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www.insidehalton.com |OAKVILLE BEAVER | Friday, May 19, 2017 |20 Kevin Nagel, Oakville Beaver Sports Editor, knagel@burlingtonpost.com Spots f "Connected to your Community " ja a t GHAC first time," he said. "I was good at it and I developed a love for it." And he' s passing on what he' s learned over the years to his younger teammates. He was helping out his fellow Tigers during the ju nior boys' competition and even after the fi nal event as everyone was packing up and leaving, Madruga was in the circle helping out a teammate. "I'll do what I can to help the shot putters after I'm gone," he said. In the meantime, he'll try to set the bar high for them with some strong results in his final high school meets. Madruga will also be moving on to the South Regional meet after a second-place finish in the discus. Loyola's Tamia Noel, who was fourth in the shot put at OFSAA last year, showed she would once again be a contender. She be came just the second senior girl to top the 11m m ark at the GHAC meet with a toss of 11.19m . Noel earned a second victory in the discus with a throw of 32.21m , which ranks third at the GHAC meet since 2004. King' s Christian Collegiate' s Noah Farrell swept the junior boys' sprints. He won the 100m in 11.86 seconds and then took first in the 200m with a time of 24.39. Other Oakville gold medalists at the GHAC meet were: · Ih i Anne Hillyard, Garth Webb (midget girls' 100m, 13.19) · King's Christian Collegiate (midget girls' 4x100m relay, 54.69) · King's Christian Collegiate (junior girls' 4x100m relay, 53.37) · Zainab Salami King's Christian (junior girls' triple jump, 10.12m) · Isabelle Carunna Aquinas (senior girls' 100m, 12.69) · Nicole Parsons Abbey Park (senior girls' 400m, 58.57) · Posey O'Keefe King's Christian (junior girls' 800m, 2:38.14) · Kissiah Griffiths Blakelock (senior girls' high jump, 1.32m · Elena Colussi-Pelaez Abbey Park (senior girls' pole vault, 2.60m) ·April Estrada Aquinas (girls' 100m ID, 22.10) · Jackson Leverock Aquinas (midget boys' 200m, 25.22) · Nic Legaspi Loyola (midget boys' 300m hurdles, 46.55) · Sajeev Manon Abbey Park (midget boys' long jump, 5.41m) · Vahaab Ladha Garth Webb (junior boys' 400m, 54.85) · Chris Sagl Aquinas (junior boys' triple jump, 11.41) · Chris Elliott Oakville Trafalgar (senior boys' 400m, 52.56) · Marcus Nandlal Aquinas (senior boys' 400m hurdles) · Yihang Quin Abbey Park (senior boys' triple jump, 12.88) Despite his size and school's lack of equipment, OTsTint takes highjump gold at GHAC By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff On the volleyball court, what Matthew Tint lacks in height he makes up for with an out standing vertical jump. So when the Grade 9 student went out for the Oakville Trafalgar track and held team, he figured he could put the skill that serves him so well with the Oakville Thunder to use in the high jump. There was just one problem. The school didn't have high jum p equipment. And they didn't have a coach with any experience with field events. And there were no other high jumpers on the team. And Tint had zero high jumping experience. OK, so there were a few problems. Undeterred, Tint forged ahead with his plans to compete in the high jump. At his first meet, he watched the senior competi tion and asked the competitors a lot of ques tions. Along with tips on technique and preparation, Tint got one valuable nugget of information. "It really hurts when you land on the bar," he said. Of course, Tint has to take their word for it. Two weeks into his high jumping ca reer, he' s yet to suffer that fate. Tuesday at the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference track and field championships in Hamilton, he cleared his first seven attempts, ranging from 1.35 to 1.65 metres, to claim the midg et boys' gold medal. Tint took two shots at 1.70m , which would have tied the m eet' s best jum p since 2 0 04. Each time he knocked the bar off with his foot, thereby avoiding the pain the senior jumpers warned him about. Tint, who had never even competed in the event in elementary school, also won at his first meet, giving him a boost of confidence heading into the GHAC meet. "Once I started to see people going over, I realized they didn't have too m uch more ex T.A.BIakelock's Cameron Madruga prepares to throw the shot put during the Golden Horseshoe Athletic Conference track and held championships at Mohawk Sports Park Wednesday in Hamilton. Madruga w ent on to win the senior boys' shot put. | photo by Nikki Wesley - Oakville Beaver perience than I did," he said. "I just needed to get the technique down." W ithout equipment to practise, Tint's jumping has been limited to competitions. But it doesn't mean he's just been standing around at practice. He also competes in the long jum p and triple jum p, in which he add ed a second victory at GHAC. He posted a triple jum p of 11.79m in the opening round and it held up until the end. Only one other competitor broke the 11m m ark while Tint did it on each of his five at tempts. Even Tint is at a loss to explain his success in the event. "I'm shorter (5-foot-9) than most of the guys I'm up against so they should have an advantage having longer legs," he said. Tint will look to continue his success at the South Regional meet in St. Catharines next week where the top finishers will move on to the provincial high school champion ships. Also moving on is Blakelock' s Cameron Madruga after the Grade 12 T.A. Blakelock student won the senior boys' shot put. Already leading the competition, Madruga extended his advantage by nearly a full m e tre with a personal best toss of 13.99m on his second-last attempt. He would win comfort ably by 1.30m over his nearest rival. Not bad for an event he calls "just a little hobby." Madruga, a 6-foot-2, 220-pound fullback who played rep football with the Oakville Ti tans, will play at McMaster University next season. But he got a taste of success in shot put early in his high school career and stuck with it. "In Grade 9, I qualified for OFSAA for the Santos scores pair o f late goals to give Blue Devils victory overTFC III By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Down a goal and down a man, it looked bleak for the Oakville Blue Devils. Toronto FC III had just scored in the 8 0 th minute to take a 2-1 lead and if the Blue Devils were to m ount a comeback, they'd have to do it without the former league MVP Filipe Vilela, who had been sent off earlier in the half after be ing issued his second yellow card. "W e knew it was going to be tough without him. He' s one of the best strikers in the league," said Matt Santos, who subbed into the game after Vilela' s departure, "But as a group, you have to do what you can to win games." Playing with just 10, Santos led an unlikely comeback as he scored twice, with the winner coming in the 89th minute, to give the Blue Devils a 3-2 win in Sunday' s League1 Ontario match at Sheri dan College. Coach Duncan Wilde was en couraged by the win, saying the team looked more like the one that won the league two years ago than the one that slipped to sixth in the conference last year. "I just told the boys after the game that that was more like the fighting spirit, that refuse to lose attitude if you will, we had in 2 0 1 5 ," the Blue Devils' coach said. Santos tied the game in the 85th minute, taking a through ball and chipping it past the defender. He chopped it back and then found see Blue Devils on p. 21