Langara College alumnus Matson Lalor competes against Swedish opponent at Peter Bakonyi World Cup. Kug7is GREGoRY PHOTO Former Langara student fences in international competition = By KURTIS GREGORY ormer Langara student Mat- son Lalor finished as the top-ranked Canadian in his age group last weekend at the Peter Bakonyi World Cup at the Rich- mond Oval. Atjust 19, Lalor is nine years under the average age of the épée fenc- ers, and finished 118th overall. “It’s a great op- portunity to fence the best guys in the world and test myself to see where I am on the world stage and get to com- pete and have fun,” Lalor said. "It's a great opportunity to fence the best guys in the world and test myself." —MATSON LALOR, FORMER LANGARA STUDENT Lalor’s former coach and mentor, Igor Gantsevich, said the tournament was a chance for him to get used to the senior level of competition. “Matson’s a junior. So to make the jump from a junior national team mem- ber to a senior national team member is a big jump,” Gantsevich said. “It’s his second or third event at this level, this is the Olym- pic category level so you're going to have Olympic champions to world champi- ons.” Despite the high level of competition, Lalor won two out of five of his bouts in the first round, known as the poule round. This placed him high enough on the standings to qualify for the elimi- nation rounds, known as the tableau rounds. “Even where he is now it’s a success- ful tournament because he’s already done better than every other Canadian his age,” said Lalor’s father, Braedan, af- ter his son passed the poule round. In the first round of elimination Lalor faced Robin Kase, a 24-year-old from Sweden. With a final score of 15 touches to 11, Lalor was eventually eliminated by Kase, ending his run in the tournament. “T was a little bit slow to learn and adjust at the beginning. I figured it out after the first five touches. I was just a little too far behind to catch him,” Lalor said, after he was eliminated. Overall, though, he was pleased with his performance. “I was pretty happy with how I fenced »" he said. “I started to feel some of my fencing come together.” Next season, Lalor will compete at the senior level. He hopes to continue his training while studying at Emily Carr University of Art + Design. & W-L W-L 5-12 13-4 Ranked: 6th Ranked: 2nd Dragon poat crew ouilding stamina Langara Ligers begin season early with win- ter practices = ByJASON GILDER fter holding their first practices A of the year, Langara’s dragon boating club is fueled by the prospects of challenging their rival in Vancouver’s biggest dragon boat com- petition this spring. Last season, the Langara Ligers came just shy of winning a gold medal in the recreational B division at the 2016 Van- couver Dragon Boat Festival. They were beaten by the Czech Republic’s Czech Dragons who pulled ahead of the Ligers in the last 10 seconds of the race. In his second season with the Ligers, computer science student Donat Daou- tov is excited about competing this year and said his teammates hope to face their Czech adversaries again. “They would definitely value beating our rivals, even though we only faced them once,” Daoutov said. “It still boots motivation to think about having these certain teams and competing against them.” To truly challenge the Czech team, Ligers manager and kinesiology stu- dent, Aidan Menard pointed to the Ligers’ need to continue improving their endurance in long distance races. “The main thing is starting practices earlier,” he said. “Trying to get that base fitness and making sure we have all of our refinements and technique down.” The Ligers began practices in Sep- tember 2016, a stark contrast to the team’s first year when they commenced in March. Menard added that practic- ing in the cold this season has led to increased endurance. Shamus Menard, Ligers assistant manager said the Czech team has a unique way of competing. “They wave the flags and they yell,” he said. “While they were paddling, they were yelling and we were head-to- head with them down the race course.” The 2017 Dragon Boat Festival takes place from June 23-25 in False Creek. The Ligers'’ first race is on May 6. Falcons fail to impress in season's final stretc Both men and womens teams falter in second- to-last games = By DUNCAN ANDERSON ith spots secured in the PacWest Basketball Pro- vincial Championships, the Langara Falcons men and women's basketball teams lacked the motivation to win their penultimate games last Sat- urday. Both of the teams lost against the Douglas College Royals with final scores of 71- 61 for the women and 96-88 for the men. “Sometimes when you have a game like that, you tell your guys you gotta keep it going but it’s kind of hard,” said head coach of the men’s team, Paul Eberhardt. “The level of intensity wasn’t as high as it should have been.” Even so, the men’s team automati- cally qualify for the semi-finals on March 3 at Quest University with their second-place regular season finish. They will play the winner of the Capilano Blues and the Camosun Chargers game on March 2. “Our goal at the start of the year was to win the league but if not win the league then come second,” Eberhardt said. “So we accomplished that goal with coming second and we are pretty pleased with where we are at. But Eberhardt isn't just looking for a second place finish. “Our goal is to win it,” he said. ‘The women’s team is full of mostly "The level of have been." — PAUL EBERHARDT, =) intensity wasn't as high as it should MEN'S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH first year players and experience has been a topic of concern for them this season. “We were actually leading the major- ity of the first half [of the game] and I guess the reason why we lost was be- cause of our age,” said Trisha Francia who plays on the women’s team. But for Winston Brown, head coach of the women’s basketball team that ex- cuse has been overused. “Being a younger team was an excuse earlier in the season but that is getting old. In the second last game of the sea- son it would have been nice to see some more maturity,” Brown said. As high school season is entering the playoff stage, Brown has begun recruit- ing new players for the women’s team next year, putting pressure on the current team members to perform in the provincials. “Intrinsically, there is a feeling of them needing to solidify a spot and show their worth and value for next years’ team,” Brown said. "We have a talented young team, and also a few talented recruits coming . o in. r r Falcons forward Randjodh Hare battles for the ball at tip off against Douglas College Royals. sugMiTTeD PHOTO