This week we count down the top five sports stories that happened in Yorkton during the 2017 year.
Number five: Mandziuk breaks MJHSFL receiving yard record
Matthew Mandziuk, a grade 12 receiver/safety for the Yorkton Regional High School Raiders football team, broke the Moose Jaw High School Football League receiving record during the fall months.
After a season that saw the Raiders make it all the way to the 3A provincial championship, Mandziuk now holds the title of the highest career pass reception yardage in the league’s history.
Mandziuk played with the Raiders for all three years of his high school career. In 2015, he made 27 catches for 562 yards. In 2016, he made 24 catches for 450 yards. And in the 2017 season that just wrapped up, he made 33 catches for 691 yards. That brings his total to 84 catches for 1,703 receiving yards, averaging 20.9.
Those totals are calculated from the six regular season games the Raiders play.
A humble Mandziuk credited his team for his record: “It’s not so much for me, but it’s for the team and stuff like that. It’s not possible without the guys.”
Number four: Jackie Bundus wins Canada’s Strongest Woman title
To say that Jackie Bundus is strong would be the understatement of the year.
The 25-year-old from Yorkton is officially Canada’s Strongest Woman. She currently resides in Saskatoon, and travelled across the country in September to participate in the national strongman competition in Bathurst, N.B.
There, 40 women from all across Canada pulled, carried, threw and lifted copious amounts of weight in their respective weight classes to gain as many points as they could to win the title.
But it was Bundus who came out on top.
“I was kind of chill all day. It never really hit me that I was competing,” said Bundus. “Out of all 40 women, I was on top all day.
Athletes competed in the division best suited for them out of the lightweight, middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions.
“In order to be Canada’s Strongest Woman, you have to compete at the heaviest weight,” explained Bundus, which is what she competed in.
The heavyweight athletes like Bundus had to carry the heaviest weight in the competition.
Number three: Kinsmen Terriers claim provincial title
For the first time in history, the Yorkton Kinsmen Midget AA Terriers are provincial champions.
The Kinsmen Terriers faced the Saskatoon Riverkings in a best-of-three series. Yorkton took the first game, Saskatoon took the second, so game three was for it all.
The final was held in Yorkton at the Farrell Agencies Arena on Sunday, Apr. 9.
Much like the series, the final game was a close one. Though the final score read 4-1, it really came down to the final minute of play.
Yorkton scored the first and only goal in the first period. In the second, Saskatoon would take advantage of a powerplay and tied the game.
It all came down to the third period.
Yorkton’s captain Reid Arnold scored what would be the game winning goal roughly half way through the third.
“We just stuck to what our game plan was, and we didn’t deviate,” said Kinsmen Terriers’ head coach Chris Newans after the final game.
Number two: Terriers shake up
In October it was announced that head coach/GM Casey O’Brien was relieved from his duties with the Yorkton Terriers Junior A Hockey Club. O’Brien took over that role late in 2016, when former coach Trent Cassan moved up to the WHL. O’Brien led the Terriers to a sixth place finish last season, which pushed them into a quarterfinal playoff run. The Terriers were knocked out by the Estevan Bruins after five games of their best of seven series. This season, the Terriers got off to a very rocky start, winning only three games under O’Brien’s leadership in a one and a half month timespan. A few weeks after the dismissal of O’Brien, the Terriers board announced that Mat Hehr would take over the team as head coach and GM. Hehr was formerly the Terriers assistant coach. A lot of roster changes later, the Terriers appear to be slowly climbing their way in the right direction as they’ve moved into 11th place in the rankings over the La Ronge Ice Wolves.
Number one: Raiders win MJHSFL championship
The Yorkton Raiders are champions at last. On a Saturday afternoon near the end of October, the Yorkton Regional High School boys football team became the 2017 champions of the Moose Jaw High School Football League after defeating the Swift Current Colts 59-2. The game was played at Kinsmen Century field, and it marked the first time in history that the league championship has been played in Yorkton.
The football team went undefeated in their regular season, as well as in the post season up until the provincial championship game.
During the regular season, the Raiders scored a grand total of 322 points in just six games, and only allowed for 25 points against.
