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40 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, MAY 25, 2007 PHOTOS BY RON KUZYK / OAKVILLE BEAVER ADVANCING: Pictured clockwise from left, Abbey Park's Danny Francis and Iroquois Ridge's Eric Downing (senior boys' 1,500-metre run), Ridge's Sarah Burgess (senior girls' long jump) and Loyola's Paulina Maher (junior girls' 1,500m run) were among the local residents to qualify for south regionals during the first day of Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference track-and-field competition Tuesday in Burlington. Sore knee doesn't slow STA sprinter By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR As recently as a few days ago, Miana Griffiths didn't like her chances of peforming well at the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference (GHAC) track-and-field championships. The 17-year-old St. Thomas Aquinas student slipped on the porch of her home earlier this week and injured her knee. Immediately, the thoughts of not being able to compete -- or at least run near the best of her ability -- ran through Griffiths' head. "I was devastated," said Griffiths, who was third in the midget girls' 100metre dash at last year's GHAC meet. "I got mad but I had to deal with it. My mom kept me engaged and my track coach kept me engaged and my school kept me engaged and God kept me engaged." As it turned out, a swollen knee was nothing to worry about for the Grade 11 student, who easily won the junior girls' 100m dash title yesterday at Nelson High School in Burlington. Griffiths, who was scheduled to run in the 200m final later in the afternoon, qualified for the upcoming South Regional meet, as did all other top-five finishers at GHAC. The GHAC meet concluded yesterday afternoon; final results from competition were not available at press time. Tuesday, the first day of the GHAC meet, nearly 30 locals qualified for south regionals. Also winning events were Iroquois Ridge's Jeffery Park (midget boys' long jump) and Eric Downing (senior boys' 1,500m run), Abbey Park's Sam McVeen (midget girls' shot put) and Stephanie Piper (senior girls' 100m hurdles), T.A. Blakelock's Nicole Wong (junior girls' shot put), Holy Trinity's Sean Atkinson (junior boys' shot put) and Aquinas' Colleen Hennessy (midget girls' 1,500m run). Full results from yesterday's final day of the GHAC meet will appear in an upcoming edition of the Beaver. Following is a list of all local top-10 finishers from the first day of GHAC competition (regional qualifiers in bold): · Midget girls' long jump -- 6. Ashara Cadogan, Loyola, 4.06m; 7. Zoe Salhia, AP, 4.06m; 10. Chandrika Dawkins, HT, 3.80m. · Midget boys' long jump -- 1. Jeffery Park, IR, 5.35m; 2. Nicholas Chin, IR, 5.02,; 4. Jonathan Fontaine, HT, 5.00m; 6. Sebastien Savic, TAB, 4.97m; 9. Farhan Quazi, WO, 4.47m; 10. Sam Lee, IR, 4.45m. · Midget girls' shot put (3 kg) -- 1. Sam McVeen, AP, 9.69m; 2. Doreen Bonsu, HT, 8.95m; 7. Tara Fox, AP, 7.26m; 9. Rupali Patel, WO, 6.52m. · Midget boys' shot put -- 4. Humza Khattak, IR, 11.15m; 9. Dale Paterson, TAB, 8.50m; 10. Scott Helm, TAB, 8.20m. · Junior girls' long jump -- 2. Sarah Malone, AP, 4.43m; 6. Christine Penney, HT, 3.94m; 8. Anne Saborin, AP, 3.74m; 10. Cara Dhaliwal, AP, 3.52m. · Junior boys' long jump -- 7. Graeme Scott, KCC, 5.00m; 8. Colin Liberty, TAB, 5.00m. · Junior girls' shot put (3 kg) -- 1. Nicole Wong, TAB, 7.44m; 6. Carling Wright, HT, 6.46m; 8. Rachel Chisholm, AP, 5.95m. · Junior boys' shot put (4 kg) -- 1. Sean Atkinson, HT, 13.04m; 3. Colin Liberty, TAB, 12.74m; 6. Andrew Cox, WO, 11.83m. · Senior girls' long jump -- 3. Sarah Burgess, IR, 4.44m; 5. Kacy Gray, LOY, 4.35m; 6. Claire Xu, AP, 4.11m; 7. Mellisa Moses, TAB, 4.09m; 8. Amy Donaldson, IR, 4.04m. · Senior boys' long jump -- 6. Josh Plante, TAB, 5.77m. · Senior girls' shot put -- 9. Amanda McAlphine, KCC, 7.09m. · Senior men's shot put -- 6. David Ferreira, STA, 11.64m. · Midget girls' 80m hurdles -- 9. Laura Haagland, Loyola, 16.68s. · Junior girls' 80m hurdles -- 2. Sarah Malone, AP, 13.80s; 3. Christine Penney, HT, 14.57s; 6. Gillian Lee, AP, 16.25s. · Senior girls' 100m hurdles -- 1. Stephanie Piper, AP, 17.70s. · Senior boys' 110m hurdles -- 2. Gord Frenke, HT, 15.99s. · Midget girls' 1,500m run -- 1. Colleen Hennessy, STA, 5:06.21; 2. Jade Johnson, AP, 5:07.84; 3. Ailey Jarvis, AP, 5:11.08; 4. Lianne Girard, TAB, 5:26.60; 5. Brooke Johnston, AP, 5:27.46. · Midget boys' 1,500m run -- 2. Brandon Musselman, AP, 4:36.43; 7. Brandon Barbeau, HT, 4:53.57; 8. Scott Downing, IR, 4:57.93; 9. Bruno Paric, HT, 4:59.82. · Junior girls' 1,500m run -- 2. Paulina Maher, LOY, 4:54.94; 3. Julia Friesen, AP, 4:58.51; 4. Alicia Knox, LOY, 5:00.04; 5. Lindsay Bryant, LOY, 5:08.05; 6. Jessica Gallagher, TAB, 5:16.73; 8. Karina Sils, OT, 5:18.12; 9. Hannah Reinholt, TAB, 5:38.44. · Junior boys' 1,500m run -- 3. Jon Bailey, AP, 4:33.27; 4. Nathaniel Green, AP, 4:34.50; 6. Serghei Logvin, WO, 4:41.38; 8. Adam Maybee, AP, 4:49.52; 10. Jeff Mitchell, AP, 4:54.75. · Senior girls' 1,500m run -- 3. Stephanie MacNeil, IR, 5:24.12. · Senior boys' 1,500m run -- 1. Eric Downing, IR, 4:14.99; 2. Danny Francis, AP, 4:15.42; 7. Tristan Sandhu, KCC, 4:30.24; 9. Hamish Paterson, KCC, 4:32.24; 10. Eric Bang, WO, 4:34.84. www.icesports.com 905-845-6989