Thunder Athletics Weekly Recap - Week 1
Last week got off to a hot start for Concordia with Cross Country, Golf, and Soccer all beginning their season this past weekend. Take a look at how each team fared in their first week of competition.
Cross Country
On Saturday September 6th, the Thunder hosted the ACAC Grand Prix #1 at Gold Bar Park in Edmonton. The event featured an exciting lineup of three races, beginning with the open run at 11am, followed by the women’s 6km race at noon, followed by the men’s 8km starting at 1pm providing thrilling athletic performances throughout the day. Ashlee Walker continued right where she left off from last season, winning the Women’s 6km event with a time of 24:35. Owen Stewart led the way for the Thunder men’s team finishing 22nd overall in the Men’s 8km event with a time of 32:17. Here were the top 3 times from both teams at the completion of Grand Prix #1.
Thunder Women’s 6km Event:
Ashlee Walker - 24:35
Ashley Schmaltz - 31:26
Paige Milmine - 37:22
Thunder Men’s 8km Event:
Owen Stewart - 32:17
Jason Kwong - 35:33
Dahir Hassan - 38:46
Thunder Cross Country’s next Grand Prix will be hosted by Lethbridge on September 20th.
Golf
It was an incredible start for Thunder Golf as Concordia hosted the first Regional Tournament of the year at Millwoods Golf Course over weekend and into Monday.
The trio of Ella Gifford, Lauryn Psutka, and Ava Stach continued to show their dominance of the women’s circuit, with Gifford finishing in first place (+17), Psutka in second (+21), and Stach in third (+28) individually. On the men’s circuit, Hayden Prins brought his A game, leading the men’s group, shooting under par at -6 for the tournament.
Overall as a team, Women’s Golf was a +38, easily capturing first place in the tournament with the next closest team being NAIT at +92. Men’s Golf finished in second at +12, just behind first place NAIT at +7.
Thunder Golf are right back at it next weekend, as they’ll head to Lynx Ridge where SAIT will host Regional #2 on September 12th and 13th.
Soccer
It was a busy first weekend for Thunder Soccer as both teams played their first games of the season against the NAIT Ooks on Saturday September 6th and the Northwestern Polytechnic Wolves (NWP) on Sunday September 7th.
After a tough first game for Women’s Soccer that saw the team fall 1-0 to the rival Ooks, CUE bounced back in a big way at Sunday’s Home Opener, defeating NWP 6-0. Abigael Burton was huge for the Thunder, scoring three goals, while 2024 North Player of the Year Vanessa Pietramala chipped in with two goals of her own. Angelina Saporito scored her first goal of the year, looking to build on her sophomore year where she scored three in 11 games.
Men’s Soccer got their season off on the right foot, finishing Saturday's game against the defending ACAC Champion Ooks in a 0-0 draw and defeating the Wolves 2-1 at their Home Opener. Keenan Henderson and Sam Viera scored a goal each in Sunday’s game, while the team defence stood strong limiting NWP to 8 total shots. This was coach Osmo Bimba’s first ACAC win as head coach of the program, looking to keep the good vibes alive heading into next weekend.
Both squads will be on the road Friday September 12th to take on the King’s University Eagles. They’ll follow that game with another Sunday afternoon home game on September 14th, this time against the Lakeland Rustlers.