Second-half surge has Sockeyes primed for playoffs

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Since the midway point of the season, the Richmond Sockeyes have been one of the hottest teams in the Pacific International Junior Hockey League.

And there’s no sign of them cooling down.

The Sockeyes head into a back-to-back series with the Queen’s Park Pirates (7:15 p.m. tonight at Minoru Arenas and Saturday at Queen’s Park) looking to maintain the level of play that has seen them win 10 of their last 15 games (including three ties).

With only seven games to go before the playoffs, most against teams below .500 in the standings, the Sockeyes seemingly couldn’t have picked a better time to be playing their best hockey of the season although coach Ron Johnson cautions none of the games are going to be easy.

“Probably from a mental standpoint they may be (some of) our toughest games,” he says.

But at the same time Johnson is confident the Sockeyes can use the period to further improve their overall team play, which

has been enhanced recently by the likes of Mike Heath and Richard Ho — call-

ups from their Midget Division affiliate. Heath had a goal and an

assist and Ho was solid on the blueline in Richmond’s 4-3 win over the Ridge Meadows Flames on Friday, a result that put the Sockeyes two points clear of the third-place Port Coquitlam Buckaroos.

The fact the Sockeyes have won many recent games without key players in the lineup, and the bulk of the scoring has been spread throughout the lineup, furthers Johnson’s optimism.

“You have to develop all the lines (because that’s what you need in the playoffs),” he says. “You can’t just rely on two lines.”

ICE CHIPS: Goaltender Kevin MacKay continues to be stellar in the nets for Richmond, improving his win-loss mark to 13-8 with the win over Ridge Meadows and his goals-against average to 3.14 — third best in the PIJHL.

Assistant captain Jason Kirby also returned to the lineup in impressive fashion on Friday and picked up two assists.

Former Sockeyes Chris Charters, John Crang and Ryan Williams are all doing well in the Michigan league they joined during the season. Williams has 23 points in 11 games.

Funky Monkeys net top honours at West Coast ringette classic

The Richmond Funky Monkeys lost just once en route to earning top honours in the Novice Division at Richmond Ringette’s seventh annual West Coast Classic last weekend.

The team’s only loss was a 12-11 setback to Northwest Vancouver in round-robin play, but the locals rebounded for an 8-3 win over the latter in the tournament final. Jessica Jue scored five goals to lead Richmond, while Jamie Banno, Hollie Lo and Katie Alesia added singles.

Richmond also won the Open Division by defeating Burnaby in the final. They were 3-0-1 in round-robin action.

After going 2-2 in round-robin play, Richmond’s Petite Division club lost a heartbreaker in the semifinals falling 8-7 to Fraser Valley which scored the winning goal 22 seconds into overtime. Alicia Boyce and Tiffany May scored two goals apiece for Richmond in the game. Port Coquitlam defeated Fraser Valley in the final.

Richmond’s Tween Division team was 1-3 in round-robin action and missed the playoffs by two goals, while Richmond was 1-2-1 and lost out to Burnaby in the semifinals in Belle Division play. The local Junior Division team lost all three of its round-robin games.

This edition of the West Coast Classic was the biggest ever, with 34 teams participating.

High hopes

Richmond’s Ryan Hayden heads back to Villanova with some lofty goals

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

Ryan Hayden heads back to the University of Villanova today determined to run the mile in under four minutes.

It’s a goal the 19-year-old Richmond native, a sophomore at the Philadelphia-area school, has been somewhat preoccupied with since last season. He came painfully close to joining the elite class during the last national collegiate indoor track and field championships when he clocked a 4:00.02 — just 2/10th of a second off the magic mark. He later ran a 1500-metre event in 3:42, which is almost equivalent to a mile.

“I swear to myself I will not allow it to elude me again,” Hayden says. “I think I was trying to force it too much. Last year it was just go-go-go and this year I’m taking it one race a a time. My attitude is more relaxed, I think.”

Hayden credits Marcus O’Sullivan, his track coach at Villanova, with helping him to calm down and better focus. O’Sullivan competed for Ireland at four Olympic Games and has run a four-minute mile 110 times — second most all-time in the world.

“Marcus has definitely been a big influence,” he says. “The most important to me is patience. I’ve always wanted things now and he’s taught me that it has to be a day at a time, a week a time, and then you get there.”

