Owls Valley soccer champs, Kelowna duo to Francophone Video games, lacrosse group wins tourney

Photo Credit: Lorne White/KelownaNow The Kelowna Owls’ Erica Lambert heads above the crowd.” data-src=”https://www.kelownanow.com/files/files/images/_LJW2936a.jpg” style=”margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 17px; float: left;”/>The Owls will represent the Okanagan at the B.C. School Sports provincial championship tournament May 31-June 2 at the Burnaby Lakes Sports Complex.

Kasey Patchell added a KSS goal in a 2-0 first half, while Finley notched her second of the match in the 70th minute off a pass from Chelsea Cristofoli. Fiona Rhea, with an assist from Rachel Davis, rounded out the scoring two minutes later.

Faith Tazelaar recorded the shutout.

The win completed an unbeaten Okanagan Valley season for the Owls (9-0-1), their only slight blemish being a 2-2 draw with Boucherie.

The Owls earned a berth in the final by defeating the Penticton Lakers 10-0 in semifinal play on Monday while the Bears downed the Rutland Voodoos 1-0 in a shootout.

Photo Gallery (51 photos) on KelownaNowSports Facebook page

Photo Credit: Rich Lam/UBC ThunderbirdsJohn Gay of Kelowna, left, will compete in the 3,000-metre steeplechase and possibly the 5,000 metres at the Francophone Games.” data-src=”https://www.kelownanow.com/files/files/images/p2264107517.jpg”/>Gay, in Los Angeles today representing the University of B.C. Thunderbirds at the United States Track and Field Middle Distance Classic, is coming off a recent personal-best performance of 8:43.20 — the fastest time in the NAIA this year — at the Occidental College Invitational in L.A.

The Okanagan Mission Secondary School grad, who established a PB in the 5,000 metres (14:19) in April, has also qualified for the NAIA national championships in Alabama May 25-28 where he will attempt to defend his national steeplechase title and run in the 5,000-metre event (ranked second behind T-Birds teammate Jesse Hooton). Joining him at Gulf Shores, Ala. will be UBC freshman teammate, Sean Bergman of Kelowna, another OAC product.

Gay, 20, said the meet today in Los Angeles and the NAIA championships represent two sides of his sport.

Photo Credit: Rich Lam/UBC ThunderbirdsGay has an opportunity to defend his NAIA steeplechase title.” data-src=”https://www.kelownanow.com/files/files/images/gay5.jpg” style=”margin-left: 17px; margin-right: 17px; float: left;”/>“I’m incredibly excited to represent Canada once again and looking forward to the chance to visit a new country and continent,” said Gay. “While there is no real ‘French Connection’, I have studied French extensively during my time at university and look forward to putting my education to use in an immersion experience.”

Turner, whose mother is French, is coming off a U Sport heptathlon championship in March while representing the University of Toronto.

The 21-year-old 2016 Kelowna athlete of the year, has been training hard since, preparing for the Athletics Ontario decathlon competition June 10-11 in Ottawa. Then it’s on to the Canadian national championships July 4-5 before heading to the Ivory Coast. He’s also hoping to compete for Canada at the FISU world student games in Taiwan in August.

In 2016, Turner, a Kelowna Secondary School grad in his fourth year at the U of T, ran, jumped and threw to a gold medal in the decathlon at the North American, Central American and Carribean (NACAC) track and field championship in El Salvador. He set both a personal-best mark (7,601 points) and a meet record.

Coached by OAC’s Pat Sima-Ledding, Turner went on to also win the 2016 Canadian men’s decathlon championship.

Meanwhile, Turner’s older brother, James, missed the Francophone Games qualification window (May 1, 2016 to April 30, 2017) by two weeks. He scored 7,776 points in April of 2016, but didn’t complete a decathlon the remainder of the year.

Midget Kodiaks earn gold at Penticton Barn Burner

The Kelowna Kodiaks won six straight games to claim the gold medal at the Penticton Barn Burner midget B lacrosse tournament on the weekend.

A 9-4 victory over Abbotsford capped an unblemished record for the Kodiaks, who had finished first in round-robin play with a 5-0 record.

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