No one does it better than Nell

No one did it better than Vincent Massey Collegiate pitcher/infielder Danika Nell in 2024.

The 18-year-old Boston University commit led the Trojans to their second consecutive provincial high school varsity girls fast-pitch softball championship last week, recording 50 strikeouts over 21 innings pitched while going 13-for-14 at the plate with a .929 batting average, four home runs and 17 RBI.

“When you win the whole thing I guess there’s nothing to really be mad about, right?” said Nell. “That was definitely the goal — to go for that third win this year and it was really special to play with this group, especially because it was so easy to see how much everyone on the team have improved.

“Throughout our practice times, coaches Mandy Wolfe and Krystal Morgan really put in the time with us. We were out on the diamonds every single week, hitting and they definitely didn’t miss any details.”

Goaltending phenom looks to take game to next level in PWHL

Raygan Kirk has competed and succeeded at the top level of college hockey.

Now, the 23-year-old goaltender from Ste. Anne wants to test her skills against the top professionals in the world, and the first step toward that goal was declaring her eligibility for the 2024 Professional Women’s Hockey League Draft, slated for Monday in St. Paul, Minn.

Kirk’s credentials for being chosen in the seven-round event are impeccable.

She capped an outstanding five-year college career by backstopping the Ohio State Buckeyes to the NCAA title, earning Women’s Frozen Four MVP honours while posting a 27-save shutout in a 1-0 win over Wisconsin in the title game on March 23.

Kuntz comes up short in quest for spot in U.S. Open

On a day that began with major aspirations, Braxton Kuntz ultimately fell short in his quest to realize a lifelong dream.

Kartusch starts season with a win

Addison Kartusch has made a habit of starting the golf season on a winning note.

The St. Charles teen was at it again this week as she ripped through the field at Breezy Bend to capture the Manitoba women’s match play championship crown for the second year in a row and third in her last four tries.

Kartusch, who entered the tournament as the No. 1 seed after firing a one-under 71 in qualifying, capped a marvellous performance at the Hedingley course by defeating fellow Winnipegger Jeri Lafleche six-and-five in a windy finals match on Sunday.

“I really do like the form of match play. I mean, I also do really like stroke play because that’s mostly what tournament golf is, but it’s nice to play a different form of tournament golf,” said Kartusch, whose only match-play loss in the last four years came in the 2022 semi-finals.

Committee to chart national course for women’s and girls’ hockey

The growth of female hockey has been a roaring success across the country but Hockey Canada CEO Katherine Henderson and her colleagues want the game to be even bigger and better.

To that end, the national governing body has minted a 15-member volunteer committee, chaired by former national team star Gillian Apps, to develop a discussion paper that would lead to recommendations to guide Hockey Canada’s strategic plan for women’s and girls’ hockey.

With the number of Canadian girls enrolled in hockey passing the 100,000 mark for the first time in 2023-24, Henderson has set a goal of increasing the number of female players to 200,000 — edging closer to the 402,000 boys currently registered in the country.

Formulating a national plan could be an important first step to achieving that goal.

Pickleball glory on the line at Manitoba championships

One of Manitoba’s most accomplished players is looking to stand atop the podium again this weekend at the 2024 Pickleball Manitoba provincial championships.

The world’s second most popular sport: An AP guide to cricket

LONDON (AP) — The yorker went through the gate to take out off stump and send the pinch-hitter back to the shed for a golden duck. What an absolute jaffa! Got that? It all makes perfect sense in places like England, India and Pakistan, Australia and the Caribbean where cricket has a long history and a huge following. But if you’re scratching your head and wondering what that all means, then worry no more. Kolkata Knight Riders' Mitchell Starc bowls a delivery during the Indian Premier League qualifier cricket match between Kolkata Knight Riders and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Ahmedabad, India, […]

World-class ultramarathoner comes home

Ihor Verys was looking for an outlet, a place to burn off some of his pent-up energy during a challenging time in his life. Born in Ukraine, Verys was in the midst of a significant culture shock when the pandemic hit and the seclusion of feeling alone in a new country was difficult to deal with. Verys was living in Brandon and attending school at Assiniboine Community College after moving to Canada nearly a decade ago. Ruth Bonneville / Free Press Endurance runner Ihor Verys is back in Manitoba to take part in this weekend’s Suffer on Centennial! Race. A […]

Manitoba sledge hockey team tops banner season with silver medal at nationals

The Manitoba Express had no idea what to expect, a sledge hockey team from the province had never been in a position to win on the national stage.

