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it jv 26 stofiffvaie suntribune thursday june 1 2006 stouffville suntribune sports staff photosteve somerville stouffville district secondary schools natalie geiger second from left puts some distance between herself and rivals including katherine green from left alexander mackenzie high school richmond hill jillian scheliga brother andre catholic high school markham and thamara julien st theresa of lisieux richmond hill en route to winning the junior girls 200metre race at last thursdays central region qualifying track and field meet at york university a grade 10 student geiger 15 also won the 100m and 400m races during the twoday event and advanced to the ontario federation of school athletic associations championships that begin today and conclude saturday at etobicokes centennial stadium golden outing for speedy geiger sdss student runs off with three gold medals at regional qualifier by jim thomas correspondent she has no equal in stouffville or york region this week natalie geiger the girl with the flying feet will defend her record when she competes in the 200 and 400 metres at the ontario federation of school ath letic associations track and field championships at centennial park in etobicoke she will also endeavour to add another first in the junior 100 metres the 15yearold grade 10 stouffville district secondary school student qualified to advance by winning three gold medals at the york region athletic association outdoor champi onships at york university last week the spartans speed ster trimmed her time down to a personal begt in both the 200 and 400m at a central regional quali fying meet alsoat york university she ran the 200m in 2482 sec onds down from 2520 and the 400m in 5529 seconds down from 5618 she was clocked at 1234 sec onds in the 100m down from 1242 im always competing against myself says the fleetfooted geiger i keep trying to beat my personal best next month she intends to attend the junior nationals in sherbrooke quebec going up against the best in canada some four years older than herself she placed third in the 400m last year she also plans to enter the ontario relay championships at york competing in the 200 and 400m plus the 300m hurdles the fivefoot 10inch 125- pound speedster hopes to obtain a track scholarship to a us college steve jimmo spartans track coach describes geigers achieve ments as simply amazing she glides so effortlessly it gives me goose bumps he said the ottawaborn geiger moved with her parents to stouf fville 13 years ago she has two younger brothers paul 14 and matthew three a member of the york flyers track and field club geiger works out on a 400metre track in king city during the summer in the winter she trains indoors at york university on june 15 she will be hon oured at the schools annual ath letic awards banquet both for her track accomplishments and for being a member of the spartan girls hockey team that won the 2006 ofsaa aaa championship in 2005 she was named junior female athlete of the year coskun also shines while geiger stole the spot light at the central regional event dan coskun also qualified for the upcoming ofsaa cham pionships competing in the junior boys division the 15yearold grade 10 student finished second in the javelin third discus and fourth shot put gagnon bounces his way to a national title stouffville resident is a trampoline convert after doing gymnastics by john cudmore staff writer when gymnastics got to be a drag thomas gagnon got hop ping actually bouncing would be the precise term the jump trampoline club member scored firstplace marks in sweeping compulsory and optional programs as he won the novice mens over- 15 trampoline title at the canadian gymnastics championships in quebec city victoria day weekend the 17yearold sir william mulock secondary school student finished with a combined score of 5730 to top the 17competitor field in his first appearance at a national championship i was definitely surprised i do put in a lot of hours in training but theres definitely a lot of talented people at this level said gagnon a stouffville resident and grade 12 student at the newmarket high school its good to see results i didnt know what the other athletes would be like because once you qualify against your own province thats it leading up to it in qualifying i was placing well so i was expecting maybe i could get into the top 10 gagnon is not sure what to expect down the road but he is planning to go as far as trampolin- ing will take him if i can keep it up the skys the limit he said right now with university coming up im hoping to take it through next year moving to the trampoline from gymnastics is a transition usually involving minimal adjustment for sec less page 27 girls hope to finally tackle yraagold high school rugby championships go today in markham by mike hayakawa staff writer the stouffville district secondary school spartans girls rugby team hope to reverse a frustrating trend when they take to the fletchers field pitch today for the york region ath letic association championships in the last two yraa champi onships the spartans advanced to the final only to be denied the gold medal this year the spartans feel they are on track to taking things one step further as they enter the semifinal in first place in the tier two standings with a perfect 50 record the spartans concluded regular season play monday with a convinc ing 340 win over visiting unionville high school sam chefereo and kathrine mck- endrick each scored two tries for the spartans while caitlin ebanks had a try and two converts and steph mon- cada one try making the spartans season even more rewarding is that theyve relied heavily on youth after a number of veteran performers over the last two years had graduated because of this the spartans elect ed to go the tier two route this season the decision appears to have paid off as evidenced by their regular season mark we had lots of grade 9s and 10s come out to play this year and were extremely happy with their progress spartans head coach tara foote said but we also have many returning players who have really stepped up their game and filled in the footsteps of those who graduated we have a dedicated team who have fused together really well among the returning players who have made significant contributions foote noted are team captain nicole gammage scrum half and cocap tain bethany chekay inside centre stephanie mclean and ebanks who plays fly half the latter two players lead the spartans in scoring said foote in looking ahead to todays semifi nal foote who coaches the team with dave turpin sees no reason why her charges cant continue to play in the manner in which they have dur ing the regular season the key to success she said is hard work if the girls bring their a game and play as hard as they can i think we could give someone a run for their money the girls have said theyre tired of being runnerup so hopefully that will be a big motivator for them time will tell she said sec rugby page 27