Lacombe and Red Deer students named RDP Athletes of the Week

Two Central Albertans have been honoured as the RDP Athletes of the week.

Cassidy Blair a first year Kinesiology student went a perfect 6-0 this past weekend at the Winter Regional hosted by the NAIT Ooks at the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton.

At the Fall Regional back in November, Blair was throwing the third stones for the team where they also went 6-0. This past weekend Blair was given the chance to skip the team and it paid off as she and the rest of the team won all six games they competed in at the bonspiel.

The rookie skip did a great job calling the game in her new position and made numerous clutch shots but the most impressive part was how she took over the leadership role on the team. She was outstanding with the rest of her teammates as she guided them to a 4-0 record during a brutal four draw day on Saturday that started at 8:30 am and ended at 10:00 pm.

The Mixed team will be going into the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Championships as the team to beat with their perfect 12-0 record. The championships will take place from February 23-25 at the Avonair Curling Club in Airdrie.
 

Teryn Herder photo courtesy of RDP Athletics

Another mixed team curler Teryn Herder was also given the same award this week. Herder, a first year Bachelor of Science in Biological Sciences student was also part of the same perfect weekend team. 

When Herder tried out for the RDP Curling team at the start of the 2023/2024 season, he was relatively new to the sport. But Head Coach Brad Hamilton has seen improvements since the start of the year and was part of the Mixed team that went undefeated at both the Fall and Winter Regionals.

This past weekend at the Thistle Curling Club in Edmonton, the team had four games on Saturday where the first-year lead hung in there through this 14 day of sweeping. At the bonspiel, Herder helped the team to victories over the Lakeland College Rustlers, the SAIT Trojans, the NAIT Ooks and the Concordia University Thunder. He has a great attitude and is constantly working to improve.