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stouffville suntribune thursday april 1 2004 21 stouffville suntribune cringan hopes to rock way to provincial curling title stouffville resident on niagara falls rink at ontario mixed championships in london this week by jim thomas correspondent its a family tradition fifteenyearold jennifer cringan a grade 9 student attending stouffville district secondary school is keep ing it alive curling is their game fresh from her mother joannes recent bmw bon- spiel victory at unionville jennifer has advanced to the provincial bantam mixed competitive playdowns at london the event involving eight rinks opened yesterday and concludes sunday jennifer is the youngest member of a niagara falls rink that includes skip matt stoll vice brenna cochrane and second rhys etherington with no curling facilities in stouffville the cringan family participates in the sport at the bayview country clubinthornhill to qualify for the provincials jennifers rink won the zone atwelland and the regionals in burlington because of her age jennifer will have two more years of bantam eligibility jennifer like her mother has grown up with a rock in one hand and a broom in the other only this year joanne missed a spot in the best western challenge an international ladies final held in belleville by- only one shot she was close jennifer cringan grade 9 stu- enough to taste it dent is the youngest member of jennifers father stewart niagara falls rink sa jennifer began curl ing at age eight and her interest in the sport has contin ued to grow she often spends up to eight hours a week improving her game she now has her own shoes a gripper and a slider custommade from skateboard boots her goodluck charm is wearing mismatched socks oncein a lifetime opportunity jennifer admits shes thrilled by the prospect of com peting provincially some make it once or twice in a lifetime she says some never make it at all she would like to see curling become an integral part of the sports scene at stouffville secondary she and brother bruce now in grade 8 hope to promote this next season its something the york region school board strong ly supports stewart says but with no curling arena in whitchurcnstouffville students lack the same oppor tunities enjoyed elsewhere sports staff photosteve somerville knocking on the front door radical stunts forward melanie carlin centre avoids a men william lee ca defender in an effort to take a swipe at the loose puck during saturdays markhamstoufiville girls hockey association house league peewee division playoff game at the angus glen community centre in markham radical stunts won 40 for further results see sportsboard on page 22 spartans still find positives at ofsaa despite quarterfinal loss in london one goal thats what separated the stouffville district secondary school spartans senior boys hockey team from potentially earning a medal at last weeks ontario federation of school athletic associations aa play- downs in london the topseeded spartans returned empty handed after they suffered a heartbreaking 32 overtime loss to the seventhseeded holy trinity kanata tornadoes in fridays quarter final despite being denied the oppor tunity to compete for a medal spartans head coach jamie hewitt was proud of his team and accentu ated the positive sure to lose in overtime was dis appointing but weve been on the good side of most overtimes this sea son he said our kids really stepped up and played well they battled hard and were just one goal away from playing for a medal both teams had chances to win and in overtime anything can hap pen we just missed a chance to score just before holy trinity scored the gamewinning goal stouffville district secondary school in the loss to holy trinity justin hitchen scored the spartans first goal on a power play while mark sullivan tied the game to force overtime with just 146 remaining in regulation time if there was any consolation for the spartans the tornadoes fell 32 to eventual goldmedallists from essex district secondary school in one semifinal encounter spartan girls also at ofsaa the spartan senior boys werent the only ice hockey team from the school that took to the ice in the ofsaa championships the spartans girls also took to the ice this week in pembroke after they received word prior to the start of the recent march break that they were invited to the ofsaa aa tourna ment entering the tournament as the 10th seed the spartans lost their first game to lockerby composite school sudbury 20 but rebounded to defeat lacitadelle high school cornwall 20 and theriault high school timmins 41 lockerby however won the pool and advanced to the playoffs for the spartans their appearance at ofsaa marked their first appear ance dan mcconnachie spartans head coach said his team received an invitation after one of the other ofsaa entries opted not to partici pate we werent going to ofsaa at first he said but then things just fell into place when one of the teams a toronto school backed out we had talked with ofsaa prior to this happening and they told us we would be guaranteed a spot if one of the teams dropped out since we got word that we would be going to ofsaa we were in rapid mode in get ting ready for it the girls were pretty excited in going tracksters tune up indoors the spartans track team visited york university last weekend to take part in a high school indoor meet in the open girls 4 x 200m relay the foursome of dana wood deidre wood jasmine geense and tiziana cotechini finished second dana wood was also fourth in the senior girls 400m while cotechini was fourth in the senior girls triple jump caitlin leger a midgetaged per former took part in the junior girls triple jump and was sixth in the senior girls shotput katelyn smith finished sixth