The Strathcona Combat Team competed in their only event of the season in Vermilion on June 10th and 11th. With a shorter roster than usual, the team went, and impressed coming home as the Alberta Regional Champions in both the relay and team competitions.

Day 1 started with FF Ray Lobel making his way onto the course for his first ever run. Lobel pushed himself through the course with a solid time of 2:52.31. Though saying he was "not in a happy place" at the end it is believed "Razor" is looking to crush his new PB next year. For the record

Ray.....none of us are in a happy place at the end. Congrats on a great

run. Next up was an inspiring run by FF Andy Lee. Andy was looking for redemption. After falling short of finishing by a few feet at our event in 2005, Andy hit the Vermilion event with a will to finish this grueling event. Andy did just that by finishing the event in a respectable time of 3:37.90. Way to go Andy, no where but up from here!!! FF Brian "2 Names"

Pahl was up next up competing for the first time as well. "2 Names" pounded through the course on pace to a great time just shy of sub 2:00 with a time of 2:08.93. FF Brian Sturm put in a great time as well setting a new PB by 100ths of a second at 1:47.02. FF Jared Beutler had the next run and blasted through the course in a blistering time of 1:38.00. Unfortunately "J-Rod" had lost a glove at the start of the race and was disqualified from the day's competition. FF Darren Anderson finished off the day and was in tough in a race with Jeff Readman from Syncurde who is having a great season. Anderson finished a few seconds back and a 2 second penalty with a time of 1:40.62. Most importantly the team of Beutler, Anderson, Sturm and Pahl finished witha team time of 5:36.57 placing them 3rd overall behind Moose Jaw and the Canadian Forces but gave them the Regional Championship for being the top Alberta team.

Day 2 was the relay tournament and with the addition of FF Leighton Daciuk to the #1 team the boys were looking to finish strong. Having to possibly run a total of 6 races it was important to not burn out. Switching positions from race to race was important. The team came out strong cruising through the tounament and coming up against a strong team from Syncrude in the final. With FF Beutler on the Stairs and Dummy drag, FF Anderson on the Rope Pull, FF Daciuk on the Keiser and FF Sturm on the Hose Drag the team fired throught the course on route to a 1st place finish, a Regional Championship and a new PB of 1:15.51. Nice work boys!!!

The #2 Team was in tough. Running with a 3 man team of FF's Lobel, Pahl and FF Neil Woods, they had a great preliminary run. Setting them up to enter the relay tournament. They got past their 1st opponents from Fire Etc. but came up short by only a few second in round 2 knocking them out for the day.

The effort put forth by these 3 guys was second to none. Well done.

The team is now done competing for the year. They look forward to coming back stronger than ever and with a full contingent of members next year.

Watch for fundraising events in the near future.