The local co-ed program was presented with a golden opportunity recently at the National Para Hockey Championships in Port Colborne, Ont. The only thing in their way was the squad from New Brunswick.

“It was kind of excitement, mixed with nervousness, mixed with, ‘We have no idea what is happening,’” is how forward Teo Roy described it.

Despite an admirable effort from the Manitobans, they fell to the coastal juggernaut in a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime decision.

US, Canada squads at the Twenty20 World Cup are a melting pot of nationalities

The U.S. cricket team which will co-host the Twenty20 World Cup may be a fitting cross-section of its country as a roster of migrants, a melting pot of nationalities and cultures. The 15-man squad includes players born in India, Pakistan, New Zealand and South Africa. Home-grown players include vice-captain Aaron Jones, who was born in Queens, and allrounder Steven Taylor, of Hialeah, Florida. The team provides a snapshot of U.S. cricket at this formative stage, as Major League Cricket jostles for its place in a crowded sporting market. The squad includes foreign players drawn to America by the MLC and […]

A cricket World Cup is coming to NYC’s suburbs, where the sport thrives among immigrant communities

EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — A towering stadium boasting 34,000 seats and a precisely trimmed field of soft Kentucky bluegrass is rising in a suburban New York park that will host one of the world's top cricket tournaments next month.

But on a recent Saturday morning, on the other side of Long Island’s Eisenhower Park, budding young cricketers were already busy batting, bowling and fielding on a makeshift pitch.

The T20 World Cup will be the first major international cricket competition in the U.S., but the centuries-old English game has been flourishing in the far-flung corners of metro New York for years, fueled by steady waves of South Asian and Caribbean immigration. Each spring, parks from the Bronx and Queens to Long Island and New Jersey come alive with recreational leagues hosting weekend competitions.

American cricket organizers hope the June competition will take the sport's popularity to the next level, providing the kind of lasting boost across generations and cultures that soccer enjoyed when the U.S. hosted its first FIFA World Cup in 1994. On Wednesday, retired Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, an honorary ambassador of the T20 World Cup, visited the nearly complete Eisenhower stadium, along with members of the U.S. cricket squad and former New York football and basketball greats.

Winnipegger captures national junior women’s 100-metre breaststroke crown

It was the perfect stage for Halle West to remind onlookers she’s one of the brightest up-and-comers in Canada’s swimming pipeline.

Racing at the Canadian Olympic trials on Tuesday evening, the 15-year-old from Winnipeg continued her rapid ascent in the rankings when she won the junior women’s 100-metre breaststroke at Toronto Pan Am Sport Centre.

West swam a blistering one minute 10.36 seconds in her signature race, edging out Québec’s Kamila Blanchard by fewer than four-tenths of a second.

“I’m trying to think about my own race but I can tell if people are close or coming up behind me. In a 100, it’s always really close, though, so a couple of tenths, I can tell I had it in the last five metres,” West said of her race.

Flyers soaring at Centennial Cup

The Winkler Flyers are soaring at the Centennial Cup.

The MJHL champions, who own a 2-0-1 record, are perched atop the Group B standings at the 10-team national junior A hockey championship in Oakville, Ont.

Winkler’s most recent victory — a 4-0 shutout — came at the expense of the host Oakville Blades on Monday evening.

Dalton Andrew and James Richards fired second-period goals for the Flyers, while Avery Anderson and Nicolas McKee added empty-netters late in the contest.

Canada’s Morales Williams runs world-leading time to win SEC men’s 400-metre title

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Canada’s Christopher Morales Williams broke a few more records in what’s been a dazzling breakout season to date. The 19-year-old Vaughan, Ont., native ran a world-leading time of 44.05 seconds to win the men’s 400-metre event at the Southeastern Conference outdoor championships on Saturday. The University of Georgia sophomore broke Tyler Christopher’s Canadian record of 44.44 from 2005, reigning Olympic 100 silver medallist Fred Kerley’s meet record of 44.09 from 2017, along with his school’s and the facility’s records. Canada's Christopher Morales Williams broke a few more records in what's been a dazzling season for him. Morales […]