May 24, 2007

sports

Bulldog sports roundup

Distance runners advance
Yellow Springs High School senior Sam Borchers broke his second Division III state record this season in the 800-meter run at the Dayton district meet on Saturday, May 19. Less than an hour after winning the mile race at districts in 4:20, Borchers crashed through the finish of the 800 in 1:52:20 and surpassed the two-year-old mark of 1:53.33 set by Tom Andriko, of Warren Lordstown High School. The number two 800-meter runner in the state, Jason Wetzel from Dayton Christian, finished six seconds behind Borchers.

Both wins qualify Borchers for the regional meet, which begins with preliminaries on Wednesday, May 23, at 4 p.m., followed by finals on Friday, May 25, at 5 p.m. Both events take place in Piqua.

Borchers’ teammates in the 3200 relay, Alexis Onfroy-Curley, Andy Peters and Evan Firestone, also advanced to regionals after winning the district race in 8:19.20. Three of those runners advanced to regionals in individual district events, including senior Evan Firestone, who finished second to Walt Luttrell’s new district record in the 3200-meter run with a new personal record of 9:36.83 and the second fastest time in YSHS history. Other Bulldogs to advance were junior Andy Peters, who finished fourth in the 1600-meter run, and Onfroy-Curley, who finished fourth in the 800-meter run with a personal record of 2:01.

The YSHS boys team finished seventh out of 16 teams at the district meet. The top four finishers in each event qualified for regionals. The 1600-meter relay team of Onfroy-Curley, Ron Cobb, Anthony Pettiford and Borchers finished fifth, just one place shy of qualifying.

The YSHS girls track and field team also finished in seventh place. In the 200-meter run, Kristen Foster finished seventh and Leslie Holland took eighth place. The girls 400-meter and 800-meter relay teams qualified for finals, but did not compete due to the absence of several team members.

Chen ends run at districts
On Wednesday morning, May 16, Olivia Chen, the lone YSHS tennis player to advance to the Division II district tournament, lost 6–1,6–0 to Joey Fritz, the third seed from Cincinnati Country Day, who finished second in the Cincinnati section.

Spring sports awards ceremony for YSHS

The Yellow Springs High School spring sports awards ceremony will be held on Friday, June 1, beginning at 7 p.m. in the high school gym. The athletes of the spring sports track, tennis, baseball and softball will be honored.

Sea Dogs swim team registration

Parents and guardians can meet the coaches, purchase team swimwear and sign their kids up for summer swimming on Monday, June 4, 5:30–7 p.m., in the Yellow Springs High School cafeteria.

The Sea Dogs official season begins June 11, at Gaunt Park pool, times for practices to be announced.

Preseason, indoor practice is currently taking place at the Antioch College pool every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 6 to 7 p.m. Preseason practice is included in the price of registration for the team. Payment of fees is expected at the time of registration and are $75 for individuals and $100 for families. Scholarships are available.

For more information, call Aida Merhemic at 767-9280 or Naomi Orme 767-2441.

T-ball welcomes one and all

Perry League, Yellow Springs’ happy, hilarious, high-spirited T-ball program, opens its 2007 season Friday night, June 1, at 6:30 p.m. in Gaunt Park. We’re the village’s noncompetitive beginners’ baseball program for girls and boys ages 2–9. Two- and three-year-olds are welcome if accompanied on the diamond by an adult. There are no fees, no sign-ups, no registrations, and no requirement to play every week. Come when you can, come when you like. We will play on 10 consecutive Friday nights, June 1 through Aug. 3, and you can begin on any of those 10 nights, up to and including our final potluck trophy night, Aug. 3.

If you’ve got one of these remarkable creatures in your life, one of those Hi-Energy Love Beings – aka toddlers, pre-schoolers, kindergartners, and kids in their most remarkable middle childhood — and if that creature is frequently flinging him- or herself about; or if that little miracle can be frequently found roaring around in raptures we adults can only scratch our heads at; or if that child resembles as often as not a rocket fired off on the Fourth of July, that kid veritably exploding with an overabundance of something — zeal? passion? early dementia? — then we may have just what the doctor ordered: an exuberant, joyous (and some might say mildly demented) T-ball program.

We’ve got bats, balls, and gloves (gloves: something many of our darling young charges find clunky, obstreperous, mysterious, and as often as not, totally useless, which, of course, is okay with us). We’ve also got both the beautiful Gaunt Park baseball diamonds every Friday night for the rest of the summer. All you need is the time and inclination — and one of those passionate creatures. Bring her out. Bring him out. We’ll be out there, ready and willing, dedicated to having a good time. You’ll find us lining up on the third base line and then running out to right field where we’ll do our own very peculiar brand of calisthenics — doing one thousand seven hundred eleventeen million push ups; one million hundred twelve thousand two jumping jacks — and making as much noise as possible.

We try to keep it simple, and are serious about keeping it noncompetitive — There are no outs in T-ball, no runs, no scores, and no one ever strikes out in the Perry League: you get a thousand strikes in T-ball. We do everything we can to make it fun for everyone, male or female, young or old, gay or straight, black, brown, red, yellow or white.

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, you all ready to play a little T-ball? Ready for another fantabulous season? Yes? Yes? Yes! Then come on out to Gaunt Park, Friday, June 1. We’ll be out there from 6:30-8 p.m. doing whatever we can to make it a wonderful experience for us all. For more information call Jimmy Chesire, 767-7300, or Chris Murphy, 767-7408.