AGSI Flyers at the Provincial Cross-Country Championships
Saturday, October 24, 2009 – LaSalle Park, Burlington, Ontario

The AGSI Flyers came off a successful track and field season to turn up the heat one of their final meets of the year, an overcast Saturday in Burlington for the Minor Track Associations Provincial Cross-Country Championships.  The Flyers did extremely well capturing top three provincial team finishes in the Mite Boys (2nd), Tyke Girls (3rd), and Atom Girls (2nd) divisions.  The flyers had 4 top ten finishes with Jillian Knowles (pictured bottom left) having the top individual performance of the day finishing fourth in the Mite Girls race.  The depth of the athletes that have been training with the Flyers’ team has increased significantly over the first three years of the team.
The Mite Boys results had the Hamilton Hammerheads in 1st with 35pts, AGSI Flyers 2nd with 39pts, and just one point behind was Brantford Legion with 40pts.  The races come down to who is toughest in the final stretch and this was no more evident today than when Mathew Swan (pictured left top) squeaked into 12th place holding off one of his competitors in the final straightaway.  The Mite Boys team was led to the finish line today by Michael Hamilton who had a great top ten finish in 7th place and the scoring was rounded out by fellow teammate Justin Siriska in 20th.  A great day for this team finishing with the Silver medal!
The Flyers had 15 Tyke Girls toe the line to start the race today.  The race went out nice and fast with the Flyers Meaghan Hector and Rachel Carson in 1st and 2nd place respectively.  They setup a great tough pace for the field to try to keep up with however after about 400 meters Meghan was unable to continue the race due to illness, so it was hugely important for her remaining teammates to pick up those ever valuable top finishes to still give themselves a chance at the team title.  These girls battled hard today finishing in third place in the Province with St. John’s from Toronto in 1st with 18pts, South Simcoe Dufferin (Barrie Area) 2nd with 33 pts and our own Halton Hills team in 3rd with 34 pts.  The picture (left middle) includes Eden Alchin, Cassidy Korohonen, Lindsay Quinn, and the Sippel sisters Meghan and Allison who were working their way through the other competitors with just over half the race to complete.

The Flyers Atom Girls team, having lost one of our top runners due to an injury, knew they would have to step-it-up to even have a go at the gold medal.  This race turned into a shootout for the win, right off the gun Mackenzie Cameron went into the lead group and started the hopes for the team, Hannah Scott who had flu like symptoms prior to the start of the race, pushed all those thoughts out of her mind and ran to keep the leaders close until she could use her strength of hill running and then she moved hard towards the front of the field finishing in 7th place overall.  Mackenzie who started cramping very hard was running through the pain to the finish and Maddie Shiell had her best race of the year to help the team by continuing to pass competitors right through the finish line catching and passing at least 10 competitors in the final 150 meters.  By the end of the scoring South Simcoe Dufferin had won the Provincials with 41pts, followed closely by our own Flyers with 44pts, and then the Brooklyn Cheetas from Whitby had 54pts.  This will be an extremely tough team next year with most of the girls remaining in this age division.
Our Senior Girls Team had to withdraw from the competition due to illness, as most of the girls were suffering from the flu.  They will have another shot at the next age division up from the Minors, running in the Athletics Ontario Provincials Championships in three weeks time.
Our Senior boys ran well today with a Personal Best on the course and a spectacular finish by Mitchell Krafczek who has improved his time by a minute this year alone over the same distance to record a 25th place finish.  Maclean Shiell who has been competing all year for the high school came out and ran a very impressive race to finish 15th overall looking extremely strong.  Maclean will be joined by the rest of the AGSI Flyers Senior boys to also run in the Athletics Ontario Championships in the midget category.

Our Flyers ran extremely well and represented Halton Hills with both courage and strength under the tough conditions to secure these top team place finishes.  All team placing and individual results are provided below.

For more information about the AGSI Flyers click here to visit their site.

Field of Dreams is a Georgetown community led project to upgrade the community outdoor athletic facilities to a “state of the art” facility including artificial turf playing field, all weather running track, tights, electronic scoreboard, and spectator seating.
The project is called “Field of Dreams” for many reasons.  Although this initiative clearly started as a Dream, the most powerful of dreams is what this field will enable in the future – the dreams of a new generation of our youth.  A dedicated community based team is working hard to make our children’s dreams come true.
AGSI has donated both time, expertise and one of our webmasters to work with the Field of Dreams team to design a new website making it easier for everyone in the community to help make this dream become a reality.

For more information on the Field of Dreams and how you can help, please call (905-877-6966 Ext 475). The Field of Dreams site is currently being updated and the new link will be posted soon.

In the current economic climate, there are more and more families who are having difficulty making ends meet.  With the holiday season approaching AGSI has signed up once again to help a family in need have a happy Christmas.  This is definitely a worthy cause and something that AGSI is proud to have been participating in for many years.  Everyone has gone through hard times and sometimes all that is needed is a helping hand.  AGSI believes that these acts of kindness and generosity embrace the true spirit of the holiday season.

This year we have adopted a single parent family with two children (a boy and girl aged 10 and 11).  If you that would like to contribute gifts or non-perishable food items for our adopted family, they can be dropped off at the AGSI office.

For more information about Links2Care click here or call 905-873-6502.

AGSI is the first ever Corporate Sponsor for the Canadian Cross Country Running Championships.  This event draws more than 800 of Canada’s top running athletes to compete for the few available spots on Canada’s National Team.  Two of our executive team, Geoff and Chris Cameron, who have competed in this event in the past, were both graduates and athletes of the University of Guelph.  AGSI has coordinated its donation and support for this event to match the four years that it is residing at the University of Guelph from 2007 through 2010.  AGSI’s donation goes further than just sponsoring the National team selection process, it will also help send the National team to the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships which are scheduled to be held in Bydgoszcz, Poland on 27 March, 2010.

For more information about the 2009 National Cross Country Championships click here to visit their site.