Team BC adds four medals to tally

Make that two wins and zero losses for the women’s hockey team as they gave Ontario its first loss of the games winning 5-1. Rebecca Clarke (North Vancouver) opened the scoring at 8:27 of the 1st and before the period was over Anna MacCara (Penticton) then made it 2-0 with five minutes left in the period.

At 14:40 of the 2nd period, Sarah Paul (West Kelowna) scored an unassisted goal to go into the second break up 3-0. The momentum didn’t let up in the 3rd period as Clark scored her second goal of the game at 17:05. Ontario broke the shutout at 5:45 of the 3rd and pulled their goalie with two minutes to go and Ontario on the powerplay to make things interesting. But with less than a minute left on the clock, Chanreet Bassi (Lake Country) scored into the empty net to seal the win. Shots on goal for BC were 31 Ontario 34. Team BC goalie Kayla Munro (North Van) stopped 33 shots.

Team BC now plays Nova Scotia Tuesday to end pool play.

Curling had two draws Tuesday as both teams squared off with Nova Scotia in Draw 3 of the tournament. On the women’s side, Nova Scotia got off to a quick start against Team BC with a three-point first end. Nova Scotia kept the pressure on the women’s team of Gracelyn Richards (Courtenay), Keelie Duncan (Comox), Chanelle Meeres (Courtenay), and Bryn Woloshyn (Royston), stealing three points in the fourth end to jump to a 7–1 lead at the break. Both teams would add another two points each before Team BC conceded after the sixth end, losing the game 9–3.

On the men’s side, the team of Hayato Sato (Coquitlam), Joshua Miki (Port Coquitlam), Dawson Ballard (Surrey), and Troy Chong (Burnaby) continued their strong performance so far at the Games. After a slow start that saw Nova Scotia jump to a 3–0 lead after two ends, Team BC rallied with four points over three consecutive ends. With Nova Scotia sitting two points back with the hammer in the eighth end, Team BC played some strong defense to limit them to one point and take their second victory of the Games by a score of 6–5.

In the evening session, both teams took on Manitoba in Draw 4. The women eventually conceded in the sixth end with Manitoba taking the game 10–0. On the men’s side, Team BC stole a point in the second end to take the early lead, but it was back and forth affair from there. Ultimately, the Manitoba team prevailed in seven ends by a score of 6–3.

On Tuesday, Team BC will play Prince Edward Island in Draw 6 at 2:00 pm and Northwest Territories in Draw 7 at 7:00 pm.

In squash, in the Individual Championship semi finals, the top seeded players showed why they were favoured to play for gold as they advanced to the finals scheduled for Friday March 1st. On the boy’s side, the bronze medal match has Sam Scivier (Vancouver) facing off against Nova Scotia’s Douglas Kosciukiewicz.  On the girl’s side, the gold medal match will see #1 seed Charlotte Orcutt from Ontario take on #2 Lucia Bicknell (West Vancouver).

In other day two action, the Individual Consolation Round completed both the semi final and finals for placing for 5th thru 8th place. Matt Bicknell (West Vancouver) and Sarah Cao (Richmond) both placed in 5th place.

And to round out day two, the Team Pool Play continued with early undefeated leaders BC and Alberta in Pool B Boys and Girls teams.

Team Pool Play will continue now until Thursday when the playoffs begin but the pressure is mounting on teams to stay in contention for the medal round.  Day three of the squash competition begins Tuesday with team encounters going until approximately 10:30 pm. 

In today’s Super-G race, we had 6 top 20 finishes from Team BC. In the women’s category, there were 53 female finishers. First place finished with a time of 45.90. Brynn Applegath (Kamloops) did not finish because she missed one of the turns at the beginning of the run. Jaden Dawson (North Vancouver) was just a 10th of a second from placing in the top 10. In the men’s category, there were 61 male finishers. First place finished with a time of 45.27. Taylor Nellis (Burnaby) placed in the top 10 with a time of 46.74. Adam Usher (North Vancouver) had a crash just before the finish line, ending with a Did Not Finish.  Tuesday begins the giant slalom.

In badminton, several athletes will be moving on to the quarterfinals including Antonio Li (Victoria) in men’s singles, Wendy Zhang (Richmond) in women’s singles, Kinsley Lu (Coquitlam) and Kevin Luo (Richmond) in men’s doubles and finally, Katie Ngai (Richmond) and Jenna Won (surrey) in women’s doubles. No BC athletes move forward in mixed doubles.

Quarter finals continue Tuesday and Gary W. Harris Centre,

Following a competitive showing by the four Team BC gymnasts in the Individual Trampoline qualifications rounds, only one female and one male athlete moved on to compete in the finals rounding out a top-8.  On the women’s side, Jordan Yendley (Kelowna) performed well and stepped up to make the battle for the lone final spot representing BC a challenge. Maja Bonham (Vancouver) was the favourite to advance and represent BC and ultimately she earned that right.
Bonham had a solid finals routine, but ultimately was outmatched by competition. She went into the final ranked 3rd, but fell to 5th place by the end of the night.

 “I felt really good going in to finals. It is a fresh-start finals so everyone starts off at zero with one shot at the podium,” said Bonham when discussing her day following the final competition. “Finals didn’t go quite as well for me, but I am still happy and proud that I had the opportunity to compete and make it into the top-8.”

Both ladies showed well leaving them in a great place heading into the Team Event on February 26th. 

On the men’s side, Team BC coaches were excited and surprised at the performance of both athletes in the qualification rounds. 

Jordan (Yendley) really laid it down today in qualification. We are excited for him but also knew that if Gavin (Dodd) wanted that shot, he was going to have to really bring it and impress the judges for that top-8 finish,” said Matt Wheele, head coach of Team BC trampoline.

Gavin Dodd (Kamloops) ultimately secured the top-8 finish and a spot in the start fresh finals this evening. In a very disappointing misstep during Gavin’s final routine at Collicutt, he hit the side matting which unfortunately took him out of podium contention and ended his day with an 8th place finish.

With the team event beginning Tuesday, all four athletes are poised and excited to enjoy all the 2019 Canada Winter Games has to offer.