Spartan Intermediates win volleyball crown

Cedar Glen golfer, Kurtis Barkley shot a one under par 69 here Saturday, to successfully defend his Morrisburg Men’s Open title for the fourth consecutive year.

The 24 year old, Williamsburg golfer, who this year is playing out of both Cedar Glen and Upper Canada, recently qualified in the Chase the Dream event with a three-over-par 75 shot at Upper Canada.

At the qualifier he wasn’t satisfied with his putting, so he has since changed to a belly putter, and the results showed up in the 69 he shot at Morrisburg, on Saturday.

The Morrisburg course is experiencing major issues with several greens which made Saturday’s putting difficult for the 63 golfers.

“I had 31 putts today, which is below my average,” said Barkley who opened his round with a pair of bogies. Although the par five first hole is one of the troubled Morrisburg greens, Barkley said he couldn’t fault the green for the opening six. “It was actually a one-putt bogie,” he said with a laugh. The bogie four on the par three second hole, also not in good condition, was, however, the result of a three putt.

After that the talented young golfer charged back with three consecutive birdies to go to one under and that’s how he finished it on the front, with a one under 34.

On the back, Barkley stayed at one under until a three putt on the par five 15th pushed him to even.

He got the stroke back with a birdie on the par three 17th and finished the round at 69 for his fourth consecutive championship.

Next up in the 19-player A flight was Rob Kimmerly (Prescott) with a 73. Upper Canada golfer, Lance Lepage was third with a 74 and Matt Rochon was next at 75.

Morrisburg’s Kevin Duvall shot a 76 which gave him the A field’s low net with a 67, and Dave Saunders (Brockville) was next with a 77. The final two golfers to break 80, in A flight, were Peter Gilder (Brockville) and Brett Corlyon (Cornwall) with 79s.

Sixty-three golfers competed in three flights in this year’s men’s open.

The top shooter in B flight, for the second consecutive year, was Lee Beaupre (Morrisburg) with a 77. Last year Beaupre shot a 78 to tie for the top B flight position but lost in a playoff.

This year he took the title by a single stroke over Bruce Perrin of Prescott. The two were the only B flight shooters to break 80.

Coming in with an 80 for third place was Scott Hodgson of Morrisburg. Eric Wemerman, Morrisburg and Randy Mullin, Iroquois were next with 81s. Wemerman’s 81 gave him a net score of 63 for the flight’s low net win.

Greg Millard (Morrisburg) and Allan McNairn (Upper Canada) were next up, tied with 83s.

For the second consecutive year, a playoff was required to determine the C flight winner. Jason Broad and Dan McLelland, both of Morrisburg, shot 87s for the tie and the latter took the win in sudden death play.

Doug Warner (Morrisburg) was next up with an 88 and after that, the scores went into the 90s with Sean Boulerice and Steve Boucher (both Morrisburg) tied with 91s.

[…]

  It took four games and a huge come from behind effort here Monday night, March 28 for the South Dundas Novice C2 Lions to claim the Upper Canada Minor Hockey League’s 2015-16 playoff championship. […]

Local water skier, Karen Stevens, finished off a hugely successful chapter in her water skiing accomplishments this past fall, when she represented Canada at the 2011 Pan Am games in Mexico, in October. At the games, Stevens scored three bronze medals for Canada, one each in the slalom and jump events and the third in a separate ‘overall’ three event competition (slalom, tricks and jumps).

Stevens, 22, described as “another in an endless stream of young rising stars in the sport in Canada” in an October 23 WaterSki & Wakeboard Canada story, finished an impressive third in the ‘overall’ at the Pan Am games behind gold medal winner Regina Jacques of the U.S. and Canadian teammate and silver medal winner Whitney McClintock of Cambridge, Ontario.

In the WaterSki & Wakeboard Canada article, Stevens was quoted saying, “The competition was tough. It’s awesome to come home with three medals. I’m very happy with the way it has gone.”

The Leader caught up with Stevens in December, when she was home for a visit.

Of her selection for the four-member Canadian team, the highest team selection of her skiing career to date, she said, “It was an honour to be picked for the Canadian team. It was pretty cool. We are a really young team (21 to 27 years). The coolest thing for me was that my medals contributed to Canada’s medal count.”

Making the trip to Mexico, for the Pan American games was Karen’s dad, Mark, who says, “It was really good. There were more people there than I have ever seen at a water ski competition. It was a very big week.”

“When they picked the Canadian team they were looking for a skier who they felt could get them three bronze medals,” he explained. “So she did what they wanted. It was truly an honour for her to be picked, and we were happy with her performance. She jumped her personal best and her tricks were close to her personal best. Unfortunately, her best event, slalom was down a bit.”

Mark, also an accomplished skier, says he is extremely proud of Karen, but admits, “It’s hard watching. It is definitely worse than skiing yourself.”

Karen concludes that it was an absolute thrill to compete at the Pan Am games and to be in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she says the athletes were treated ‘royally’.

Over 5,000 athletes representing 42 countries in over 30 sports competed at the Pan American Games which are a continental Americas’ version of the Olympic Games. Held every four years, they include the Olympic Program sports and others that are not part of the Olympic Games.

Canada is scheduled to host the next edition of the Games in 2015, in Toronto.

For the last four years, Karen has skied for the University of Louisiana Monroe (ULM) ski team. This team is the most successful water ski team in the history of collegiate water skiing having won 20 plus national championships since 1979.

She has now completed the four-year Kinesiology Program at ULM. This winter she is completing the required internship for her ULM degree at the National Training Institute in Florida. She is now skiing competitively, focusing on the slalom pro tour events.

Karen has been water skiing pretty much since she could walk. She got her early training from her dad and grew up skiing with her younger siblings, brother Daniel and sister Janice, in the home bay east of Iroquois.

Karen was a strong skier for the ULM team and her rankings over the four years by the National Collegiate Water Skiing Association, an affiliate of the USA Water Ski Association, are quite impressive.

She completed her final ski season at the college level in 2010, finishing first in Slalom and fourth overall at the Division 1, U.S. Collegiate Nationals.

Final 2011 International Water Ski Association elite women’s slalom rankings have Karen ranked ninth in the world.

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