Joey Payeur
Sarah Rittau didn’t even know until the last minute that she would be part of Team Ontario’s under-14 female swimming relay team at last week’s North American Indigenous Games in Regina.
It’s safe to say having advance warning sometimes can be extremely overrated.
The Devlin resident and member of the Fort Frances Cyclone helped the relay team to three gold medals.
Coupled with two individual bronze thrown into the mix, Rittau led all district athletes at the Games with a total of five medals.
“I was proud that they would come to me to ask me to be the fourth member of the team,” said a humble Rittau, who is far more comfortable churning up the pool than fielding media questions.
“Swimming the second leg of the relay was a comfortable spot for me because I didn’t want to go first or last,” she noted.
“There’s a little less pressure being in the middle.”
Rittau teamed up with Kayla Andrews, Alicia Brielle Corbiere, and Emmy McDonald to not only defeat—but destroy—the competition.
Ontario captured the 4x50m medley relay by more than three seconds, the 4x50m freestyle by more than seven seconds, and the 4x100m freestyle by a phenomenal 26-plus seconds.
Rittau found her way to the podium on her own, too, with third-place finishes in the 50m backstroke and 50m breaststroke.
She also placed fifth in the 50m freestyle and sixth in the 100m freestyle.
“I was really working on my breathing patterns for my backstroke in practice,” said the 13-year-old, who was the youngest member of the relay team.
“I definitely thank [Cyclone head coach] Debbie Murray for helping me get ready for the Games,” Rittau added.
“She taught me important things like not breathing the last three strokes to help shave some time off.”
But Rittau certainly didn’t have the market cornered on gold medals when it came to district athletes.
Sydney Radigan (Couchiching) and Tori Kelly (Onigaming) were part of Ontario’s victorious team in under-16 female soccer.
Ontario beat B.C. 1-0 in the gold-medal game after tying them 1-1 during the preliminary round.
Rebecca Bartosh’s penalty-kick goal in injury time ignited an explosion of overjoyed Ontario players, including Radigan, to pour off the bench in celebration.
“One of their players bodychecked one of ours in their 18-yard box to get us the penalty kick,” recalled Radigan, a member of the Muskie girls’ NorWOSSA champion soccer team this past spring.
“It’s shocking to go all that way and to get the gold,” she enthused.
“I’m so proud of my team,” Radigan added. “We came a long way and had almost no practice at all before the Games.
“The fact we still ended up with the gold was pretty cool.”
Radigan made the team through a tryout held in Thunder Bay and was slotted into her usual right-side midfielder position she plays on the Muskies, which she believed helped her reach her potential in Regina.
“They put me on defence for one half and when it was over, I told them I didn’t want to be there anymore,” she chuckled.
“I wasn’t used to it at all.”
Radigan said there was no comparison between attending the Games and the OFSAA championships in Collingwood with the Muskies.
“This was a bigger deal than OFSAA for me,” she stressed.
“I got to learn skills from people who play the way I could,” she noted. “It was more of a challenge.”
Radigan also had a message for young people debating whether sports is the way to go for them.
“Being in sports makes you really proud of what you accomplish and it shows you how to keep working for what you want,” she reasoned.
“If you really want something, you should just go for it.”
Taylor Whitehead (Fort Frances) also brought home a souvenir from Regina, although it wasn’t the colour he wanted it to be.
Whitehead, who has represented Fort High at the OFSAA badminton championships the past two years, captured the bronze medal in the under-16 male singles portion of badminton.
“I was a little disappointed,” he admitted. “I should have had the win in the semi-final but I wasn’t thinking straight.”
He took the first game of the match against Saskatchewan’s Curtis Halkett 21-11, but then dropped the next two 22-20 and 21-13.
“My opponent was making what I thought were some bad line calls and he got my head out of the game,” Whitehead noted.
“I could have called a line judge over, but we were halfway into the third game by the time I decided to do that and it was too late by then.”
Whitehead rebounded to win the bronze-medal match against Saskatchewan’s Darian Sunshine 2-0 (21-15/21-9).
Despite the disappointment, he called his first appearance at the Games “the best experience of his life.”
“I got to meet so many new people and there was lots of different stuff going on,” he noted.
Ontario finished with 149 medals (55 golds, 54 silver, and 40 bronze) to sit third overall in the standings.
B.C. edged Saskatchewan 160-159 to capture the overall title.
Here are the results of other individuals and teams containing local athletes at NAIG:
Individual
•Tyson Morrisseau (Couchiching)—silver (under-16 male golf);
•Jaxon Calder (Couchiching)—bronze (100-kg male wrestling); and
•Jared Hunter (Rainy River)—bronze (under-16 male triple jump)
Teams
•Kendra Moen (Fort Frances)—bronze (basketball, under-16 female);
•Matt Comegan, Brandon Gustafson, and Jaden Gustafson (Big Island)—bronze (softball, under-19 male);
•Karma Andy (Big Grassy)—bronze (softball, under-19 female);
•Brandon Geyshick, Lance Geyshick, and Henry Geyshick (Lac La Croix)—bronze (volleyball, under-16 male);
•Cole Tymkin (Fort Frances), Austin Jack (Big Grassy), and Jacob Jack (Big Grassy)—fifth (softball, under-16 male); and
•Megan Allen (Nigigoonsiminikaaning), Erika Cochrane (Mitaanjigaming), Mikhaela Copenace (Onigaming), and Alina Skead (Big Grassy)—ousted in first round of playoffs (volleyball, under-19 female)
