The Saskatoon Amaruks hold off Prairie Pilots claiming the PAC Provincial Championship.
The Prairie Athletic Conference Basketball Championship was held this past weekend in Three Hills, Alberta and the Sasktatoon Amaruks captured both gold and silver. The Amaruk men who finished league play in first place, had a rocky start and had to overcome a 17 – 3 deficit in their first match against Briercrest, before coming back to win by a score of 80 – 65. This win put them in the gold medal match against the hometown Prairie College Pilots. The Amaruks played tough and went on to defeat the Pilots 78 – 61 before a very boisterous Prairie crowd. This is the 2nd league and conference championship in a row for the Amaruks. Katlyn Larlham (Plumbing) was recognized as the Championship MVP, while Marcus Fischer (Plumbing) was awarded the Championship defensive player award. The Amaruk women, who finished league play in 2nd place, defeated Briercrest in the first round, securing a birth in the gold medal match. The Prairie Pilots and the Amaruks have battled all season long, both defeating each other once in regular play, and the battle continued into the finals. The championship final saw the lead change back and forth many times but the end result had the Prairie Pilots winning by a score of 53 – 48.
Part of the championship weekend is the PAC Awards Ceremony and Sask Polytech was well represented: - Amaruk Men’s Team – League Champions; - Catherine Mireau (Nursing) – League AllStar and Defensive Player of the Year; - Marcus Fischer (Plumbing) – Defensive Player of the Year; - Jessica Morrow (Nursing) – League AllStar; - Katlyn Larlham (Plumbing) League AllStar and League MVP; and - Kendra Worman (Amaruk Women’s Coach) – Coach of the Year.
This brings to a close the 2018 basketball season. We would like to recognize and thank our dedicated Coaches, Kendra Worman, Rachel Murray (SP alumnus), Zack Erber (SP alumnus) and Anesu Saruchera (SP alumnus). A big thank you to all the programs that were able to accommodate the early dismissal needs of our student athletes. The students have done a great job of representing Sask Polytech. An especially big thank you to the Students’ Association for their financial and human resource contributions, without which our program wouldn’t exist. One of our athletes, a nursing student and key member of the team, and her parents were very grateful for the SPSA providing an air flight ensuring that she was able to get to the championship final.