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19 | Friday, M arch 3, 2 0 1 7 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Ridges Krewdel seeks OFSAA swimming gold after setting two GHAC m arks By Herb Garbutt Oakville Beaver staff Sebastian Krewdel knew he had to m ake a decision. If Krewdel, a m ember of the Oakville Aquatic Club, w as to continue swim m ing competitively, it would require more hours in the pool in order to reach the next level. About to begin high school, he realized that would rule out pursuing his other interests. "I knew swimming was going to require more time and I wanted to do other things, get involved in some plays, some clubs," he said. If that sounds like som eone who lost his competitive drive, well, you couldn't be more wrong. Krewdel has continued to swim for the Iroquois Ridge High School team and he'll go into the Ontario Federation of School Athletic A ssociations cham pionships March 7-8 with one thing on his m ind -- winning a gold medal, maybe two. "I'm going to go after it as hard as I can," Krewdel said. The Grade 10 student won a silver medal in the junior boys' 50-metre backstroke at OFSAA last year when he was the only Grade 9 to reach the final. He narrowly m issed a second medal, finishing fourth in the 100m freestyle, but this year he'll compete in the 50m free, a race he feels suits his sprinting abilities better. Krewdel's pursuit of OFSAA gold appears right on track. At last week's Golden Horseshoe Ath letic Conference championships, he set GHAC records in both the backstroke and freestyle. In the backstroke, he finished a w hopping 4.53 seconds ahead of the rest of the field, finishing in 30.21 seconds to knock more than a third of a second off last year's silver m edal OFSAA time. "I w as going in hoping to improve my team ," Krewdel said. "I didn't even realize I had set the record until everyone came up and told me. It w as a nice bonu s." It w as his second record of the meet, hav ing w on the 50m free by more than a second with a time of 27.09 seconds in the morning. A lso looking to bring hom e a m edal from OFSAA are the Oakville Trafalgar senior boys' relay teams. The Red Devils have medalled in medley and freestyle relays at OFSAA for the past two years, going from a pair of bronze in 2015 to silvers in 2016. With ju st one returning m ember on each team (Albert Nguyen on the freestyle, M ark M ontague on the m edley), continuing that streak looked to be a big challenge. But OT got a boost from an unexpected source when Grade 12 student Aidan Tyrrell joined the team for the first time. Tyrrell swam with the Oakville Aquatic Club until he w as 11 and though he hasn't strayed far from the water since, it w as a very different pursuit. "I've been paddling with the Burloak Ca noe Club, training six times a week, so phys ically and cardio, I w as pretty good," he said. "But swimming-wise, I haven't done a lot." After seeing the relay success of OT last year, he decided to join the swim team for his final year of high school. "Aidan w as an unknown entity," said Oakville Trafalgar coach Kathy StearnsBrown. "W hen I saw his first 50m free time, I thought, `Ah, this is nice.'" His addition has helped vault the OT re lays back into OFSAA m edal contention. At the GHAC meet, he set a conference record (25.91 seconds) in leading off the Red Dev ils' 4x50m freestyle relay. Tyrrell bettered that time by two tenths of a second in the senior boys' 50m free, but settled for second behind Cathedral's Dion Renaud, who eclipsed the OT swimmer's earlier mark. The OT freestyle relay, including Ahmed Elmarsafawi -- who w on the senior boys' 200m free -- Tyrrell, Nguyen and Paul Lin den, established a GHAC m ark of 2:01.60. Oakville sw im m ers established four other records at the GHAC meet: · W hite Oaks' Lena von Buren in the senior girls' 50m freestyle w ith a time o f 27.95 seconds. She also w on the 100m freestyle · Loyola's Katie Ivancic in the senior girls' 200m freestyle (2:26.98) · Abbey Park's Ben Currier in senior boys' 100m breaststroke (1:11.99) · The TA. Blakelock junior boys' 4x50m freestyle relay team of Declan Adams, W illiam Zhu, Philip Lewandowski and James Vann turned in a time o f 1:56.17. An extended story with more GHAC winners and a list o f OFSAA qualifiers is available at bit.ly/2llcCQM ADULT OUTDOOR 6v6 CO-ED LEAGUES MSeason runs 16 weeks, Mid-late May through August 0 Nights available: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 0 Skill levels: Recreational to Super-competitive 0 State-of-the-art outdoor beach courts with Hutcheson sand 0 Maximum 24 teams per night to avoid late games B u rlo a k Sports Centre - 952 C entury Dr, B u rlin g to n Contact us @ 905-631-0000 ext. 200 o r kristin@ burloaksportscentre.ca $ Team 6 2Entry 5 fM Individual Entry Prices +HST $125 B U R L O A K S P O R T S C E N T R E .C A A M A Z IN G RESULTS* HEMAZIN? 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