Sports

With the Speedo junior national diving championships set to start July 9 in Victoria, B.C., a young diver with Fort Frances connections is readying herself for a repeat performance.

With just over a month left in the Rainy River District Fastball League season, the Fort Frances-based Sight & Sound Wolves find themselves in unfamiliar territory—the middle of the pack with a 5-5 record.
With no games scheduled tonight and a bye on Thursday, the Wolves have a full week to regroup before a July 7 meeting with the 7-1 Big Grassy Lightning.

Here we go again.
Local hockey fans hoped the memories of the Borderland Thunder’s disbandment in 2005 were ancient history—but old wounds were re-opened this week with word that the Fort Frances Jr. Sabres have asked for a one-year leave from the SIJHL.

The Muskies’ annual spring football camp, aimed at generating interest in the sport among elementary students still a year or two away from making the jump to high school, was a success by all accounts over its four days of practices last week.
“I was happy to see the numbers we had,” said new Muskie coach Dean Bruyere. “There was some pleasant surprises, I must admit.

It started out like any old fishing expedition for Mike Taschuk on a sunny day last fall—only it ended with a very big surprise.
Taschuk, a self-proclaimed “semi-retired” financial advisor from the Twin Cities, went out fishing in deep water for walleye on Red Gut Bay on Rainy Lake and ended up catching a 50-pound musky instead.

The local Sight & Sound Wolves clipped the visiting Sabaskong Cubs 9-6 in Rainy River District Fastball League action last night at VanJura Field.
The Wolves improved to 5-5 with the win while the Cubs remained winless at 0-10.
Sight & Sound trailed 4-2 going into the fourth inning before Marcel Pagee stroked a two-run triple to the gap in right-centre.

Tony Manuge fired off two perfect rounds at the weekly skeet shoot Tuesday evening at the Fort Frances Sportmen’s Club range near Frog Creek.
Since joining the local club last year, Manuge has been working very hard to improve his skills—and the 50 blasts in a row exemplifies that.
Manuge also shot rounds of 23, 23, and 22.

Beautiful weather meant another week of flag-to-flag racing action at the Emo Speedway on Saturday night.
Sunny skies during the week helped track workers bring the facility back into shape after a wet week before.
The track turned out to be pretty good, with at least a couple of grooves to run on. The weather also brought out an excellent crowd of cars and fans.

A large contingent of district runners were among the 13,190 participants in the 31st-annual Manitoba Marathon in Winnipeg on Sunday.
Tanner Kaemingh of Fort Frances ran the full marathon in a time of 4:34:11 while Mandy Heyens of Rainy River also competed in a time of 4:25:45.
Meanwhile, the half-marathon drew 13 local runners.

The struggling forestry industry has had an affect on several teams of the Northwestern Ontario-based SIJHL.
The league’s six-team circuit initially was reduced to four when the Thunder Bay Bearcats and Schreiber Diesels notified league president Ron Whitehead of their intentions to cease operations at a league meeting earlier this month.