Kodiaks have strong weekend in Calgary

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on October 19, 2022.

The Lethbridge College Kodiaks’ cross country and volleyball teams travelled to Calgary for competition this weekend.

The men’s team came third and the women’s contingent placed fifth in the event in the cross country run at St. Mary’s University.

Cooper Williams led the way on the men’s side by placing eighth and finishing the eight-kilometre track in 26:52.

“I’ve been training hard with my team and everyone did so well today to secure our third place team finish,” said Williams.

“Personally, I felt confident that I could get a personal best on this course, with it being a fast course and the competition being so talented. I was able to beat my previous race time by over a minute, which I was happy with. Even though it is a tougher course for provincials in two weeks, I am looking to work hard to prepare and improve on my time.”

Cole Herbert was the next highest Kodiak in 20th place.

Maria Boix-Frias was the highest Kodiak on the women’s side, as she placed 15th with a time of 26:05 in the six-kilometre trek.

“I feel good; I worked for it,” said Boix-Frias.

” (I am) Always thirsty for more (and) always want to improve my results and keep working hard.”

Rosie Bouchard was the second best LC runner as she came in 21st. with a time of 28:19.

The Kodiaks will now prepare for the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference championship in Edmonton on Oct. 29.

Meanwhile, the volleyball teams split their season openers at SAIT.

The women’s side got a good early season test as they went the distance in five sets with the Trojans, but lost in the end.

SAIT took the first two sets 25-23 and 25-22 respectively before LC won the third 25-21 and fourth set 27-25 to push the game to a fifth set.

SAIT won the fifth set 15-9.

“Yeah, that’s exactly the conversation that we had with the team afterwards was we learned a lot yesterday (Saturday),” said head coach Anna Schwark.

“We learned that though we’re handling pressure better this year than we did last year, there’s still some moments where we could have been a little bit tougher and played smarter which is for sure we made a lot of unforced errors. I think we just have to work on focusing on what we can control and minimizing our own errors and kind of just playing Kodiak volleyball.”

The men’s side swept SAIT in three sets , 25-19, 25-16, 25-23.

“We were really happy with our groups effort and focus leading in to this week and it allowed us to have confidence heading in to conference play,” said coach Greg Gibos.

“This group has an incredible belief in one another, and this help ease the first match nerves. Through each point our athletes really gave full effort, and this is all we ever ask of them regardless of the score. We were able to have 14 athletes touch the floor last night which is always a great way to get everyone who trains so hard to open their season with some playtime.”