It was a successful week of competition for four members of the UBC Okanagan Heat Athletics family at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games that wrapped up last weekend in Halifax.
The Heat women's softball team was well represented at the event including head coach Michelle Webster, who served as Team B.C.'s Chef de Mission, assistant coach Jocelyn Cater, and infielder Cheyenne Simicak.
Webster, who is entering her second season as head coach of the Heat, oversaw a group of athletes that collected 160 total medals at the games, the second most of any competing team.
Included in the 160 medals was a bronze medal captured by B.C.'s 19U softball team, featuring Simicak on the roster and Cater in a coaching role. B.C. went 3-1 in pool play to advance to the quarter-finals, where they narrowly got past Saskatchewan by a score of 2-1 to book a spot in the semifinals.
B.C. would lose a close 6-4 contest to Manitoba in the semis before eventually sharing the bronze medal with Ontario after the final day of competition was wiped out by heavy rains in Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, 2023 Heat women's basketball recruit Tennyson McCarthy, from Lake Country, B.C., was a member of the Team B.C. 19U squad that finished fourth in the tournament.
After posting a 1-1 record in pool play, McCarthy and her teammates knocked off Minnesota 53-48 to advance to the semifinals.
B.C. would go on to drop their semifinal match-up against Ontario 65-58 before falling to Minnesota in the bronze medal game 73-54.
The 2023 North American Indigenous Games featured 23 teams from Canada and the United States competing in 16 different sports, including three traditional Indigenous sports.