Myles Misener-Daley named All-American for NCAA relay bronze

Hamilton’s Myles Misener-Daley was named to two All-American teams and was an honourable mention for a third after the NCAA track and field championships, which concluded Saturday in Austin, Tex.

Misener-Daley made first team All-American in the four-by-400 relay as his UCLA Bruins raced to a bronze medal in the highly competitive field. It was the first UCLA track All-American designation in two years.

The Westdale grad was a second team all-American for his own finish (15th overall) in the individual 400-metre race, and earned an honourable mention as part of UCLA’s four-by-100 metre relay team.

This all occurred while he was also studying for his final exams for this week.

“The four-by-100 was the one we weren’t too sure about because we weren’t favoured to get out of regionals, but once we got that our confidence shot up a little bit for the NCAAs,” Misener-Daley told The Spec. “I wish I could have executed the 400 a little better, but I’m close to qualifying for worlds.”

Misener-Daley, who will return to UCLA in the fall for one last year of school, hopes to qualify for the world championships, scheduled for August in Budapest, Hungary, in both the 400 metres and the mixed four-by-400 relay. Canada will try to hit their qualifying time at a meet in B.C. in mid-July, followed by the national championships in Burnaby, B.C., late in the month.

Dangerous Dan, an all-timer, hangs ‘em up

There isn’t nearly enough space to cover all that Burlington’s Dan Dawson has meant to lacrosse, but let this corner’s voice echo those of many others: Dawson is, and will continue to be, as classy, thoughtful, selfless, hard-working and deeply talented as anyone who’s ever picked up the web stick. Dawson, who’s a firefighter, retired from lacrosse this week at the age of 41 and will shift from playing for the Rock, to becoming the National Lacrosse League team’s director of player development — so he’ll still be in the rink when the team kicks off its 2023-24 season at FirstOntario Centre in December.

The Rock published a well-written and heartfelt retrospect of the surefire NLL Hall of Famer, but we’ll add this: When the Rock dropped the two-game East final to Buffalo, many of the players and the head coach immediately mentioned how much they’d wanted to win the title for, above all, Dan Dawson.

He’s won three titles elsewhere in his 21-year pro career with eight NLL teams, holds the league records for assists and games played, and was the league’s MVP in 2009 and championship final MVP in 2014. He also has won titles for Team Canada and was a star for the old Hamilton Nationals professional field lacrosse team more than a decade ago.

“It’s my body and my family that are telling me I need to be home,” Dawson said in the team release. “I can’t perform at the level I’m accustomed to — and everyone expects from me — at my age. My energy and my efforts need to be redirected to the people that have supported me for over 20 years. And that’s the main reason why I’m shutting it down.”

Local high school golds

Maya Markowska of Burlington Central, Bishop Ryan’s Abdoulaye Bah and Ancaster’s Kristina Vincic each took a pair of medals at the provincial high school track and field championships which concluded Saturday in Ottawa.

Markowska won the novice women’s 800-metre race and was second in the 1,500-metre race, while Bah won a silver medal in the senior men’s 200-metre dash and led Bishop Ryan to second place in the prestigious men’s open four-by-400 relay, along with Idrissa Bah, J’Noy Davis and Kendy Georges. Vincic was third in the senior women’s 200-metre dash and won a bronze medals in the four-by-400 relay with Mackenzie Craig, Erika Gordon and Olivia Bower.

Isabel Yeboah of Burlington Notre Dame won the novice women’s 400-metre race and Notre Dame teammate Shay Parreira was the gold medallist in the men’s 200-metre wheelchair dash, while MM Robinson’s Faith Magyar was Ontario champion in a division of women’s shot put.

Other local athletes taking OFSAA silver medals included Bishop Ryan’s Levi Snider in the novice boys discus, Notre Dame’s Michael Schmalz in the junior men’s 3,000-metre race and Ancaster (PJ Morgan, Joseph Stechey, Darius Demirci, Quintin Nelson) senior men’s four-by-100 relay squad.

Mountaineer women make basketball news

The Mohawk women’s basketball team had a big signing announcement at the college on Tuesday, announcing the inking of several critical players for next year’s season, which coach Mihai Raducanu calls “transformational” for the program. Recruited and signed: Maddie Anderson, who played NCAA Division 1 at North Carolina State; Skyla Minaker and Tajana Boskovic, who played at the University of Guelph; Peyton Connolly, who was at University of Victoria, Cathedral’s Kylie Rosos and Kaylor Rosos, and international player Angie Garcia from Colombia.

Keeper of the Forge faith

Forge FC’s Triston Henry, who posted two clean sheets, made 17 saves and had three wins in four appearances, was named the Canadian Premier League’s goalkeeper of the month for May. The Forge went 3-1-1 in those games. That’s two months in a row with a top player named for the Forge: In April, the Hammers field boss, Bobby Smyrniotis, was named the CPL’s manager of the month.

The Forge fell out of first place with a terrible late-game defensive miscue at the back end to give visiting Pacific FC a 1-0 win — and the top of the table. The Hammers now head west to play Valour in Winnipeg on Friday night, followed by a Tuesday game in Langley, B.C., against expansion Vancouver FC. They return home Sunday June 25 against Atletico Ottawa.

Bengals readying for playoffs

The Hamilton Bengals will finish the Ontario Lacrosse Association junior-B regular season with visits to first-place Six Nations on Friday night and to Welland on Sunday night. The Bengals, sixth in the West Conference, won’t know whom they’ll play in the post-season until the final standings are sorted out with this weekend’s games.

In their final two home games of the regular season, the Bengals had a 7-7 overtime draw with St. Catharines last Thursday and were edged 6-5 by Windsor on Sunday.

Ted Rawson had the hat trick against St. Catharines and Reed Allen, who had a single against St. Catharines, notched a pair against Windsor. Blake Booth had two goals over the two games and singles went to Ben Dietrich, Sawyer English, Nathan Jones and Liam Luzza.

Cards’ catcher on a tear

Hamilton Cardinals’ catcher Luis Bernardo had eight RBI in three games last week to give him 20 after just 12 games, and vaulting him into a tie for third place in the Intercounty Baseball League, just one off the lead. Bernardo drove in two runs in a 9-4 loss to Welland Sunday and three in each of Hamilton’s wins over Brantford (13-5 on Saturday) and Toronto (14-5 on Friday).

The Cards entertain Barrie Baycats on Friday night (7:35 p.m.), visit Guelph on Saturday and host Kitchener Panthers on Sunday (2:05 p.m.).

Notes-ary Public: Ancaster’s Geraldine Heaney has re-upped to coach the Toronto Six pro women’s hockey club, whom she led to the Isobel Cup in the spring … Forge captain Kyle Bekker is tied for the CPL lead with three assists. … former Forge Emery Walshman, who’s now with Sigma FC, which has an affiliation with the Hammers, is second in League1 Ontario with seven goals.

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