Thunderwolves Announce January RBC Athletes of the Month

February 7, 2023

Thunderwolves announce RBC January Athletes of the Month

Thunder Bay, Ontario – Lakehead Athletics is pleased to announce its Thunderwolves RBC Athletes of the Month for January. Honoured this month are: Alston Harris, Men’s Basketball; Alysha Goundrey, Women’s Volleyball; Ally Burke, Women’s Basketball; Spencer Blackwell, Men’s Hockey; Aiden Webster, Men’s Track & Field; Amy Stieh, Women’s Track & Field; Erin Clayton, Women’s Wrestling; Alex Cappadocia, Men’s Wrestling; Conor McGovern, Men’s Nordic Skiing; and Sarah Lutes, Women’s Nordic Skiing.

Alysha Goundrey, Women’s Volleyball, 2nd Year Business, Surrey, BC

Our women’s volleyball Athlete of the month is Alysha Goundrey. The best way to describe Alysha as an athlete is fearless. She is a high risk, high reward player who is willing to go for the difficult shot, the high risk play,  and most importantly she consistently gets uncomfortable at practice for the sake of learning. This mentality led to Alysha scoring a career high 7 kills within just one set versus TMU, and for context the top scorers within the OUA are averaging 4 kills/set. Alysha has made her presence known as a first year athlete on this team and I look forward to watching the impact she makes in years to come. Congrats Alysha!

Alston Harris, Men’s Basketball, 4th year Business, Ottawa, ON

The men’s basketball athlete of the month is Alston Harris. The senior guard from Ottawa, Ontario has led the Wolves in scoring on a number of occasions to start 2023, highlighted by a 22 point, 8 rebound, 6 assist performance in a win over the Laurentian Voyaguers on January 20. For the season Alston holds averages of 8.7 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 2.3 AST while shooting 34% from 3.

Ally Burke, Women’s Basketball, 2nd year English/Education, Timmins, ON

Ally Burke has been selected as the women’s basketball athlete of the month. In January, Ally averaged over 29 minutes/game and regularly guarded the opponents best ball-handler.  She led the Wolves in scoring averaging 12.5 pts/game.  Ally also contributed 2.5 rebounds/game, 1.5 assists/game, and 1 steal/game.  Ally played with grit and determination and was a key contributor to the team’s first win of the regular season! Great job Ally!

Spencer Blackwell, Men’s Hockey, 2nd year General Arts, Erin, ON

Men’s hockey has selected Spencer Blackwell as our athlete of the month. Spencer’s month was highlighted by a first period hat trick against Guelph on January 20th. He is someone we can rely on to provide a spark when needed and is always finding a way to score. Spencer is currently 8th overall in OUA west with 24 points in 24 games.

Alex Cappadocia, Men’s Wrestling, 2nd year Political Science, Midhurst, ON. 

Alex had a good showing this month. He wrestled hard at the Brock Open where he was able to show improvement from the beginning of the year. He went on to have another impressive showing at the Western Invitational, where he finished just short of the bronze medal in 4th place. Alex is a leader at practice as he is always willing to put in the necessary work.

Erin Clayton, Women’s Wrestling, 4th year Nursing, Gorham, ON 

Erin had an outstanding January that resulted in her medaling at two events. She came 3rd at the Brock Open, where she beat the returning finalist for the bronze medal. Erin went on to have one of her best showings as a Thunderwolf at the Guelph Open, where she secured the gold medal for Lakehead.

Conor McGovern, Men’s Nordic Skiing, 5th year Kinesiology, Winnipeg, MB

Conor had been our team leader for a number of years both through the example he sets in training and through his outstanding results in the trials. This year Conor has really hit his stride compiling a string of some of the best results of his career. His strong season continued with a pair of dominant gold medal performances at the Ontario Cup races in early January.   Conor then represented Lakehead and Canada as a member of the Canadian contingent at the FISU games in Lake Placid, New York. Looking ahead to the OUA championships later this month, we will look to Conor to again lead our men’s team in our hunt for another championship banner. 

Sarah Lutes, Women’s Nordic Skiing, 3rd year Applied Life Science, Ottawa, ON

As a veteran on our women’s team, Sarah is someone to whom we always look to for leadership and commitment to our program and team.  In her amazing improvement as a racer and as a technician over her tenure at Lakehead, Sarah serves as a prime example of how hard work can lead to tremendous growth.  She is the ultimate team player and has been an absolute pleasure to work with over her time as a thunder wolf. 

Amy Stieh, Women’s Track & Field, 3rd year Physics, Shuniah, ON

Amy Stieh has begun her year with a myriad of victories thus far. Claiming individual victories in the Can-Am Classic in Windsor (600m), Jack Johnson Classic (300m) and Bison Classic (300m) over the past few weeks. Amy also led her relay teams in the 4x200m & 4x400m to new school records, both marks in the Top-12 USports team rankings. Additionally, Amy has been a great role model for our team over the entire year, and something we cannot be more proud of — way to go, Amy; well deserving of this award.

Aiden Webster, Men’s Track & Field, 2nd year Kinesiology, Toronto, ON

Aiden has been a role model for the Lakehead Track & Field team all season; he shows up to every practice with enthusiasm and the determination to improve each day. We are incredibly proud of Aiden and his accomplishments. Aiden led the way for the Wolves’ relay teams, earning victories in the 4x400m Relay, Distance Medley Relay at the Twin Ports Invitational. Additionally, Aiden was able to win the 600m at the prestigious Jack Johnson Classic earlier this month in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Way to go Aiden, we are very proud of you!

 

Congratulations to all of the Lakehead Thunderwolves varsity athletes who went above and beyond this month on being named the RBC Athletes of the Month for January!