Local athletes cheer their way to Walt Disney World
Four Sylvan Lake athletes are heading to the 2020 Cheerleading World Championships at Walt Disney World.
Halle Murray, 11, Charlie West, 12, Ruby Wynnyk, 14, and Sophie Moffet, 15, alongside their Premier Academy Cheerleading and Tumbling’s Ivy League teammates will be the first ever Red Deer team to go to the competition.
The all-girls team has only been practicing together since September, but they will be competing in one of the toughest divisions at Worlds, the Senior 6 Division.
“We knew it would be a challenge because none of the team has gone for a bid to Worlds before and so we knew it would be a challenge, but one we knew they were ready for,” said Riana Luck, who coaches the team alongside Matt Wiggins.
Murray, who has been cheering for nine years, says she feels “really good” about how the team has meshed over the season, while West, with eight years of cheer experience, says she thinks it was good the team got the bid right from the start.
Young snowboarders jumping through competition season
Local snowboarders Silas Lehr, 10, and Solomon Wynnyk, 11, are back on the competition scene.
With only a few competitions checked off the list this season each of them has already found the podium.
Ecole Steffie Woima Elementary School’s Lehr placed second in the U11 division at the Grom Series Slopestyle Competition at WinSport Canada Olympic Park (COP) on Jan. 28.
It was Lehr’s only competition of the season thus far and said it was his favourite Grom to date.
“After I got second after like 20 minutes of it it didn’t really mean much to me anymore because all it was was just to have fun,” said Lehr. “I liked getting it though, it was fun.”
Wynnyk also found himself on podium last week.
He walked away with first place in the U13 division and the title of “Best Trick.”
The Ecole Mother Teresa School student also clinched second place in a double down and at provincials.
Local athlete earns bronze medal in rock climbing
Camden Lund recently made it to the podium in the Western Canada Youth Boulder Regionals competition in Calgary.
After a long weekend of competition, Lund finished in third place and won a bronze medal.
To finally find a place on the podium meant a lot to Lund, who competed in the Youth C division of the competition.
Going into the weekend-long event, Lund was sitting in fourth place before the Western Canada Regionals.
“All this time I’ve been just off of the podium so it feels really great to get there,” he said.
Lund explained he had a great time at the competition and had a lot of fun solving the puzzles to move on to the next zone.