Two Cowichan Valley box lacrosse players came home from their respective national championships earlier this month with bronze medals, and a third helped his team reach the final four.
Goalie Colin Jeffrey won a bronze medal with Team B.C. at the midget championships in Ontario, beating Nova Scotia 8-3 in the battle for third place. B.C. edged Alberta 9-8 to open round-robin play, followed by an 8-7 loss to Nova Scotia, a 5-5 tie with Team First Nations, and a 13-5 loss to Ontario before another win over Alberta, 9-3 this time. Ontario beat First Nations 10-2 in the gold-medal game.
Josh Macdonald also won bronze with B.C. in the peewee national championships, beating Alberta 5-4 in the third-place game. After opening the tournament with an 8-0 loss to Ontario, B.C. went on a tear to beat Manitoba 8-7, Alberta 5-4, Nova Scotia 16-0, Saskatchewan 16-0 and First Nations 6-2 before falling to First Nations 5-4 in the semifinal. Ontario won the gold medal over First Nations.
At the bantam nationals in Saskatchewan, Devyn Zunti and Team B.C. placed fourth, falling to First Nations 8-5 in the bronze-medal game. B.C. started the tournament in fine form with an 18-4 win over Nova Scotia and a 6-4 win over First Nations and a 7-4 loss to Ontario. They got back in the win column by beating Manitoba 12-0 and Saskatchewan 8-0, then lost to Alberta 6-5 to end the round robin, followed by another defeat by Alberta, 9-4 in the semis.
Jeffrey’s midget Cowichan Thunder teammate Nathan Clark just missed the cut with Team B.C., and instead was invited to play for the Junior Stealth. Clark and another Cowichan midget player, Kurtis Smith, helped the Junior Stealth to the silver medal at the USBOXLA nationals in San Jose earlier this month.