sports

Bulldog Sports Round-up

Boys basketball speeds ahead

The Yellow Springs boys varsity basketball team bested league foe Dayton Christian 64–58 on the road on Friday, Jan. 29. The Bulldogs outscored the Warriors 44–29 in the second half to remain undefeated in the Metro Buckeye Conference, with a season record of 10–1.

Ryan Newsome and Will Ripley each scored 20 points for the team.

Girls basketball falls to Lions

The YSHS girls basketball team lost 33–32 to the Emmanuel Christian Lions on Monday, Jan. 25, and then took a hard spill against Miami Valley on Thursday, Jan. 28. The girls record falls to 5–9 for the season.

The second meeting against Emmanuel did not go the Bulldogs’ way. The teams were tied at 15 at the halftime. Amber Dudgeon and Alex Beer scored six points each to help the Bulldogs to a narrow lead in the third quarter. But Yellow Springs lost control in the fourth, and a last-second attempt to save the game failed, sealing the loss. Dudgeon led the team with 12 points, followed by Maryah Martin with 10. 

Yellow Springs suffered their fifth straight loss to Miami Valley, 47–24. The second quarter was the beginning of the end for the Lady Bulldogs, whose turnovers and missed opportunities helped Miami Valley build a halftime lead of 29–13. In the second half the Lady Bulldogs continued playing to the tune of 26 turnovers for the game. Martin led the team with 10 points, followed by Beer’s nine.

Swimmers at MBC meet

The YSHS swim team competed in the Metro Buckeye Conference meet over the weekend and brought home titles in the girls 200 freestyle and 100 backstroke.

Sophomore Erika Chick won the girls 200-yard freestyle event in 2:02.19, beating the next finisher by over 20 seconds. Chick also easily took the 100-butterfly title in 1:04.06.

Sophomore Elizabeth Malone set a new personal record and handily won the 100-yard backstroke in 1:04.78. She fought for the 50-yard freestyle to finish .33 seconds behind the winner from Dayton Christian.

Katie Triplett finished seventh in the 200 free, while Mary Triplett finished ninth in the 100 free and seventh in the 100 breaststroke, just ahead of Kelsey Cundiff in eighth place.

Mills Lawn KTC basketball

The Mills Lawn Youth KTC basketball squads took on the Clinton Massie Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 30, and Wilmington on Sunday, Jan. 31, both at home.

Against Clinton Massie, the sixth-grade girls lost 5–41, while the sixth-grade boys stretched out a 31–23 victory, with Rodman Allen scoring 14 points and J.T. Clark adding muscle to shut down the Falcon offense. The fifth-grade girls lost to the Lady Falcons 6–24, with Annie Welsh providing the defensive back bone and scoring two points, three rebounds. The fifth-grade boys team lost 23–47, with Augie Knemeyer scoring 16 points. The fourth-grade boys fell 14–27. Andrew Clark had seven points, and Jayme Johnson had six.

Against Wilmington, the sixth-grade girls lost 13–25 against the Lady Hurricanes, with Kaliyah Fulton scoring eight points, while the sixth-grade boys struggled to a 30–50 loss. The fifth-grade girls lost a heartbreaker 21–22 — Yellow Springs was up by one point with 58 seconds on the clock when they gave up two points to the Hurricanes’ defensive press. Mariah Roe scored a season high 15 points. Augie Knemeyer lead the fifth-grade boys with 10 points in a 14–24 loss, while the fourth-grade boys fell 16–33.

League play continues at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 6, at South Charleston Middle School, and at home at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 7, against Cedarville.

Erika Chick led the girls 200-yard medley relay at the Shawnee Meet at Wittenberg on Sunday, Jan. 24.

Two local swimmers aim for state

By Kelsey Cundiff

Imagine a place where the air is hot and humid and the water is ice cold. The smell of chlorine fills the air along with the sounds of splashing water, buzzers, bells and sometimes even guns echoing through the natatorium. Hundreds of people, from swimmers, coaches, timers, officials and spectators, line the pool deck and bleachers. This describes a typical swim meet, and for Yellow Springs High School swimmers Elizabeth Malone and Erika Chick, this is a normal environment in which to spend almost every weekend of the winter.

