Skip to content

Local athletes score results

Ti-Cities’ athletes are making their mark, internationally and at home, this summer.
Arbourist
TRI-CITY NEWS FILE PHOTO Port Coquitlam arbourist Kalin Alcorn finished 13th out of 22 female competitors at the International Tree Climbing Championships in Washington D.C. last weekend.

Ti-Cities’ athletes are making their mark, internationally and at home, this summer.

Water polo bronze

Water polo player Maxwell Macmillan helped Canada’s junior national water polo team win a bronze at the 2017 Youth Pan American Championships in Lima, Peru. Canada finished second in its group, then went on to defeat Columbia, 13-12, in the bronze medal match. The result qualifies Canada for the 2018 FINA Youth World Championships, which will be held in Szombathely, Hungary next August. 

Boys of summer

Coquitlam’s Jonah Lee is in Easley, South Carolina, helping Canada’s senior Little League in their World Series for 15-16 year olds. The tournament runs until Aug. 5, with teams from as far away as Australia, Latin America and Europe-Africa.

Lee, a pitcher, catcher and first baseman, was part of the Fraser Valley District 3 team that won the Canadian championship with a 6-4 win over Ontario. He is the only Coquitlam representative on a team comprised of 12 players from Whalley Little League and one from Langley.

A handful of Coquitlam players also recently helped their team reach the semi-finals of the U18 Babe Ruth regional baseball championships  in Calgary. Josh Carswell, Ryan MacDonald, Jason Powers, Justin Richter and Nolan Smith were part of the squad that compiled a record of three wins and two losses in tournament play before they lost 11-1 to the Calgary AAA Blues in the semi-final. The B.C. Babe Ruth league is for 16- and 17-year-old players who are finished their Little League careers but aren’t playing in the B.C. junior league.

Top golfer

Coquitlam’s Steven Diack was the top amateur at the Golden Ears Men’s Invitational golf tournament that was played at the Pitt Meadows golf club over the weekend. Diack finished the tournament at three under par after he shot 71 in the first round and 70 in the second round.

That’s just the latest top result for the 24-year-old golfer. In June Diack represented BC at the 90th Mexican Amateur Championship in the Yucatan Peninsula, and he was a semi-finalist for the 2017 NAIA Nicklaus National Player of the Year Award. He recently graduated from Wayland Baptist University in Plainview, Texas.

Soccer success

Three players who played youth soccer with Coquitlam Metro-Ford have been accepted into the Vancouver Whitecaps FC residency program.

Port Moody’s Patrick Ruszczyk is one of only two players joining the club’s U16 program while Metro-Ford grads Adam Kirby and Kyle Dent will be part of the U14 team that will get an immediate taste of top-level international soccer when it travels to Mexico this week to play in the U13 CONCACAF Champions League.

The players join a program that has already graduated two locals, Port Coquitlam’s Kadin Chung and Coquitlam’s David Norman Jr., to professional contracts with the Whitecaps FC 2 in the United Soccer League, the primary developmental league for Major League Soccer.

Canada Games

There is strong representation of the Tri-Cities at the Canada Summer Games that started Friday in Winnipeg, Man. 

From Coquitlam: Chanell Botsis, Eric Chatten, Addy Townsend are all competing in athletics; Nadia Hakeem and Caitlin Shaw are playing women’s soccer, Burhan Waisy is on BC’s men’s soccer team, Emilee Lai, Jackqueline Lew and Kye Mills are wrestling. 

From Port Coquitlam: Denzel Brown, Kaila Butler and Sedrick Skabar are competing in athletics; Michael Wilkinson is on BC’s men’s basketball team, where Joseph Enevoldson is also a coach; Andrew Peat is playing men’s soccer and Piotr Majewski is coaching canoe/kayak.

From Port Moody: Jack Davis, Sophia Ho and Alexandra Vagramov are competing in tennis; Hailey Counsell is playing for BC’s women’s basketball team; Madeline Moore is playing women’s soccer and Lauren Watson is playing women’s softball.

The Canada Summer Games run through Aug. 13.