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s economist s hi sch sports thursday may 16 2002 2 spartan tracksters race off with yraa honours staff photosjoerd witteveen stouffville district secondary schools andrew lowrie clears the water hazard in the 2000metre steeplechase event at the york region athletic association championships monday at york university lowrie placed fifth stouffville sprinter becomes canadian citizen in between delayed events at york region track and field championships mother nature did her best to throw a curve at those who took to the york university track and field complex to compete in the annual york region athletic association championships on monday and tuesday but despite the drizzle and unseasonable cold weather that was prevalent the entire day not to mention some delays that cropped up due to timing malfunctions members of the stouffville district secondary school track and field team were not psyched out by any of those inconveniences dana wood a 15yearold grade 10 student led the spartans con tingent by running off with three gold medals in individual events and another one in a relay wood began the first day of competition by capturing the gold medal in the junior 400m later that day she blazed a path in the 100 metres by claiming the gold medal in a handheld clocking of 1270 seconds this was 30 sec onds faster than her nearest rival lindsay wolf of cardinal carter catholic high school while wood was satisfied with her performance in the 100m an event she finished third in as a midgetaged performer at last years yraa championships behind teammates jasmine geense and gold medalist jacqui harris who missed this years event with a sore ankle she revealed it isnt her strong suit i want to win the 400m at ofsaa she said thats my strong suit thats what im aiming for steve jimmo one of three coach es on the spartans track team along with janice monk and andy stoikos notes wood appears to be focused in achieving her ultimate goal small 245pounder draws praise from exnfler at college prospects clinic by mike hayakawa sports editor kevin sherriff wasnt the biggest offensive lineman who attended last fridays 30th annual lex byrds spring football clinic in etobicoke but the 5footll 245pound grade 11 student from stouffville district secondary school who was the smallest offensive lineman at the camp caught the attention of collegiate scouts from canada and the united states as one of 17 offensive linemen shes really particular said jimmo she wants to be at another level shes set on doing well and really wants to win at ofsaa before the first days activities came to a halt wood capped it off by joining forces with geense harris and tiziana cotechini to win kevin sherriff earns outstanding offensive lineman award at 30th annual lex byrd spring football clinic from schools across the greater toronto area that attended the one- day camp sherriff s performance at the gold in the 4 x 100m relay in winning the race the four some did so with relative ease as they were clocked in a handheld time of 5240 seconds some three seconds faster than their nearest rival wood wasnt the only performer on the spartans contingent to make their presence felt on monday as geense claimed the bronze in the 100m in a handheld time of 1340 for geense the day turned out to be a hectic one as the 15yearold grade 10 student who emigrated to canada in 1994 from tanzania went to oshawa between her heats earli er in the day to become a canadian citizen what worked in geenses favour in making it back on time for her 100m race were the delays that cropped up due to problems with the timing mechanism that was used this was a big deal for me geense told reporters of her aim to become a canadian citizen but no sooner did i tell the judge that i promised to obey the law and be a good citizen than i wanted to get back and help my school and my teammates being a canadian was my pri ority but i ended up getting the best of both and it turned out to be a special day in my life while the adverse weather con ditions prevented any meet records from being established wood said it didnt change her mental approach to her events it was freezing out here she acknowledged but it didnt affect my performance wood concluded her perfor mance on tuesday by winning the 200m in a handheld time of 2539 geense finished second in a time of 2757 in winning the 100m 200m and 400m wood set school marks in each of those races said jimmo leading the boys contingent was kevin mcgrath who was sec ond in the discus and set a school record after tossing the javelin 4192m good for third place in the senior division he eclipsed the old mark by five metres noted jimmo mcgrath also had a third in the shot put the following are other results posted by spartan performers who earned a qualifying berth in the central region championships in midland on may 31 midget girls cassie sparks second 1500m third 800m jasmine geense raced off between canadian citizenship court and 100m and 4 x 100m relay events on monday katelyn smith third discus and javelin junior girls sandra pankratz second high jump tiziana cotechini second triple jump and fourth javelin senior girls meagan sealy second discus midget boys josh spang second 100m hur dles junior boys mike mcmanus third javelin and fourth shotput successful day for stouffville rugby teams in rugby action monday lewis lott scored two tries while tyler mcmaster and travis mcmaster each had one to propel the spartans senior boys to a 245 victory over milliken mills high school at brother andre catholic high school james bayes and myles spencer each booted a try convert for the spartans now 20 in league play the spartans juniors got tries from jim harott gavin howe and brad hulshof to defeat the host unionville high school wolves 170 mike devries booted a try con vert for the spartans now 3- 1 on the season in girls action the spartans won their third game in four outings with a 50 decision over aurora high school at cardinal carter catholic high school spartans offensive lineman blocks out all defenders ineman blocks out all defenders the oneday clinic earned him the top offensive lineman honours making his debut at the camp sherriff felt it met his expectations as being highly competitive there were some pretty good players there there were some guys that i went up against that had to be close to 320 pounds the camp was pretty good noted sherriff who plays guard for the spartans and club ball with the markham raiders and when not on the gridiron throws the javelin for the schools track and field team spartans head coach heath weir felt sherriff merited the honour that there were some pretty good players there there were some guys that i went up against that had to be close to 320 pounds the camp was good was bestowed upon him to be honest weir was pleasant ly surprised i didnt know how kevin would fare out but he didnt get beat in the oneonone drills and he was moving guys around on the line he pancaked a lot of guys he did a fantastic job weir said of his cocap tain among those in attendance who praised sherriffs work in the trench es was former toronto argonauts and dallas cowboys offensive lineman and current canadian football league television analyst chris schultz who was one of the guest coaches at thecarhp l in conversations with schultz when the camp concluded weir was informed by the former cff and nfl veteran that sherriff was the best offensive lineman during the intensive fourhour camp sherriff wasnt the only spartan player at camp weir also brought his other cocaptain linebacker mike mcmannus a 6footl 210lb grade 11 stu dent mcmannus went up against 20 other linebackers and held his own weir cited there was plenty of hard hitting going on noted mcmannus sherriff and mcmanus were the only two players representing the york region athletic association that were in attendance the spartans will run their spring football camp during the first week of june it