She capped a great midget hockey career in style and now Olivia Howe can add the Times-Herald Female Athlete of the Year Award to her accolades.
Howe, a freshman forward on Clarkson University’s women’s hockey team, is a first-time winner of the award.
Howe received two of the possible four first-place votes from our panel.
It was an incredibly close race right behind Howe as 2011 winner Rhaea Fowler finished in second place.
Fowler was one point ahead of a three-way tie for third place by Talayna Tremblay, Aimee Kowalski and Libby Epoch.
Votes were cast by Katie Brickman and Matthew Gourlie from the Times-Herald sports department along with Marc Smith from Golden West Radio (CHAB, Country 100 and Mix 103) and James Gallo, the voice of the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Howe finished her Sask. Female Midget AAA Hockey League career in the spring and finished by winning her second straight scoring title. She collected 32 goals and 64 points in 24 games.
In the playoffs she elevated her game as she scored 20 goals in the Hounds’ nine playoff games — all wins — as they won the . She added six assists in the playoffs.
Her 20 playoff goals tied Alyssa Wiebe’s league record set in 11 games in the 2008 playoffs.
This fall she began to play NCAA Division I hockey with Clarkson. She has four goals and an assist in 16 games.
Clarkson is 15-3 and are the No. 2 ranked team in the NCAA.
Fowler had a relatively quiet year by her high standards, but broke national open and classic records in powerlifting and finished seventh in her category at the Powerlifting World Championships.
Tremblay received the other two first-place votes from our panel after she was an Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference all-star volleyball player for Medicine Hat College (MHC).
She helped lead the Rattlers to the Canadian college national tournament where they finished fifth. Her strong play there earned her one of 54 invites to try out for the national team — a rare honour for a college player.
Kowalski continued to blaze a trail in the women’s football world.
The quarterback for the Regina Riot in the Western Women’s Football League, Kowalski was also named to the provincial team for the first women’s national championship tournament.
She was subsequently one of five quarterbacks invited to try out for the national team in early 2013.
Epoch excelled at a number of sports in 2012. She set a pair of elementary track records in the spring before winning a silver medal at the high school provincial cross country championships.
She also won the elementary girls singles badminton city title and was named to the her age group’s provincial basketball team. In her spare time she was also a competitive swimmer with the Moose Jaw Kinsmen Flying Fins.
Briercrest College volleyball player Elly Wendell is second in kills as a freshman in the ACAC and finished sixth in the vote.
Also receiving votes was fastball players Chenelle Mitchell and Destiny Kaus, Univ. of Regina basketball player Kehlsie Crone, MHC volleyball player Kelsey Konihowski, soccer players Kristi Segall (MHC) and Jessica Meyer (UofR)
Univ. of Saskatchewan volleyball player Jina Barker and figure skater Adrianna Phillips.
