolene Kirkpatrick won  bronze in the 4X400 relay, and Cole Senchuk won silver in the 4X100 relay.  All of the other athletes competed hard but were unable to medal.  The entire track team did incredibly well this year.  From a pool of less than 50 students, six qualified for provincials and one more was unable to attend because he is in Grade 8.   Truly remarkable!  

There are about 50,000 high school students in Saskatchewan.  Dallas and Jenna are better at mixed badminton than 49,996 of them.  Bronze is Golden.

On May 8th, Dallas and Jenna represented Avonlea School at the SHSAA Provincial Badminton Championships at McLurg High School in Wilkie and returned home with a Bronze Medal.

The team beat Biggar in the morning and easily handled Wilkie in the early afternoon.  They then lost a heartbreaker to Carrot River later in the afternoon.  This meant a showdown with the powerful team from Canwood.  They came up with a sound strategy for success in this match, but lost 21-17 both times.  Canwood then went on to easily beat Swift Current for the gold medal.  The loss to Canwood meant a repeat engagement with Carrot River for the bronze medal.   The big difference in this match was that Dallas and Jenna simply refused to lose.  They never gave up on a bird and proved to be too much for the pair from Carrot River.

Their attitude all day was positive.  They played every game hard and never once quit.  It was mental toughness that was the recipe for success.

On the weekend, the Senior Boys team won bronze at the SHSAA Provincial Championship.   The boys beat Assiniboia, 4-3 in the A event qualifier.  Unfortunately, theY lost to this same Assiniboia team in the first round of the playoffs.  They went on to beat Meadow Lake in the bronze medal game.  To do this, they took one in the seventh end, and stole one in the eighth end to win 4-3.   Everybody enters an event to win gold, and the boys do wish that gold was the result.  However, a third place finish in the entire province of Saskatchewan is an accomplishment of which to be proud.

On Thursday, Feb. 11, the elementary students enjoyed being active for the entire afternoon.  They participated in skating, curling at the local rink, snow-sculpturing and snow painting in the school ground, and cooperative games inside the gym.  We were blessed with a beautiful day for the outdoor activities with very little wind and a temperature high of -5 degrees Celsius.  It was a wonderful afternoon.