Former Devil Chow set to shoulder the load

Lambrick Park Secondary grad Sarah Chow isn’t letting a little thing like shoulder surgery slow down her softball career.

After her surgery in October, Chow has been feverishly working her way back to the ball diamond and others have taken notice of her hard work. This week the former Victoria Devils star and current Utah State University standout was named to the College Sports Madness’s Mountain West Conference Pre-season All-Conference Team.

Chow will be entering her senior year at Utah State and is likely to be ready for the team’s first tournament Feb. 11-14 at Arizona State. She is coming off a break-out season in which she was named to the All-Conference Second Team after hitting .413 for the season. It was the fourth-highest batting average in Utah State softball history.

Finlayson masters Cobble Hill 10K

Victoria runners stole the show at last weekend’s Island Race Series Cobble Hill 10K.

Veteran Jim Finlayson was the overall winner, crossing the finish line in a time of 33 minutes 2 seconds, while Jen Miller was the women’s champion with a time of 37:28.

Miller was followed closely by Jonathan Tooms with a time of 33:14, while Shawn Wilyman was third in 33:17.

More than 480 runners finished the race, which was the second stop for the 2016 Series.

Next up in the series is the Cedar 12K on Feb. 7, and that’s followed by the Hatley Castle 8K on Feb. 21.

Record run for 83-year-old

After 83 years and 168 days of sheer tenacity, Victoria’s John Woodall is an age-group world record holder.

The Prairie Inn Harrier won his age group in the Island Race Series’ recent Pioneer 8K and in doing so, his time of 48 minutes 40 seconds was a record for his age.

Woodall started running seriously when he was 70, and has competed in 10Ks and halfmarathons.

Okell revved up for another season

The roads may be a little wet around Victoria, but race car driver Bill Okell will have no problem driving in the warm Los Angeles weather.

That’s where Okell will be this weekend as he opens the Sports Car Club of America’s Western Conference season at Auto Club Speedway. Okell will be behind the wheel of San Francisco-based Huffaker Racing’s Austin Healey as be competes in the first of 12 races during the season. The seven-month season wraps up with national championship at Mid-Ohio raceway in mid-September.