Kilbride’s Chris Weeks makes a splash at the AUS championships
Herder coming up, U-18 hockey awards and other sports news around the region
There’s plenty of sportsrelated content that happens daily in St. John’s and around the province.
With that in mind, we’re trying something different and sharing some sports news with you in our new N.L. Sports Notebook column, where we’ll shine some light on local athletes and their accomplishments.
WEEKS SET FIRE TO THE POOL
Memorial University Seahawks swimmer Chris Weeks made sure to leave his mark on the recent Atlantic University Sport (AUS) swimming championships, which were held in Halifax, N.S., last weekend.
The Kilbride swimmer brought home five individual gold medals in the 100m freestyle, the 100m butterfly, the 50m freestyle, the 50m butterfly and 200m butterfly events.
In the 100m freestyle swim, Weeks’ time of 49.02 also qualified him for the U Sports National Championships, which are being held in Montreal next month.
His 50m freestyle swim narrowly missed breaking the AUS record he set earlier this season.
On top of his success, Weeks joined MUN swimmers Thomas Chafe, Liam Tweedie and Daniel Pearce in the 4x100m freestyle relay to pick up silver. In the 4x200m freestyle relay team ( Chafe, Tweedie, Pearce and Felix Sheppard) picked up bronze in their event.
MUN swimmer Heidi Perry picked up bronze in the 100m butterfly and 200m butterfly, while Natalie Smart won silver in the 400m freestyle and third in the 800m freestyle.
Pearce also won gold in the 200m butterfly, while Chafe brought home bronze in the 200m individual medley.
MUN’S 4x100m freestyle women’s team (Ali Warren, Marcy Whelan, Perry and Smart) finished second in their race . As a group, the women’s team finished third of the weekend, while the men’s team was fourth.
For his work this season, Weeks was named both the AUS male rookie swimmer of the year and its male swimmer of the year.
A NEW HERDER CHAMP IS COMING
There will be a new Herder Memorial Trophy champion crowned this season after the two-time defending champions, the Puglisevich Southern Shore Breakers, were knocked off by the Clarenville Ford Caribous in five games of their Avalon East Senior Hockey League (AESHL) semifinal series.
Waiting for the Caribous in the finals of the Joe Maynard Trophy are last year’s runners-up, the St. John’s Rooftech Senior Caps.
They defeated the Bakers Flooring Conception Bay Blues 4-1 in the other semifinal series to punch their tickets to the finals.
Whoever comes out of the AESHL will meet the winner of the Central West Senior Hockey League (CWSHL) finals between the Deer Lake Red Wings and the Grand Falls-windsor Cataracts.
The Red Wings swept the Stephenville Lightning in its CWSHL semi, while the Cataracts did the same to the Corner Brook Royals.
No matter who meets in the Herder Memorial Trophy finals, there are interesting storylines. Between 2009 and 2019, either the Caribous or the Cataracts have won the Herder nine times.
Deer Lake is looking to get back to the finals for a little redemption from second last season, while the Caps haven’t won the Herder since 1990.
AWARD SEASON
While the Newfoundland and Labrador’s under-18 Major Hockey League is one series away from starting its finals, they handed out their regular season hardware over the last little while.
Central Impact’s Grayson Pardy was named the league’s Most Valuable Player and the league’s top scorer with 26 goals and 25 assists in 32 games in the regular season.
His teammate, Reed Fowler, was named the league’s most respectful and effective player.
The Growlers goaltender tandem of Jesse Harnum and Scott Kirby shared the league’s best goals-against average, while Kirby was named the league’s top goaltender. Growlers player Nic Devereaux was named the Lee Family Trophy as the top defenceman.
Tri Pen Osprey head coach Brad Russell was named the coach of the year, while the East Coast Blizzard’s Ethan Percy was named the rookie of the year.
The Osprey and the Blizzard will meet in Game 5 of its semifinal series on Feb. 29. The Osprey currently lead the series 3-1.
The winner will play the topranked Growlers in the finals.