Coquitlam's Nicholas Umbachhas earned a berth at the B.C. Winter Games as part of the Tyler Tardi rink out of Langley. Umbach is third on the rink that outlasted Matthew McCrady's Port Coquitlam rink at the juvenile playdown in Chilliwack.
The McCrady rink - which includes third Hayto Sato, second Zac Curtis and lead Jacob Umbach, all from Coquitlam - took the first game 6-1 before the Tardi rink bounced back with a 7-3 win. In the final game, Tardi took three in the seventh and buried two rocks in the eighth for a 5-3 win. The Tardi rink also knocked off Peace Arch's Justin Fox rink 10-0 and the Coquitlam rink skipped by Ryan Harbrink 9-3.
Team Drexel from Coquitlam also qualified to represent Zone 3 (Fraser Valley) at the Winter Games set for Feb. 20-23 at the Mission Granite Curling Club. The Drexel rink - made up of skip Heather Drexel, third Sarah Loken, second Janice Pang and lead Angelique Miller - outlasted Brianna Hanni's rink out of Mission 9-6 in the final.
Other Tri-City athletes who will be competing at the B.C. Winter Games in Mission include: from Coquitlam, Amy Louie will compete in archery; Margarita Dionisio and Coco Lee in badminton; Lauren Hogan, Devon Marsland-Anderson, Shannon Sayer, Melissa Stander and Ariel Taylor in Special Olympics basketball; Andrew Weekes in wheelchair basketball; Andrei Secu in biathlon; Alanna Marrington in diving; Megan Kan and Benjam Papp in figure skating; Rhianne Eder in gymnastics; Shoma Asano and Nikki Zawadzki in judo; Chiara Bordignon, Shanta Borrego, Pardise Elmi, Tamia Overes, Brielle Reaume, Anahita Sourate and Talia Tvergyak in netball; Leah Berman and Megha Moore in ringette; Owen Ternoway in freestyle skiing; and Maria (Min Jung) Kim and Steven (Jong Hun) Lim in figure skating.
From Port Moody, Kolya Goroupitch and Laura Hinton in judo; Carlie Graham in ringette; Lena Liljedahl and Katrina Voss in alpine skiing; Madison Parker, Kassidy Todd and Maxwell Todd in freestyle skiing; and Megan Cave and Scott Ciaran in speed skating.
From Port Coquitlam, Cameron Fletcher and Elizabeth Wall will compete in archery; Michael Chan in badminton; Ben Felling and Jennifer Sillery in Special Olympics basketball; Jaymee Lynn in curling; Ashley Fitzpatrick in gymnastics; Madeleine Ericsson in hockey; Nathan Jette, Serena Pignatelli and Samantha Pignatelli in judo; Sydney Iverson in netball; Adrienne Pop in alpine skiing; and Graham Dowdie and Cara Maltese in speed skating.
