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28 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 255) Fax 905-337-5567 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008 OT student wins two provincial swimming gold By Herb Garbutt OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF The only person Rachel Petford couldn't beat was herself. Petford successfully defended her Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) swimming title in the junior girls' 50-metre backstroke Wednesday, one of two provincial golds she earned at the meet in Etobicoke. Petford won the 50m backstroke with a time of 33.72 seconds, the third-fastest time ever posted at OFSAA in the event. The Oakville Trafalgar Grade 10 student now owns the meet's top four times, including the record of 33.23 seconds she established last year. Petford also claimed the gold in the junior girls' 100m individual medley -- an event in which she won a silver last year -- in a time of one minute, 15.12 seconds. That gave her more than a one-second Rachel Petford edge over her nearest rival. Petford, along with the other members of OT's junior girls' 200m medley relay team (Tori Rooke, Samantha Mehltretter and Sarah Johnson), missed another medal by less than half a second, finishing fourth. Jillian Bekkar came as close as possible to joining Petford as a gold medalist. The White Oaks Grade 10 student was edged by one one-hundredth of a second in the junior girls' 50m freestyle. Dunbarton's Alysha Lynden led as the two swimmers made the turn. Over the last 25 metres, Bekkar closed the gap. She tried not to look at her opponent, but couldn't help noticing she had pulled even when the she came up for her final breath. "It's amazing," Bekkar said. "I love that adrenaline rush when you're so close to finishing, just giving it your all and whatever happens, happens." The two hit the wall together and Bekkar looked to the clock to see her time of 29.73 seconds. Then she saw Lynden's time of 29.72. "Wow, that's close," she thought. Despite being denied the gold, Bekkar wasn't disappointed. She broke the 30-second barrier for the first time in preliminaries with a 29.93 clocking, and then topped it again in the final. "I'm happy," she said. "It's a big accomplishment." Bekkar also finished seventh in the 50m backstroke. Oakville had two bronze medal-winning entries at the meet. Loyola's Andrew Yuen took third place in the junior boys' 50m breaststroke, while Iroquois Ridge's open boys' medley relay team of John Steadman, Mack Darragh, Kent Kikot and Alex Harris finished third with a time of one minute, 56.63 seconds, knocking 2.6 seconds off its Golden Horseshoe record-setting performance two weeks ago. -- See Page 30 for a list of other top local finishers THIRD IN ONTARIO: The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders boys' basketball team won bronze at this week's provincial high school AA championships. Raiders rebound for OFSAA bronze By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR The St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders' ability to rebound is a major reason why they won bronze at this week's Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) boys' AA basketball championships in Oshawa. And not just their ability to corral caroms off the backboards and rims. Aquinas bounced back from a tough 49-44 semifinal loss to top-seeded St. Catharines St. Francis Wednesday afternoon, defeating Toronto's Robert L. Borden 62-55 hours later in the bronze-medal match to secure the first boys' basketball OFSAA medal in school history. The Raiders' Charlie Alexander, who led Aquinas scorers in two of the team's five games despite coming off the bench, said it was difficult to get up for game. "I think it was harder than (when the Raiders lost to Holy Trinity in the their opponents 17-10 in the third Halton semifinals last month before quarter to open a 48-35 lead, then held regrouping and qualifying for OFSAA) on the rest of the way. Trevor Williams because it was the same day. We all led Aquinas with 15 points. wanted to go to the gold In the semifinals, the (final) and we knew we had "Your ultimate Raiders -- particulaly a good shot of winning it," goal is to win Alexander and Lars Mueller said the 18-year-old. "You gold, but we -- limited St. Francis star could tell at the start of the rallied together. player Tshing Kasamba to bronze game that both 14 points from the floor. It was very nice teams weren't giving it Kasamba, however, went their all and were a bit to leave on a 14-of-15 from the free winning note." sluggish." throw line to finish with 28 Raiders head coach points as St. Francis Mark Maga added, "The Aquinas coach outscored the Raiders 22bronze game is probably Mark Maga 16 in the final quarter. the toughest to play in and Alexander paced the coach in. Your ultimate goal is to win Raiders with 14 points. gold, but we rallied together and the "Lars played an awesome game. He seniors really wanted to end their didn't score, but we had to guard careers with a win. It was very nice to Tshing," said Alexander. "I just came in leave on a winning note." and did what I could, and guess I got Aquinas, the tournament's fourth lucky (scoring)." seed, led sixth-ranked Borden from The Raiders won their first three See Supporting page 29 wire to wire. The Raiders outscored Call 1-877-510-510-2 and talk to a Registered Dietitian for free. 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