Boys and girls track—
17 athletes move on to regionals
This week, participants at the Division III regional track meet at Piqua High School will see a busload of athletes from Yellow Springs High School looking for a slightly more elite level of competition.
Seventeen athletes from YSHS performed well enough at last week’s Division III Dayton district meet at Welcome Stadium to qualify for the regionals, just a step away from the state championship meet.
The top four finishers in each event move on to the regionals, which started Wednesday, May 28, and finish Friday, May 30, beginning at 5 p.m., at Piqua Alexander Stadium.
“First off, when you make it to regionals, that’s four regions across the state with only 16 people in each event. You’re already 48 of the best in Ohio,” YSHS track coach John Gudgel said. “That in itself is noteworthy, and it speaks volumes about their accomplishment.”
As a team, the Yellow Springs boys finished 8th out of 13 teams, with 48.33 points in the district meet, which was held Tuesday, May 20, and Saturday, May 24. Dixie topped everyone with 84.5, followed by Twin Valley South with 78 and Cedarville with 73.
The Yellow Springs girls team scored 23 points to finish 12th out of 15 teams. Franklin-Monroe won districts with 112 points, ahead of Cedarville’s 93.
The boys 3200-relay team of Dylan Borchers, Travis Dean, David Warren and Aaron Cobb ran a 8:32.8 two-mile to win the event, finishing 10 seconds ahead of second-place finishers from Xenia Christian. The relay team made it to the state finals last year, finishing 11th, and they won’t be satisfied unless they make it at least that far again this year, Gudgel said.
“They didn’t run to the best of their ability, and they still won by a substantial margin,” he said. “They didn’t have much competition, but that will change [Wednesday].”
Evin Wimberly also finished in first place, leaping 16' 43/4" in her strongest event, the long jump. She also won by a wide margin, outjumping the second-place finisher from Twin Valley South by more than four inches.
“She jumped well, but she feels she can improve upon her performance,” Gudgel said.
Distance runner Tina Peters qualified in two events, finishing second in the 3200-run in 13:03.4 and fourth in the 1600.
Another distance runner, Rory Hotaling, had a parallel performance, finishing a close second in the 3200 with a time of 10:15.15, just over a second behind the winner from Southeastern.
Borchers finished third in the 800 meter, in 2:02.57.
Two other boys relay teams qualified for regionals: the 1600 relay team came in third with a time of 3:31.04, while the 400 relay team finished fourth.
The large number of past YSHS athletes who have made it to state and won in certain events has led current students to wonder if this year’s performance, with 17 athletes advancing to regionals, was one of the worst ever, Gudgel said.
“I said, ‘What? No, this is great. We’re taking a busload of kids down there when some schools would be happy to have one person competing,’ ” he said. “They seem to battle the achievements of the past.”

—Lauren Heaton

Another summer of tee-ball—
Perry League season opener
By Jimmy Chesire
Perry League, Yellow Springs’ tee-ball program, opens its 2003 season Friday, June 6, at 6:30 p.m., in Gaunt Park.
It’s the village’s noncompetitive beginners baseball program for girls and boys ages 2 to 9; 2- and 3-year-olds are welcome if accompanied on the diamond by an adult. There are no fees, no sign-ups, no registration and no requirement to play every week.
If you have a tornadic 2-year-old, a tantalizing 3-year-old, a fantastic 4-year-old, a fiercely loyal 5-year-old, a sensible, sane 6-year-old, a sometimes surly 7-year-old, an atypical 8-year-old or a naturally nutty and noble 9-year-old, then we have a program for you.
We’ve got bats, balls, gloves and the beautiful Gaunt Park baseball diamonds. All you need is the inclination — and that remarkable child. Bring her out. Bring him out. We’ll be out there hooting and a hollering, racing round the diamonds, playing in the dirt. We’ll be stretching and bending and doing some push-ups. We’ll be batting and throwing and zooming after ground balls. We’ll be showing off our recently lost teeth, bragging about our new gloves and having a most splendiferous and mugglelicious time every Friday, all summer long, June 6 through Aug. 8, 6:30–8 p.m.
We try to keep it simple. We try to have fun. And we’re serious about keeping it noncompetitive. There are no outs, no runs, no scores and no one ever strikes out in the Perry League: you get a thousand strikes in tee-ball. Every child gets a chance to field and to bat a couple of times each evening.
The first 120 kids to show up get a free cap and a chance to buy the 2003 edition of the Perry League t-shirt. We’re part of the Yellow Springs Recreation Board, whose United Way funds — which come through the good work of the Yellow Springs Community Council — get us started each summer. Donations from parents, grandparents, friends of the program and the kids themselves — plus the sale of t-shirts — allow us to pay back the Recreation Board and pay for the program ourselves.
We welcome all the community’s children, regardless of race, color, creed, national origin, ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, ability or disability. And we work at being tender, patient, kind and loving to them all.
So, what do ya say? Any whirling dervishes out there? Any wild and wonderful children out there with energy to burn? Any rambunctious rascals reveling in the undiluted joy of life? Any beautiful banshees bursting with an unbelievable zest for life, looking for an interesting way to spend a Friday evening? Well, Perry League may be just what the doctor ordered. So why don’t you give us a try? We’d love to have ya.
For more information, call Jimmy Chesire, 767-7300, Pat or Jeannine Partee, 767-4841, or Chris Murphy, 767-7408.