The medals keep on rolling in for Team South West at the Saskatchewan Winter Games, with Moose Jaw athletes playing a large role in the ever-increasing haul.
Leading the way on Wednesday evening was the Special Olympics male bowling team, who built on their unbeaten start to finish with a 6-2 round-robin record and eventually reach the final in the stepladder playoffs, where they’d fall to Team Regina.
Bradly Volk, Casey Hopps, Kile Wilson and Calvin Schaff won their first three matches before falling to Prairie Central 2 and Saskatoon in their next two contests. That just set the stage for a three-game winning streak, as South West Moose Jaw would close out the preliminary round with victories over Regina, South East and South West Swift Current, finishing at 6-2 and tied for second with Lakeland.
That advanced South West to the stepladder playoffs, where they defeated Lakeland in the second-third place game and needing back-to-back wins over Regina to claim gold, picked up a win in the first meeting before falling short in the deciding contest.
Lakeland won bronze, with South West Swift Current landing in ninth place.
The South West weightlifting team picked up a pair of medals on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Paxton Nelson led the way with a solid showing in the male 52 kg division, putting up a 41 kg clean and jerk and 41 kg snatch to win bronze with a 93 kg total. Asher Booth finished fifth in the same division with a 30 kg clean, 24 kg snatch and 54 kg total.
Prairie Jacobson ended up with silver in the 76 kg female division, clearing 49 kg in the clean and 34 kg in the snatch for an 83 kg total.
Hawkins Jacobson came oh-so-close to a medal in the 61 kg male division, with his 56 kg clean, 41 kg snatch and 97 kg total missing bronze by a mere three kilograms.
Nelson doesn’t have a lot of time to relax after his medal showing, as he’s off to Prince Edward Island to represent Team Saskatchewan in judo during the second half of the Canada Winter Games.
The South West speed skating team picked up a pair of relay medals on the final day of competition in their sport.
The male relay team -- led by triple gold medalist Marcus Capili, Kaeleb Tabin, Kohl Olson, Seth Allen and Miguel Rea -- claimed a silver medal in their race, while the female team -- Elizabeth Rae, Scarlett Zoerb, Gracelyn Blanchard and Lil Fisher -- won bronze in their race.
The mixed doubles curling team of Kaylee Hogeboom and Dayne Heisler finished 1-2 in their round robin pool before dropping an 8-3 decision to Regina 2 in a tiebreaker and losing the third-fourth place playoff game 9-8 to Parkland Valley 2.
That sent the Moose Jaw Curling Centre crew into the seventh-eighth place game, where they’d lose another heartbreaker, this time 9-8 to Parkland Valley 1, to land in eighth place.
The gymnastics individual competitions took place on Wednesday, with Moose Jaw Gymtastiks competitors posting a trio of top-10 finishes.
Caronport’s Saige Buchanan was the lone South West competitor to qualify in the uneven bars, and she’d post a score of 9.150 to finish in sixth place.
Buchanan was back at it in the vault and had a score of 8.916 to finish seventh, with teammate Katelyn Sauer putting up an 8.883 for an eighth-place showing.
The South West male futsal team got off to a great start in their opening game, rolling to a 9-3 win over Prairie Central on Thursday.
Moose Jaw’s Patrick Pryadko led the assault with four goals, while fellow local competitors Cohen McDonald and Sam Mendes had single markers.
South West is back in action during their second round robin game against Rivers West on Thursday afternoon.
Team South West judo athletes -- including Noah Pulvermacher, Felix Leonard, Emmett Lee-Neuman, Kenzie Woods, Nova Lee-Neuman, Josie Mawson and Olesia Dunn -- are off to a stellar start in the individual competition, with several competitors in the hunt for medals heading into the playoff rounds later Thursday.
Be sure to check back for a full rundown on Friday afternoon.
The South West wrestling team couldn’t have asked for a better start to the duals portion of the meet on Thursday, rolling to a 51-8 victory over Team North.
Elisa Tondevold (female 51 kg), Arianna Skeoch (female 56 kg), Aurelia Eros (female 61 kg), Evelyn Eros (female 75 kg), Teagan Kivol (43 kg male), Kruz Babich (49 kg male), Tanner Kivol (54 kg male), Brady Ross (80 kg male) and Kingston Usher (95 kg male) all picked up points for South West in the win.
Things didn’t go quite as well in their second match, as South West would drop a 29-28 decision to Lakeland. Skeoch, Evelyn Eros, Kivol, Babich and Ross all picked up wins in the defeat.
South West close out their round robin against Regina Thursday evening before taking part in the semifinals and medal round on Friday, followed by the individual competition on Saturday.
Team South West sits tied for seventh place in the medal standings, with three gold -- all from speed skater Capili -- five silver and five bronze giving the crew 13 medals.
Saskatoon leads the way with 20 gold, 20 silver and 16 bronze for 56 medals total.
You can check out all the results from the Saskatchewan Winter Games at www.saskgames.ca/winter.
