Toews named Manitoba Athlete
of the Year for fifth time
By Bob Picken, Photos courtesy Manta Swim Club, Jeff Miller and Bruce Fedyck
Manitoba has a five-time winner of
the Male Athlete of the Year award in
the province.
Jonathan Toews of the Chicago
Black Hawks was selected for the
third straight year in 2015, and for the
fifth time in his outstanding career.
Sharing the honours with Toews is
swimming star Chantal Van Landeghem, who won her second Manitoba
Female Athlete of the Year award, and
the Portage Terriers of the Manitoba
Junior Hockey League, named the 2015
Manitoba Team of the Year for their
RBC Cup victory as Canadian Junior A
hockey champions.
Members of the Manitoba sports
media voted for their choices of five
finalists in the three categories, and the
winners were announced by the Manitoba Sportswriters and Sportscasters
Association at the 60th annual awards
dinner Friday night at the Delta Winni-
The 2015 RBC Cup champion Portage Terriers
28 / sportslife
peg Hotel.
Toews had 66 points, scoring 28
goals along with 38 assists in the regular 2014-15 NHL season. The captain of
the Stanley Cup champions added 10
goals and 11 assists in 23 playoff games,
including the game’s first two goals in
Chicago’s 5-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks in the seventh game of the
Western Conference final. He also won
the league’s Mark Messier leadership
award. His previous selections as Manitoba’s top male athlete came in 2007,
2010, 2013 and 2014.
In the voting, Toews was selected
first on 22 of the 34 sports media final
ballots, and had a decisive total of 148
points on the one-to-five point voting
process.
Manitoba Bisons football player David Onyemata, who won the J.P. Metras
trophy as the most outstanding down
lineman of the year in CIS football, was
the runner-up with eight first place
votes and 117 points. Other finalists for
the Nott Autocorp Award were Nolan
Patrick of the Brandon Wheat Kings,
archery’s Jay Lyon, and Manitoba amateur golfer of the year Devon Schade.
Van Landeghem was a double gold
medallist in the Pan American Games
last year, setting a personal best and a
Games swimming record while upsetting American legend Janet Evans in the
100 metre freestyle event. She also led
the Canadian team to an unexpected
victory in the 4x100 freestyle relay. At
the world championships, she was a
bronze medallist in the mixed 4x100
relay and finished fifth in Canadian
record time in the individual 50 metre
freestyle.
Van Landeghem, a previous Female
Athlete of the Year winner in 2011, had
24 first place votes and a runaway total
of 154 points. Manitoba Bisons volley-