Both Dauphin Clippers rugby teams fell short on their bid for a championship in the Westman High School Rugby League.

The Clippers girls qualified for the final with a 57-15 win over the Swan Valley Tigers, Wednesday in Dauphin, while the Clippers boys earned their berth in the championship game with a 50-0 triumph over the Tigers.

The Dauphin girls traveled to Rivers, Friday, to face the first-place Rams, who beat Crocus Plains, 63-0 in their semifinal match.

Rivers bested the Clippers, 20-7, winning their first championship.

Clippers coach Aaron Miner was pleased with the girls’ play in the final.

“They came out hard and played well. That Rivers team is just a force to be reckoned with this year. They have a great program there. But we are coming along,” he said.

The Dauphin boys hosted the Souris Sabres, Sunday. Souris had beaten Crocus Plains, 43-7 in their semifinal. The championship game saw Souris win their fifth league title, with a 15-12 win over the host Clippers. Penalties, Miner said, was the difference in the both games for the Clippers.

“Penalties are really starting to hurt our Dauphin teams here as you could see today. It definitely played a big part in the boys game today, as well as the girls game on Friday. We had probably a three-to-one penalty ratio and it hurt,” he said. “We just couldn’t get our emotions under control. The boys were tackling aggressively. Hard, just like we wanted them to. But we just couldn’t get our emotions in check. Our tackles were a little high around the neck and it cost us.”

Losing in the finals does not take away from both team’s successes in the regular season, which saw the boys go undefeated until the final, while the girls only lost to a strong Rivers squad.

“It’s been a great season. You can’t ask for much more other than a championship,” Miner said.

The season is not over just yet for the Clippers as both teams qualified for provincials, June 10 and 11, in Brandon.

“If the stars all align, we could still have a good shot at winning a provincial title with the team we’ve got next weekend,” Miner said. “We’re going to take another run and try to get a banner next weekend.”

A young rodeo participant hangs on for dear life in the chute dogging event during the high school rodeo, Saturday in Gilbert Plains.

The two-day event, which also ran on Sunday, included all of the rodeo favourites, including bareback riding, barrell racing, breakaway roping, bull riding, goat tying, pole bending, saddle bronc riding, steer wrestling and team roping for both high school and junior high school athletes.

Residents at Ochre Beach and Crescent Cove experienced more flooding recently as a result of high winds and rising water levels on Lake Dauphin.

As of June 5, the water level was at 859.6-feet, above the 858-foot flood stage level.

Some residents have begun cleaning up, while others have yet to begin as they wait for the water to go down.

Houses along Crescent Cove were surrounded by water on all sides. The water has since receded enough for residents to begin the difficult task of cleaning up.

Like many beachfront residents, Malcolm Strang had his property protected by super sandbags, but they were flattened by wave action when wind pushed water over top of them.

“They’re now buried in the sand and we’re just going to building up behind them and on top of them for something else for the waves to wash up against and, hopefully, prevent further damage,” he said.

Strang was fortunate in that he did not have much damage done to his property other than to the beach itself.

Get a full rundown in this week's Dauphin Herald!

The Old Fire Hall at the Watson Arts Centre was home to another Open Mic Night, hosted by Gary Procyshyn.

Area musicians took to the mic to put their talent on display.

The next open mic will be June 3, at 7 p.m.

Wayne Heide makes a nice shot out of the trees on number 5 during the Gary Brandon Memorial Golf Tournament, Saturday.

Wayne and Scott Heide went on to win the fourth flight championship. Jake Wiens and Steven Desroches won the championship flight, while James Stoesz and Jerron Kyle won the consolation.

In the first flight, Terry James and Jeff Sutherland won the A-side title and Grant and Daniel Edgar won the consolation.

Rob Bouchard and Mike Sparrow won the second flight crown, while Michael and Ryan Zazulak took home the consolation crown.

The third flight title was won by Ron Low and Andy Pickering. Seth Gares and Noah Wiens were consolation champs.

The fourth flight consolation was won by Jason and Neil Shaw. Larry Catagas and Denis McKay won the fifth flight and Kelvin Korman and Wayne Bazylo won the consolation.

Ken Wiebe and Randy Vanhumbeck took home first place in the sixth flight, while Mitch Drysdale and Trevor Robak took home the consolation.

Because of the wet weather, Sunday’s matches were cancelled, with prizes awarded to the top four teams in the A and B-side.

The top seeded teams were declared the winners.

The Dauphin Clippers girls and boys rugby teams are set to host the Swan Valley Tigers in the Westman High School Rugby League semifinals, Wednesday.

