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•T he I FP • H al to n H ill s •T hu rs d ay , M ar ch 2 8, 2 01 3 18 SPORTS & LEISURE Georgetown is well represented on the list of invitees to the Ontario Minor Hockey As- sociation's Under-16 Program of Ex- cellence Selection Camp on Saturday, March 30 in Oakville. Five local residents from the Halton Hurricanes' mi- nor midget AAA team have been chosen amongst 50 OMHA players who'll attend the camp. Goaltender Michael Mc- Niven, defencemen Matt Mercer and Mitchell Kreis, along with forwards Josh Dickinson and Matthew Kreis, were the minor midg- et Hurricanes asked to at- tend the selection camp, to be held at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex. Only the OHL Cup-cham- pion Oakville Rangers (10) and the Whitby Wildcats (6) had more team members picked for the camp with 10. From the Oakville selec- tion camp, two teams of 20 players will be selected to participate in the 2013 OHL Gold Cup in Kitchener from May 9-12. It's also an opportunity for Ontario Hockey League gen- eral managers and scouts to watch players ahead of the Priority Selection set for Saturday, April 6. In the space of just one week, Linda Klarner was the recipient of champion- ships in two very different sports. The 53-year-old local resident won the Ontario synchronized skating title with her Mississauga-based team, Precise Ice, at the annual competition in Newmar- ket, just a few days before collecting the novice-level overall points award for the equestrian Ontario Competitive Trail Rid- ing Association 2012 series. "I'm on two teams. One speaks English, the other doesn't," deadpanned Klarner, who has won nine previous regional titles with Precise Ice, but is relatively new to trail riding. As a youth, Klarn- er loved riding hors- es, but wasn't able to devote the time to get involved competi- tively. Now, she's able to spend most week- ends of the spring and summer months riding I'm No Angel, a nine-year-old Arab mare in her prime, on the trail circuit. The duo won fi ve of the six events in the series and placed in the top three in three different categories in the OCTRA standings and in the other discipline, en- durance, Klarner and I'm No Angel fi n- ished 55th out of 55 entries, which was her goal all along. "When I started I said I don't care if I'm dead last, and well, I was dead last, but that's okay," she added. "That's what you want to do in the fi rst year is to train the horse very slowly and bring them along. In competitive trail, be- ing fi rst is a goal you can achieve because it's all done on the heart rate and the con- ditioning of the horse, so it's reasonable to expect that if your horse is well enough conditioned, you can do a competitive trail ride, which is about 25 miles at fi ve miles an hour. That's a good starting pace for you and the horse. When you get to the 50 milers (endurance trail), people who are winning the races are doing like 16 to 22 miles an hour. They're almost galloping. I'm not quite there yet." The sport of distance riding consists of four separate disciplines, with each offer- ing a variety of distances to choose from. Scoring focuses on the well being of the horse which is required to pass a veteri- nary inspection before, at checkpoints during, and again at the fi nish of all com- petitions. Riders follow marked trails (which in- clude water troughs placed at intervals for the horse) choosing the speed best suited to the horse's conditioning. Historically, competition tends to be against a personal best rather than against others producing camaraderie and mutual assistance unique in eques- trian sports. Klarner's highlight of 2012 was to sur- pass the 500-mile mark with her horse in competition and they did so during their fi rst 50-mile event together. She said for every one mile of competition, 10 miles of practice is required and they'll probably move up to the elite level this year. As for her Precise Ice participation, Klarner, a former president of the George- town Skating Club, will compete along- side daughter Laurie in Kamloops, B.C. next week at the Canadian Adult Figure Skating Championships in search of their second consecutive synchronized skat- ing national title after winning last year in P.E.I. The team also claimed the Cana- dian crown in Ottawa three years ago. Georgetown sends fi ve to OMHA U-16 camp Klarner at home on the ice... or horseback Linda Klarner (bottom left) shows off some of her recent medals from her efforts with the Precise Ice precision skating team (top) and during the equestrian Ontario Competitive Trail Riding Association 2012 series in which she won fi ve of six events. Top/middle photos submitted Bottom photo by Eamonn Maher By EAMONN MAHER Staff Writer 'I'm on two teams. One speaks English, the other doesn't.' --Linda Klarner Locked in a tight rival- ry with Milton all season, Georgetown's tyke #3 Raiders left little doubt about which team was superior when it came to the Tri-County Minor Hockey Association champi- onship series. The Raiders played their best game of the season in game four of the best-of-5 Tri- County fi nal Monday night at the Alcott Arena, skating past the Winterhawks 4-0 to clinch the title three games to one. Noah Capteloa staked Georgetown out to an early 2-0 lead on a pair of goals before Ross Brown and Elias Barlas provided some insur- ance in the victory, while netminders Jayden DeZeeuw and Landon Little shared the shutout honours. Collecting assists were Lo- gan Santori (2), Nathan Par- kins, Arran Fraser, Natalia Tomas, Noah McCutcheon and Krozly Vassos. The Raiders were also able to shut down Winterhawks' scoring machine David Bar- ber when it mattered most. Other members of the tyke #3 squad are: Captain Sydney Hood, Brett Yandeau, Owen Burd, Zach VanDamme, Thomas Harney, Spencer Malloch, head coach Rob Burd, assistant coaches Aar- on Brown and Glen Malloch, trainer Paul Santori, manager Diana Tomas. See photo on page 19 Tyke Raiders win Game 4 & championship