Maddie Lesnar and Braeden Lewis both brought back a great souvenir from the Western Canada Summer Games.
At the event, which took place in Swift Current, the daughter of Kola’s Chad and Jennifer Lesnar helped Team Manitoba win the gold medals in volleyball.
The squad swept top-seeded Alberta, 3-0, with scores of 25-16, 25-20, and 25-23, to claim gold. Team Manitoba compiled a 4-1 round robin record and beat Saskatchewan, 3-1, in the No. 2 vs. No. 3 crossover.
Virden’s Braeden Lewis, the son of Tracy and Dale, was a member of the Team Manitoba baseball squad that earned the silver medals. The team went 4-2 in the round robin and fell 8-4 to Alberta in the championship game.
Look for more on Lesnar’s and Lewis’s Western Canada Summer Games success in future issues of the Virden Empire-Advance. They helped Manitoba win 171 medals at the event – 27 more than the province accumulated at the last Western Canada Summer Games.
The Virden duo of Marlee Gonty and Danika Scharff were alternates for Team Manitoba in volleyball. They joined Team Manitoba, including Lesnar, a Virden Collegiate Institute and Club West teammate, in two straight weeks of practices for the Summer Games. They were unable to compete unless a teammate could not attend.
While Gonty and Scharff did not go to Swift Current, their time practicing against top players from around the province will certainly pay dividends in their development.
Other athletes from this region at the Games included Hamiota’s Joelle Little and Avery Kirkup of Souris. Little helped Team Manitoba to bronze in the 500-metre mixed war canoe race. Kirkup was a teammate of Lewis’s in baseball.