Hayden expects his first sub-four-minute mile to be well under the mark — something like 3:56.

In the meantime though, Hayden has other ambitions. He and his Villanova teammates kicks off a new indoor track season in Boston, Mass. on Jan. 26 at the Adidas Invitational where Hayden plans to compete in the 3,000 metres. He’s hoping to shatter his personal best of 8:07 by running the race in under eight minutes.

As a team, Villanova is also expecting to challenge for the national distance medley championship. Last season they missed winning gold by just .02 seconds after topping the state relays.

Hayden also has high hopes for the outdoor season which starts at the end of March. He’s not only looking to qualify to run the 1500 metres at the NCAAs but to place in the top five. He was sixth best in indoor last season and 10th outdoor.

“It’s tough to quality for the NCAAs,” he says. “The best 19-to-22-year-olds all over the world compete in the NCAAs and you have to expect the best.”

Besides trying to qualify for the 1500 metres, Hayden is also entertaining the idea of running the 5,000 metres at the NCAAs to be held in June at Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

As usual, Hayden’s has high hopes. But he’s also more confident.

Hayden gained a lot of confidence following what he calls a “really good” cross-country season in which he placed fourth at the Big East championships. He was 24th as a freshman.

“I dropped 30 seconds off my previous best time (30:45) and it’s why I’m so confident for the track season,” he explains. “Usually if you have a good cross-country season you’re well set up for a great track season.”

Doing some of the same repetitive workouts (such as running 12 consecutive 400 metre relays) as last season, he is demolishing the times without having to breaking them into sets.

“Having a really good cross-country season has also given me a lot more strength,” he says. “I trained really hard and one of the big differences is my cardio vascular conditioning. One way you can improve that is by cutting your recovery time between intervals and training sessions and running longer distances. I’ve also been running lots of hills.”

Hayden also says he’s more comfortable in his surroundings and, while he doesn’t view last season as a disappointment, he also says his times didn’t improve as much as he had expected. This season though he’s enjoying a breakthrough that, not surprisingly, coincides with greater consistency.

“The biggest change is my outlook, I think,” he says. “Before I knew what I had to do but I wasn’t sure if I could. Now I understand the kind of training I have to do and the races I have to be in (to realize my goals). Before, I never took any rests. Probably it’s a matter of maturity which comes from experience.”

Rapids meeting challenges to stay competitive

Don Fennell, Sports Editor

The Richmond Rapids expect to send about 20 swimmers to the provincial junior championships next month in Kelowna, double their participation of last season.

A similar number of participants at the B.C. age group championships, which the club is hosting Feb. 28 to March 3 at Watermania. But with few regional meets scheduled between now and then, those qualifying won’t have raced for about five weeks prior to the meet.

“There seems to be a huge empty space in the meet schedule,” Rapids’ coach Doug Thompson says.

The Rapids plan to attend two regional meets in the next few weeks, but neither includes championship-style finals. A meet with finals is traditionally held about this time but not this year.

“(Without finals, these meets) don’t mimic the competition I’d really like to see,” Thompson explains.

Rapids’ head coach Craig McCord said the long layoff prior to the age group championships is unfortunate, but suggested organizing a last-minute event to help the swimmers get ready for the meet might still be possible.

“We’ve put an athlete devleopment model in place and now we have to construct a meet schedule to allow kids to develop along the pathways they need,” he explained.

“Last year we ran a last chance meet, a quick four-hour meet in which 125 kids raced about three times each two weeks before junior provincials. And they swam extremely well at those championships.”

Several Rapids swimmers are also looking to realize some lofty goals as the senior championships, to be held during the first weekend of February at the University of B.C., near.

For example, Rebecca Stephen and Larissa Vishaniakoff both hope to qualify for the junior nationals, while Tom Rushton and Walter Wu both hope to make it to the Commonwealth Games.

McCord said it’s becoming increasingly challenging for the senior athletes to maintain a high standard in swimming, while also wrestling with the need to succeed academically. But he admires those who are trying.

“It’s a sad thing to see these kids having to sacrifice their training time, and competitive opportunities, in order to stay competitive (academically),” he said. “I’m very supportive of the academic pursuits of my athletes, some of whom have tailored programs to stay in the water.”