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16 Sports Oakville Beaver SPORTS EDITOR: JON KUIPERIJ Phone 905-845-3824 (ext. 432) Fax 905-337-5571 email sports@oakvillebeaver.com · THURSDAY, MAY 28, 2009 Runners have multiple chances to qualify for OFSAA track event, although she ran with Abbey Park's 4x400m relay team at last year's provincials. She is more optimistic about her OFSAA chances in the 400m distance, noting she Corinne Smith must like her chances of competing in runs the 200m event to work on her speed. Smith will be joined by Jade Johnson, Brooke Johnston this year's provincial high school track and field champiand Jessica Tat in both relay events. The Eagles won the onships. The 17-year-old Abbey Park student will have four cracks GHAC senior girls' 4x100m relay title with a time of 51.67 at qualifying for the Ontario Federation of School Athletic seconds, while their time in the open girls' 4x400m (4:04.94) was 15 seconds faster than second-place Loyola. Associations (OFSAA) meet when the South Smith was one of several local runners to win Regional championships start today (Thursday) "It gets tiring at two individual gold medals at the GHAC compethe end of the in St. Catharines. tition. St. Thomas Aquinas' Lavenia Primpeh Smith will compete for an OFSAA spot in the day. You go home won the junior girls' 100m and 200m titles, senior girls' 400-metre and 800m runs, the sen- and don't want to teammate Colleen Hennessy won the senior ior girls' 4x100m relay and the open girls' do anything. But girls' 1,500m and 3,000m races, Abbey Park's 4x400m relay, events she all earned gold in at Dan Mathie was victorious in the junior boys' last week's Golden Horseshoe Athletic it's worth it." 800m and 1,500m distances, and the Eagles' Conference meet in Burlington. Nathaniel Green took gold in the senior boys' Top-four finishers at regionals advance to Abbey Park runner Corinne Smith 1,500m and 3,000m runs. provincials. Despite posting comfortable victories in both "It gets tiring at the end of the day," Smith said Friday when asked whether competing in so many her races at GHAC, Primpeh isn't necessarily counting on events takes its toll. "You go home and don't want to do any- similar results at regionals. "Outside of school, I haven't really won," said the 16-yearthing. But it's worth it. "They (Abbey Park coaches) train us hard enough that we old Primpeh, who runs with the Oakville Legion Track & get used to it. My body's pretty much used to running multi- Field Club. "Mississauga and Brampton runners are harder. I've run with them at indoor meets and they're so fast. You ple events in one day." Smith has never qualified for OFSAA in an individual come (to GHAC) and you're winning, but you run with them and you're second or third." By Jon Kuiperij BEAVER SPORTS EDITOR Long-distance champ still working on stamina Hennessy also took her GHAC success in stride. The 16year-old is still working her way back into peak condition after suffering a stress fracture in her hip last fall, an injury that doctors attributed to overuse of those muscles. "I'm just trying to get back into it, and concentrate on my cross country," Hennessy said. "I find I get tired a lot faster. Right now is the best I have ever felt because (my hip) doesn't hurt anymore, but I don't have the stamina I had." Hennessy, however, overcame a similar condition at last year's provincials. She won junior girls' silver and bronze at the 2008 OFSAA meet despite missing six weeks of training in the spring because of tendonitis in her hips. Oakville Trafalgar's Karina Sils gave Hennessy a good test in both the 1,500m and 3,000m runs at GHAC, finishing less PHOTOS BY NIKKI WESLEY / OAKVILLE BEAVER Abbey Park's Corinne Smith (above) and St. Thomas Aquinas' Lavenia Primpeh (left) both won two individual running gold medals at last week's Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference track and field championships. than a second behind the Aquinas runner in both events. "I like the challenge, actually," Sils said. "It's okay, you just have to come in the top five (to advance to regionals)." T.A. Blakelock's Devon Bosada was Oakville's lone midget to win an individual track event at GHAC, edging out teammate Karley Donnelly by six one-hundredths of a second in See Locals page 17