Victoria Sports Online

The Victoria Shamrocks are proving they are a team on a mission following two more wins this weekend to extend their winning streak to seven and remain undefeated in the 2009 season.

After a close victory against New Westminster last Friday, Victoria wasn’t leaving anything to chance as they began this week by dismantling the Maple Ridge Burrards 18-9 at Bear Mountain Friday night.

Ryan Cochrane may need to start building a new trophy case at his house, or at least make some renovations to the old one. The 20-year-old Victoria swimmer took home another gold medal in the 1500 metre freestyle at the Grand Prix swimming competition in Santa Clara.

Two games in one day proved to be two too many for the Victoria Seals. The Seals dropped both games of a double-header to the Orange County Flyers for their third straight loss to the boys from OC. Brian Lawrence was on the hill for the Flyers and tossed a one-hitter in the opening game to dump the Seals 3-1. In the second game, the Flyers scored once in the first inning and once again in the second to take the game 2-1 and leave the Seals wide eyed in the bright lights of Hollywood.

They ran, they jumped and they gave a great show to all the fans who came out to Centennial Stadium to watch the 21st annual Victoria International Track Classic. Most eyes were on Gary Reed of Victoria, who finished fourth in the 800 metres at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. Reed opted to race the 400 meter event on Wednesday and was upset on his home track as Dewayne Barrett of Jamaica won the race in 47.17 seconds. Justin Byron of the Virgin Islands edged out Reed for second place in a time of 47.45, but Reed would hit the podium in the third spot with a time of 47.53.

“I try not to lose, especially at home, no matter the distance,” said Reed, who ran the 400 to build up speed for the 800 ahead of the 2009 world track and field championships later this summer in Berlin.

“It’s always good to see all the fans come out and I’m appreciative of the support. It’s early season for me and it’s really important to get some speed work done. They assembled a lot of good runners for this [400] race.”

The Victoria Seals are finding that success in Hollywood may be a little tougher than they first thought. After winning their second straight series in Chico, the Seals six-game road trip shifted to Southern California to face the Orange County Flyers for the opening day at Goodwin Field. The Seals couldn't handle strong games from Flyers Nick Guerra and Robert Fick and lost 4-2 in front of a large crowd in OC.

Victoria schools have a lot to be proud of following some excellent performances at the 2009 BC High School Track and Field Championships at Swangard Stadium last weekend.

The Victoria Seals showed the team's first major sign of adversity over the weekend as they recovered from a 7-1 pounding by Chico on Friday to pick up consecutive victories on Saturday and Sunday and take the weekend set.

The Victoria Highlanders won the franchise's first home game Sunday, following an unusually high soccer score of 6-3 over the Tacoma Tide at City Centre Stadium.

After 2-1 losses to both Abbotsford and Portland in their first two home games, Victoria took Coach Colin Miller's advice seriously and came out strong offensively against Tacoma, as the team raised their goal total for the season from 9 to 15.

A final round of 6 under par on Sunday gave American Byron Smith an overall score of 13 under par for the tournament, well enough for a three shot victory to win the 27th Annual Times Colonist Open.

This is the third career Canadian Tour win for the 28 year old native of California, who picks up a $32,000 pay cheque with the win.

Two Canadians tied for second at 10 under, as amateur Brady Johnson displayed his potential as a future star on the Canadian Tour along with Victoria native Jim Rutledge, who finished a spot higher than his third place mark in this tournament in 2008.

Following Rutledge and Johnson was a five way tie for fourth place, which included Canadians Richard Scott and Ryan Yip. Scott was the leader through most of the tournament as he lead or co-lead the clubhouse after each of the first three days of play only to a fire a disappointing 1 over 71 on the final day of play to finish at 8 under.

The Victoria Seals are in the midst of the franchise's first multi-game winning streak this week as they look to sweep the defending GBL champions, Orange County Flyers Thursday night.

Victoria's streak began with 9-6 victory against Long Beach on Sunday, which gave the team their first victory at Royal Athletic Park. Victoria's Kyle Nichols hit a two-run homer while Josh Arhart hit a three run bomb to lead the Seals offensively. Seals pitcher Chris Bodishbaugh picked up his first win of the season for Victoria.