Congratulations to the Ridley girls first basketball team on capturing the bronze medal at the 2010 OFSAA ‘A’ Championships this past weekend!
Trailing 31-28 with under a minute left in the final bronze medal game Tiger Co-Captain Charlotte Clarke stole the ball at mid-court and ran the rest in for an uncontested layin that brought Ridley within 1 point of the lead. Two missed foul shots by opponent Sacre-Couer gave Coach Whitty an opportunity to call his final timeout with 14.1 seconds left on the clock. Ridley Co-Captain Ainsley Camroux-Peacock drove down the floor and missed her initial jump shot, but with only 3 seconds left in the game managed to get her own rebound and connect on an off-balance jump shot at the buzzer securing a 32-31 win and the bronze medal for Ridley! The team finishes the season with an impressive overall record of 21 wins and 5 losses.
Meanwhile, the first girls hockey team travelled to Detroit, Michigan Friday for the Belle Tire North American Friendship Tournament. The tiny team played 5 games in 3 days, and most skaters logged over 30 minutes of ice time each game. Goaltenders Karlyle Robinson and Allie Mitchell performed admirably in net, and the support from the small group of parents who traveled was greatly appreciated.
Ridley faced hometown powerhouse Belle Tire in the Championship game. Seniors Rylee Mezzarobba and Emily Van Diepen delighted the crowd with the singing of “O Canada” to start the game. Sarah Robichaud had the hot hand on the weekend, and put Ridley on the scoreboard first (Cox, MacNeil). Belle Tire managed to score with just 52 second left in the period to tie it at one.
The score remained deadlocked, with the Tigers having a few strong scoring opportunities. Late in the second period, Robichaud stole the puck at center ice and dashed in on a breakaway. The Belle Tire goalie had to come up with a miraculous save to deny the Tigers the lead.
Fatigue crept up on Ridley at the end of the third period and the Tigers found themselves in penalty trouble. Down 2 players for the remaining 4 minutes of the game, Belle Tire was able to convert on the 5 on 3 advantage with just 1:25 remaining in the period.
The Tigers came up short, but only on the scoreboard. The ladies return to Ridley as silver medalists.
The VEX Robotics team was also on the road travelling to Toronto this past weekend for a tournament where 60 teams from schools across Ontario competed. One of our teams piloted by Tyler Porter, won 5 matches in the round robin and finished 3rd out of 60 teams, a remarkable effort. In the competition round that followed, our scouts, led by Cheryl Wong, enabled us to ally ourselves with a team from Governor Simcoe, one of only two machines to have finished 6-0. Fate has twisted humour, however, and after winning the quarter finals, our team 1509B lost to the eventual winner in the semi-finals. Our gifted alliance partner had a mechanical fault and only scored 10 points instead of the usual 30. We lost by 7! That said, we finished the tournament in 3rd spot, a fabulous result. The great news is that we won the skills challenge, posting the best score out of all 60 teams. Team 1509R scored 83 points. The next best was 68. This win means we have qualified this machine for the World Championships in April, this year hosted by ESPN sports and held at Disney.
It was an exhausting day. Thanks to all who participated and helped get us ready, but special thanks to Mr. McCambley who served as a team mentor leading up to and during the contest.