What makes Malone and Chick stand out among the rest is the level of performance they have already reached at a young age, as well as their choice to remain in a small school district. In small districts it is sometimes hard to find outstanding athletes, who tend to move to larger districts where they believe they will be noticed by college scouts and have greater competition. That does not hold true, though, for Malone and Chick. Both sophomores, they have had great success so far in their careers, and they are only just beginning.

Born in Springfield, Malone has been swimming most of her life, starting lessons at age 3 and joining the Springfield YMCA swim team at age 7. Malone grew up around swimming. Her two older sisters, Jen and Marjorie Malone, also swam through high school, and Jen went on to swim in college. Malone followed in their footsteps, swimming butterfly, and wants to continue swimming in college. She is already looking around at a few, such as Michigan State University and Kenyon. Malone moved to Yellow Springs the summer before her sixth-grade year and she likes smaller schools compared to bigger ones. She says that “it doesn’t really matter what size school you go to, it’s more about your club team” in regards to getting noticed by colleges, and Malone is definitely getting noticed.

Last year she qualified to compete in the YMCA Short Course Nationals, swimming the 100-yard and 200-yard butterfly and individual medley events in Ft. Lauderdale. She just recently competed in the 2009 Speedo Short Course Jr. Nationals held at Ohio State University, where her Springfield YMCA 400-yard medley relay team finished 25th out of 44 teams, with Malone swimming her butterfly portion in 59.20. And she hopes to add on to this already impressive resumé of competitions by qualifying for another national meet in California this summer.

“I think about the long hours in the pool that I have dedicated to swimming and all the time my mom has spent driving me and all the money and costs,” she said, and she wants to make it all worth it by succeeding in the water.

Erika Chick is also no stranger to long hours in the pool. Born in Kettering, Chick began swim lessons at a young age and joined the local youth team, Seadogs, when she was 5 and then joined her club team, Dayton Raiders, at age 6. Unlike Malone, Chick did not have any older siblings to influence her, but she has similar goals to swim in college and also doesn’t mind the smaller school district. She came to Yellow Springs at the age of 7.

“I always went to Yellow Springs schools, and I like Yellow Springs schools and I’ve just stayed with it,” Chick said.

Chick, who competes mostly in the 200-yard and 500-yard freestyle events, hopes to win state either this year or the next and finds motivation in all the rewards that swimming brings. A recent press release from the 27th Annual Southwest Ohio High School Swimming and Diving Classic named Chick as one of about 15 swimmers to watch out of nearly 3,000 swimmers competing at the meet.

Like most endeavors, getting to the level that Malone and Chick have reached takes dedication and a raw love for the sport. Both girls spend hours every day in the pool training for their events. Swim meets can last for entire weekends, including the sometimes 13-hour events and days of travel on either end. They wake up at hours most teenagers would never fathom to get to the meet site in time for warm-ups. Then they spend the rest of their day waiting for their events. All of the hours they have spent training comes down to a few minutes in the water.

According to YSHS swimming coach Naomi Witt, the determination it takes to succeed is rare.

“The fierce level of dedication it takes to want to get up at 5 a.m. in the morning for practices — but also the drain on your body that it takes to swim 8,000 yards a day — it really is a commitment to saying ‘I’m not going to do anything else in my life but swimming,’” Witt explained. “That dedication is making them as good as they are, and they really do love it.”

Both Malone and Chick made it to the Division II state finals last year as freshmen representing YSHS and held their own among some of the state’s best. Malone placed fifth in the 100-yard butterfly and 11th in the 200 IM. Chick finished fourth in the 200-yard free and seventh in the 500-yard free. But they haven’t let that success go to their heads. In a recent meet, according to Witt, an official complimented Malone and Chick on being polite and respectful and not letting themselves become over-confident.

It cannot be said what the future holds for these two young swimmers, but their impressive swimming careers will not be ending anytime soon.

* The writer is a junior at Yellow Springs High School who is interning at the News.

Bulldog white-out

All students who come to the boys basketball games against Miami Valley on Friday, Feb. 5, are invited to take a free white tee-shirt and cheer from the Dog Pound for a white-out at that game and all other games for the remainder of the season. Tee-shirts will be distributed during the JV game, which starts at 6 p.m.