Zone 8 made off with 48 medals at the Alberta Summer Games in Leduc, and more than a third of those came from the Grande Prairie canoe-kayak team. Athena Hauck led the medal haul with four gold and one silver finish. Earning three medals each were Casey Dube and Kaelin and Kyle Van den bon. They were joined on the podium by Paige Budgell, Mitchael Dube, Jodi Sorochan and Kai li Zhangh.
Northern Alberta’s swim team also cleaned up with 14 medals overall. Six of those – two gold, three silver – and one bronze were won by Grande Prairie’s Jacey Ask alone. Also making the podium were Tiffany Hessler, Mairen Lawson, Grovedales’ Darius Monfette, Aiden O’Donovan, Slave Lake’s Michael Smith and Adam Vitko.
The region’s athletics squad did well at well, with eight podium finishes by Kris Baird, Valleyview’s Aimee Caron, High Level’s Xavier Crosby, Grimshaw’s Marco Dejong, Worsley’s Desiree Giesbrecht, Kennedy Gray, and Sexsmith’s Vanessa Spenner. The male beach volleyball team of Mitchel Gorman, Chad Morrison and Coach Martin Noskey earned gold, while Josua Telizyn took two silver and one bronze medal in mountain biking.
GP will take the torch from Leduc and host the games in 2018.