Loami Rautenbach (left) and Ryland McNinch. (RDP Athletics)

By rdnewsNOW staff

RDP Athletics – Athletes of the Week for Jan. 29, 2024

Jan 31, 2024 | 5:46 PM

Loami Rautenbach
Hometown: Red Deer, AB
Bachelor of Science in Nursing (2nd year)

Loami Rautenbach and the Queens Indoor Track team had a very successful season debut this past Saturday at the Kinsmen Sports Centre in Edmonton. Rautenbach got the Queens off to a great start as she took home first place in the 300m dash which was the first event of the day. She ran the race in 44.16 seconds.

The local sprinter ran the second leg of the 4x200m relay for the Queens where the team claimed the top spot with a time of 1:54 which was five seconds faster than the second-place team. The second-year student-athlete’s next event was the 60m dash which made its debut on the ACAC Grand Prix circuit this past Saturday. Rautenbach came in second just a tenth of a second slower than the first-place sprinter.

Capping off the women’s side of the track meet was the 4x400m relay, where the Queens also took home first place with a time of 4:30 which was an outstanding 17 seconds ahead of the second-place team. Rautenbach ran the third leg in the relay for RDP.

With Rautenbach’s performance as well as some other incredible performances from her teammates, the Queens were able to finish in first place with 83 points which was 39 points ahead of the second-place team. They will look to extend their lead atop of the standings when the Polytechnic hosts Running Room Grand Prix #2 on February 10 on the Border Paving Indoor Track which is inside the Gary W. Harris Canada Games Centre.

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Congratulations Loami for an outstanding season debut and we look forward to cheering you on when RDP hosts the second and final meet of the season.

Ryland McNinch
Hometown: Turtleford, SK
Bachelor of Education (2nd year)

Forward Ryland McNinch and the Kings had quite an incredible month in January as the team went a perfect 6-0 to start the 2024 calendar year which pushed their overall record to 11-7. At the end of 2023, the Kings were in fifth place in the conference but after going undefeated in the first month of the year, they jumped all the way to second place with 33 points.

In this time frame, McNinch has five goals and five assists for a total of 10 points with half of these points coming this past weekend against the Portage College Voyageurs. In the Kings’ 6-1 victory on Friday night, McNinch was named the player of the game for his offensive contributions with two goals and one assist. He would follow this up with a goal and an assist in the Polytechnic’s 5-2 win to close out the month of January with a perfect record.

The Kings still have six more games left in their regular season and the second-year student-athlete already has doubled his point count from the first half of the season. He is tied for eighth amongst all skaters in the conference with 19 points on the season and is four points back of the team lead.

The Kings will host the NAIT Ooks this weekend for a home-and-home series that will start in Red Deer on Friday with the puck dropping at 7 pm.

Congratulations Ryland and keep on finding the back of the net!

For a look at the full slate of games happening this weekend, head to rdpolytechathletics.ca.

(RDP Athletics media release)