For the first time in the team’s history, the Clippers boys finished in first place, finishing 4-0. The girls, meanwhile, finished second with a 4-1 record.

Both teams ended the season with shutout victories over the Vincent Massey Vikings, Friday in Brandon, with the boys winning by a 46-0 score and the girls walking away with a 60-0 triumph.

Clippers coach Aaron Miner said both teams look good heading into Wednesday’s semifinal matches, adding they were able to work on the small things against Vincent Massey, while getting all of the players some playing time.

“The younger players played full games. We sat a lot of our veteran players to avoid injuries. And we need to build the team for next year,” he said. “We’re going to be losing our two Grade 12s and our three exchange students. So those five rookies (that played) got a lot of playing time, because we’ll need them for next year.”

This is the first year the boys have finished in first place and Miner said Gerald Lopez has been a key to this season’s success.

“He coaches both rugby and football and he drew in a lot of his football players into the rugby program. And then we also have our youth program that’s now really starting to show,” he said, adding there may have been only two players who had to learn the basics. “Usually you’re teaching half a team how to hit, how to take a hit. All the safety stuff. Well, on day one, we were practicing plays. Now we’re working on the small things that most teams haven’t gotten to yet, because they don’t have the experienced players that we do.”

Facing their arch rivals from Swan Valley, Miner is expecting a tough battle in both contests.

“Swan is not a pushover team at all. They play like we do. They have a good, strong football program that rolls into their rugby program. They’re girls program has always been quite strong. They have some big girls there that don’t like to play against Dauphin,” he said. “It’s always a hard fought battle between these two teams and I expect Wednesday to be nothing less than that. It will be both games that we have to come prepared for.”

Game time for the girls is 5:30 p.m., with the boys game to follow.

The Parkland Vipers U16 girls club volleyball team won a silver medal at nationals, May 22 to 24, in Edmonton.

There were 144 teams competed at nationals and they were ranked according to where they finished in their respective provincial tournaments.

The Vipers were placed in Division 3 where they finished first, winning two of three matches.

Teams were then placed in a power pool, where Parkland was a perfect 3-0, losing just one set. This earned the Vipers a spot in the championship side of their division.

The Vipers started their march to the final with a three-set victory over Cats Gold of Brandon in the Round of 16, then defeated Alberta’s Fog White in the quarterfinals and beat Ultimate of Alberta in the semifinals.

In the championship match, the Vipers lost to Sequoia of Ontario, 20-25, 28-26 and 10-15.

It marks the first time the Vipers have medaled at nationals since the program started in 1997.

There's lots more in this week's Dauphin Herald and make sure you tune in to this week's 'A View From The Couch' to hear from Vipers Coach Ted Rea. 

The U15 Parkland Predators girls volleyball team accomplished what few first-year clubs do. They won a silver medal in their first-ever appearance at nationals, which took place in Edmonton, May 19 to 21.

The Predators went undefeated up until the championship match.

They won all three preliminary round-robin matches in straight sets. In the power pool round-robin, only the TSA West Volleyball Club took the Predators to a third set, but ultimately fell to the Manitoba squad.

Parkland defeated Kauri of Ontario in the quarterfinals, then needed three sets to defeat Dynamo of Manitoba in the semifinals.

The championship match saw the Predators lose in straight sets, 15-25 and 23-25, to TCVC of Saskatchewan.

Predators coach Bryce Shewchuk said every player contributed to the team’s success and they fought hard in the final match.

Get all the details in this week's Dauphin Herald!

The Dauphin Clippers boys golf team won a silver medal at provincials, May 27, at the Minnewasta Golf and Country Club in Morden.

Thomas Scott, Jackson Delaurier, Boston Karlson and Braydyn Tkachuk combined to shoot a 238, finishing 15 shots behind the gold medalists Jack Taylor, Grady Chuback, Ayden Hanson and Tyler Polanski of St. Paul’s.

Cash Mcnabb, Austin Boge, Ryan Pellaers and Brayden Boge of River East won the bronze medal, carding score of 252.

Taylor had the boys low score with a 72.

St. Mary’s Academy of Winnipeg won the gold in the girls provincials, as Addison Kartusch, Elle Wood, Emma Keryluk and Juliana Cercueti combined to shoot a 300.

The Swan Valley Tigers, represented by Crystal Zamzow, McKenna Gray and Laina Leadbeater, won the silver medal after carding a 309. Carman’s Keira Krahn, India Young and Shaela Hayward finished eight back of the Tigers to win the bronze medal.

Kartusch had the girls’ low score, shooting a 75.