www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Thursday, June 11, 2015 | 46 HALTON TRANSMISSION 559 SPEERS RD., #UNIT 3 905-842-0725 www.haltontransmission.com Jon Kuiperij Sports Editor sports@oakvillebeaver.com Sports by Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff "Connected to your Community" Blakelock sprinter earns spot among Ontario's best with OFSAA bronze In a sport where every hundredth of a second matters, progress -- though easily measured -- can be slow. Months of work may only result in the tiniest of improvements. Zaria Armstrong was well aware of that reality, but even she was starting to wonder if she could improve enough to compete with the best sprinters in the province. As she headed into the South Regional track and field meet, Armstrong's personal best in the 100 metres stood at 12.27 seconds. That was .04 better than the time she ran two years earlier in finishing fourth at the provincial high school track and field championships. She won an OFSAA bronze medal last year in junior, but with a time of 12.47. "I was scared I wasn't going to be up there with the best girls at OFSAA," Armstrong said. "My times were consistently around 12.3" Then came the breakthrough the T.A. Blakelock student had been working toward. In the preliminaries at regionals two weeks ago, Armstrong ran a 12.14. "It was such a confidence booster," she said. "It was a huge accomplishment." Suddenly, the 12-second barrier was no longer just a dream. It was attainable. Friday at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations championship in Toronto, when she needed it most, Armstrong delivered the best performance of her life. Armstrong crossed the line at Toronto's Varsity Stadium in 11.96 seconds to win her second OFSAA bronze. "It was such a close race and I was just so relieved to win a medal," the 17-year-old said. "I turned to the crowd and saw my mom and my coach. It was such an awesome moment." It could have been a third straight medal for Armstrong, but she was denied a bronze two years earlier by .01. The hundredth of a second wasn't kind to her again -- that was all that kept her taking the silver -- but Armstrong didn't mind as much this time. She had run another personal best in the preliminaries, clocking a 12.10, before lowering that time again in the final. "I've been trying to go sub-12 for the longest time. As my times were going lower, I started to think I could do it," said Armstrong, who credited her training with the Oakville Track and Field Club for the improvement. "I'm definitely looking forward to the (club) track season. Now I have the times to compete with the girls my age." And, as she proved at OFSAA, those a year older, too. The Grade 11 student still has another year to try to add another medal. And she could very well have two chances. The Blakelock 4x100 relay team made up of Armstrong, Taja McLean, who finished 9th in the 200m and 14th in the 400m, Julia Scott and Kaleigh Jeffrey, were fifth at OFSAA without a single graduating runner. Their time of 49.17 seconds was less than a third of a second from the podium. "I can't wait for next year. We won't be the youngest girls," Armstrong said. "Being pretty young and placing fifth out of all those teams, we should have a chance (for a medal) next year." Zaria Armstrong ran a personal best time of 11.96 seconds, breaking the 12-second mark for the first time, to win the bronze medal in the senior girls' 100-metres. The Grade 11 student also helped T.A. Blakelock's 4x100m relay team finish fifth. | photo by Nikki Wesley --Oakville Beaver Oakville Trafalgar teammates square off in OFSAA tennis championship by Jon Kuiperij Oakville Beaver sports editor Neither player in this year's provincial high school tennis open boys' singles final needed a scouting report on his opponent. Oakville Trafalgar High School teammates Mark Jensen and Peter Coombs met up in the gold-medal game Wednesday at Toronto's Rexall Centre. Jensen earned Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations gold with an 8-6 victory over Coombs, who claimed silver. Not only do Jensen and Coombs attend the same school, they also rode to and from the tournament in the same car with coach Kathy Raleigh -- even though both of their fathers attended the final. "It was a very unique situation," Raleigh said. "I knew we had a gold and silver medal coming to us. It was just a question of who was going to win." An all-Red Devils clash in the final didn't come as a surprise, considering Jensen and Coombs were the top two seeds in the open boys' singles draw. Ranked 32nd and 37th respectively among under-18 singles players by the Ontario Tennis Association, Jensen and Coombs each posted comfortable victories in the semis after winning their first two matches. "They hadn't played each other in a tournament for more than two years," Raleigh said of the Ontario Racquet Club members. "We were hoping this would happen." Oakville athletes also won the OFSAA open boys' doubles title as Abbey Park's Martin Hong and Peter Divilek defeated North Toronto's Brooks Coffey and Alp Tezol 8-3 in the final. OT's Nik Loncar and Spencer Grant finished third for the second straight year, downing St. Andrew's College's James Stevenson and Victor Li 8-1 in the bronze-medal game. Oakville Trafalgar High School students (from left) Mark Jensen, Nik Loncar, Spencer Grant and Peter Coombs all won medals at this week's provincial high school tennis championships in Toronto. Jensen won the open boys' gold, with Coombs finishing second. Grant and Loncar teamed up to earn bronze in open boys' doubles. | photo submitted