White Oaks, Ridge students Wheelchair racer sets Canadian mark each win two swimming gold White Oaks' Jillian Bekker and Iroquois Ridge's Michael Ramsey each won a pair of individual gold medals at last week's Halton high school swimming championships. Bekker won the girls' 15-and-over 50metre and 100m freestyle events. Ramsey was the champion in the boys' 14-under 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke. Other local individual gold winners were White Oaks' Erin Palmer (girls' 14under 50m freestyle), Abbey Park's Ali Smith (girls' 15-over 100m backstroke), Holy Trinity's Amy Schubert (girls' 14under 100m freestyle) and Oakville Trafalgar's Clara Armstrong (girls' 14under 50m breaststroke). Individual silver medals went to OT's Rachel Petford and Aquinas' Kendra Heney, as well as Palmer, Smith and Armstrong. Bronze medals were won by Abbey Park's Vanessa Lester, Calum MacKay, Adam Solis and Cole Weber; Holy Trinity's Michelle Carrabetta, Abraham Lozano and Schubert; OT's Samantha Mehltretter and Petford, White Oaks' Rowan Henderson; and Iroquois Ridge's Saad Mobushir. Oakville Trafalgar was the top-ranking local school in team competition, placing second overall with 608 points. Georgetown ran away with the overall title, finishing with 1,154.5 points. OT was third in both men's and women's team competition. Abbey Park was second in men's team standings, with Iroquois Ridge placing fourth. OT was the lone local school to win a relay. The team of Petford, Mehltretter, Sarah Johnson and Armstrong won the girls' 15-over 200m medley relay by more than five seconds. Abbey Park earned a pair of relay silvers. The Eagles' team of MacKay, Brett Jones, Mark van Huuksloot and Bryn Johnson came second in the boys' 15-over 200m freestyle relay, while the squad of Cael Boettinger, Eric Fulmer, Adam Solis and David Holden placed second in the 14under 200m freestyle. Relay bronzes went to OT (boys' 14under 200m freestyle: Brian Creighton, Daniel Cumming, Peter Maccario and Chris Chung) and Abbey Park (boys' 14under 200m medley: Andrew Park, Holden, Fulmer, Boettinger). Local wheelchair racer Josh Cassidy is now considered a serious gold-medal contender for the 2010 Paralympic Games. The 25-year-old, ranked first overall in his class in Canada, beat out world record-holder and 2008 Beijing goldmedalist David Weir of Britain in the 1,500-metre race at last month's Summer Down Under meet in Australia. Cassidy finished second in that race with a time of 3:04.05, a mere one-hundredth of a second behind winner Kurt Fearnley of Australia. Officials needed 20 minutes to determine the winner of that race. 17 · Thursday, February 18, 2010 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.oakvillebeaver.com Cassidy also placed second in the 800m (1:37.89), finishing 0.18 seconds behind Weir. He was fourth in the 10,000m with a Canadian-record time of 20:17.84, and also finished fourth in the 5,000m (10:29.71). "I am so happy with the performance, considering how early on it is in the season," said Cassidy. "I am working on my strength and stamina with my coach, so I can't wait to see what I can do when I am in really good shape." In the finale of the meet, the 10K road race, Cassidy tied for second with Weir and Japan's Hokinoue. www. com HURRY! RECEIVE $3500 IN REBATES on high efficiency up to * Gas Furnace & Central Air Immediate Installation & Service Do not pay for 6 months* BUY NOW AND SAVE THE HST! 905-849-4998 9 LOCATIONS TO SERVE YOU BETTER *See dealer for details www.aireone.com 1-888-827-2665 A+ Rating