The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

37 | Thursday, April 18, 2013 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Atom Dogs bite Livingston in Buffalo Jack Mallette's overtime goal lifted the Oakville atom Black Dogs (pictured above) to victory over the previously undefeated Livingston Blues A team in the final of the recent Pepsi Invitational Hockey Tournament in Buffalo. Oakville netminder Evan Ferron finished the tournament with two shutouts to earn MVP honours. The Black Dogs' defensive corps was also integral in Oakville's ability to limit opponents to less than two goals a game in the tourney. Offensively, all seven forwards notched at least two points. Leading the way were Michael Papadimitrios and Steven Currier, each with 11 points. Other members of the Black Dogs are Michael Lee, Liam Beattie, Owen Marshall, Kyle Yoshimochi, Dylan Ferron, Thomas Ieraci, Lucas Hucal, Vincent Berendsen, Jordan Petrilli, Taylor Marshman, Owen Ellis and Denver Winch. The team is coached by Dan Papadimitrios, Murray Ferron and Kevin Mallette, and managed by Marina Papadimitrios. Oakville Aquatic Club product Marni Oldershaw, pictured representing the University of Michigan at an NCAA swim meet, will compete at the World University Games in July.| photo courtesy of U of M Photography Team concept motivates swimmer by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver Staff Marni Oldershaw will climb atop the starting blocks in Russia and when the race begins, she and seven opponents will do two lengths of the pool in each of the four strokes. Almost five minutes later, they will touch the wall and one of them will be declared the winner. Oldershaw will not feel alone in her lane, though. In her mind, there will be dozens of swimmers with her, each one pushing her forward. "I can't swim for myself," the 18-year-old said of the team concept that has come to dominate her motivation in the pool. Which is a little ironic when you consider the event she will swim at the World University Games is the individual medley. Oldershaw was named to the Canadian team this week and will head to Russia in July, where there will be no shortage of teammates to inspire her. "This is my first multi-sport competition," she said. "The Canadian team is not just swimmers, and that will be great." And as far as swimmers go, she will be competing alongside teammates that span her entire career -- from Tera Van Beilen and Zack Chetrat of the Oakville Aquatic Club (OAK) to six members of the University of Michigan, where Oldershaw just completed her freshman season. Throughout a career that has taken her to the Canada Games, the Junior Pan Pacific Championships and the Junior World Championships, Oldershaw has also competed with many of the swimmers that will be representing Canada. "We're one big happy family," said the Iroquois Ridge high school grad. "The team is filled with people I've been on trips with and we've become so close. It's a very tight-knit group." The team concept is nothing new to Oldershaw. She said OAK was always one of the best clubs for fostering and encouraging team spirit. However, when she joined the Wolverines in the fall, it was taken to a whole new level. "We get such great support, you're not just doing it for the team, but for your school," she said. "It's such a great environment to be a part of." Oldershaw twice earned the conference freshman swimmer of the week award and finished fourth in the 400-yard IM and sixth in the 200-yard IM at the Big Ten championships. Two weeks after the NCAA championships, Oldershaw finished third in the 400-metre IM at the Swimming Canada World Championship Trials. It represented a significant jump from her ninth-place finish at Olympic trials a year earlier. Oldershaw said the college season, with 16 meets over the course of a season, was good preparation for competing in three big meets in less than a month. It will serve her well again in Russia. "A lot of times, swimmers have to psyche themselves up for a race. I actually need to calm down," she said. "With the team atmosphere, I get so excited and I need to wind down before my race. Now I can go into a big race and say, `I've been here before.'" And if the nerves do creep in, she'll have plenty of teammates behind her for support. -- Herb Garbutt can be followed on Twitter @Herbgarbutt Tyke red Hawks rally late to win title The Oakville tyke red Hawks (pictured above) scored three times in the final 1:22 of regulation to complete a comeback from a 3-1 deficit and win the championship game of a recent hockey tournament in Niagara-On-The-Lake. Ben Farrell scored his second goal of the third period to tie Meadowvale 3-3 with 1:22 to go and the Hawks netminder pulled in favour of an extra attacker. Noah Schiller then broke the tie with 18 seconds remaining, and Matthew Smith added an insurance empty-netter in the final 10 seconds. Hamish De Jong had Oakville's other goal. Also contributing to the tournament win were Jeremiah Walker, William Dupuis, Justin Belavich, Jake Beattie, Josh Seipp, Owen Barr, Ryan Dilillo, Max Dilillo, Cameron Davies, Liam Conlin, Kohl Kletke and Brad Jodoin. Jeff Poirier, Mike Schiller and Joe Farrell coach the team, Brent Walker is the trainer and Jenn Poirier is the manager.