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Cowichan Valley athletes lead Zone 6 to top spot at BC Summer Games

A dozen golds in 7 different sports

Athletes from the Cowichan Valley helped propel Zone 6 (Vancouver Island-Central Coast) to top spot in the medal standings at the 2022 BC Summer Games in Prince George last weekend.

Cowichan Valley athletes brought home at least a dozen gold medals and many more silver and bronze medals as Zone 6 dominated the Games with 165 overall medals, including 59 gold, 54 silver and 52 bronze. Fraser Valley was a distant second with 133 total medals (46 gold, 40 silver and 47 bronze).

Note: some results were not available at press time.

In athletics, Alexa Dow won gold in all three of her events — the girls 800m and 1200m and the 4x400m relay. Annette Blumel claimed gold in the girls 1500m race walk, with Tori Johnston taking bronze. Nova Wedmann-Kent took silver in the girls high jump and bronze in the 4x100m relay. Blumel also finished seventh in triple jump and 17th in shot put, Johnston was 15th in triple jump and 16th in javelin, Makenna Forcier placed 11th in high jump, and Danika Lazenby placed 15th in discus and 17th in javelin.

In 3x3 basketball, Spencer Ralfs and Jonah Spivack were part of the gold-medal Zone 6 boys team, while Kionah Williams, Ava Jack and Mila Buttle helped the Zone 6 girls team to eighth place.

In baseball, Hudson Closson helped Zone 6 to gold.

In box lacrosse, Nate Akhurst and Addison Urquhart won gold with the Zone 6 team, while their Cowichan Thunder teammate Jaydon Strom placed sixth with Team Indigenous.

In rowing, Anya Prokopchuk and Agata Minka of the Maple Bay Rowing Club took gold in the girls U17 W2X 1000m.

In towed water sports, Madison Savory took gold in girls 10-13 trick and Abigail Huck took gold in girls 10-13 jump, with both girls also bringing home team gold.

In wrestling, Loryn Roberts won gold in girls 64kg, Carter Zuback took silver in boys 54kg, Georgia Bond took silver in girls 60kg, Darren Doherty took bronze in boys 74kg, Ross Meiner finished fifth in boys 57kg, Brodie Wade placed fifth in boys 60kg, Antonio Iannidinardo was fifth in boys 70kg, and Emma Greenwood finished fifth in girls 69kg. All of those wrestlers and Nicholas Wade also claimed gold in the team dual competition.

In rugby sevens, Sofia Atkins, Tatiana Rowe and Ava Ference helped Zone 6 to silver.

In softball, Bella Anderton-Teasdale, Miller Fletcher and Kassidy Ralfs came home with bronze.

In swimming, Taelin Stephen placed sixth in the girls 50m backstroke and eighth in the 100m individual medley.

Watch the Citizen in upcoming weeks for more stories about the Cowichan Valley’s BC Summer Games athletes.