April 10, 2008

sports

Bulldog Sports

Tennis team on a roll
With a steady third singles player and an elegant team with strong resolve, the Yellow Springs tennis squad turned out two wins against Xenia Christian and Cedarville and a loss to Miami Valley in the opening week of play.

The Bulldogs brooked no losses against the Xenia Christian Ambassadors on Tuesday, April 1, winning all five matches handily. Olivia Chen swept through her first set 6–3, dropped a close second 6–7 and came back to take the third 6–4. Alex Turner had an easier time at second singles, cleaning up 6–2, 6–1, as did third singles wonder Zeke Hardman, who without fanfare gave up just one game to his opponent. At first doubles the foreign exchange duo Julika Ruf from Germany and Amy Dibenedetto of Italy won 6–3, 6–0, and the second doubles team of Francesco Amighetti and Adisson Pettiford had an even easier time winning theirs.

It was a different story against Miami Valley on Wednesday, April 2, and the Bulldogs were outmatched 4–1. Chen lost a close three setter 4–6, 6–3, 7–5 at first singles, as the Rams felled second singles, and both doubles teams in straight sets. But Hardman held out on the third singles court to bring home the day’s only win at 6–4, 6–2.

The game against Waynesville started out with Hardman taking his court, but the match was suspended due to rain and will be continued on Friday, April 11.

Finally, against Cedarville on Monday, April 7, Yellow Springs was clearly the stronger team and managed a clean 5–0 win. On the singles courts, Chen, Turner and Hardman hardly had time to warm up before their games were won. Dibenedetto and Ruf had a similar experience at first doubles. Though Amighetti and Max Buchwalder had a tougher second doubles match, they were able to pull out a 6–3, 5–7, 7–6 (7–4) win.

“Cedarville is actually a solid team, they’re a big team, and we just kind of rolled through them,” Coach Joshua Mabra said Tuesday, somewhat impressed by his own players. After the first week of watching his team in action, Mabra is excited about the season ahead.

“Zeke is our steady number three who will wear everybody down, and we’ve got a new second doubles team now,” he said. “We can compete with the top teams, and as the season goes on we’ll only get better.”

Distancers lead track team
The Yellow Springs High School boys track team opened the spring season with an eighth-place finish out of 16 teams with 33 points at the Tippecanoe Relays on Tuesday, April 1. Springfield Shawnee was first, and Dayton Dunbar finished second in a meet that consisted mostly of Division I schools. The YSHS girls team finished 16th out of 17 teams.

In the 33rd Versailles Invitational (boys only) on Saturday, April 5, Yellow Springs finished fourth out of eight teams with 90 points. Minster was the winner with New Bremen the runner-up.

At Tippecanoe, the YSHS distance runners lead the boys team with two first place finishes in the 3200-meter relay and the distance medley. Alexis Onfroy, Jacob GunderKline, Brock GunderKline and Andy Peters swept through the 3200 in 8:38.5, while a similar team of Onfroy, Anthony Pettiford, Jacob GunderKline and Peters took the medley in 11:30.7.

Ryan Newsome and David Ingham tied for fourth place in the high jump event, and the 800-meter relay team of Ron Cobb, Ryan Newsome, Raphael Allen and Asa Casenhiser finished fifth.

Seventh-place finishes went to the 400-meter relay team of Cobb, Casenhiser, Mario Cosey and Robert Harden, and the 1600-meter relay team of Pettiford, Austin Bailey, Onfroy and Peters.

The shuttle hurdle relay team of Josh Meadows, Bailey, Nick Sontag and Allen finished in eighth place.

For the girls, the 800-meter relay team of Natasha Perry, Brenda Jones, Gina Laurens and Leslie Holland finished sixth in 2:04.3. The distance medley team of Allison Berry, Elizabeth Gonder, Olivia Gaughan and Ellen Swisher finished in eighth place.

At Versailles, the boys distance runners led again with two first-place finishes for Peters, who finished the 800 in 2:04 and the 1600 in 4:39.3. Jacob GunderKline also took the 3200-meter run in 10:17.1.

Onfroy took three second-place finishes, including the 800 meter (2:04.1), the 1600 meter (4:39.6), and the 3200 relay, with teammates Jacob GunderKline, Brock GunderKline and Peters.

Ryan Newsome earned fourth place in the high jump with 5’10, and the long jump with 18’1. Fourth-place finishes also went to the 400 relay team of Cobb, Newsome, Allen and Harden; the 1600 relay team of Onfroy, Pettiford, Harden and Peters; and to Brock GunderKline in the 3200-meter run.

Ron Cobb took fifth in the 200 meters, while Harden took sixth in the 100 meters and Pettiford took sixth in 400 meters. Rapheal Allen took eighth in the long jump.

Strong efforts were turned in by Josh Meadows, Steve Scott, and Ernest Edwards. The coaches have been pleased with the team concept that the team has displayed this year.

Wet start for baseball
The Bulldog baseball team braved the wet and cold last week to stay with opening week’s schedule against Troy Christian, Southeastern and Dayton Christian. After a 11–3 loss for the JV squad against Troy on Tuesday, April 1, the varsity team took a spill against Southeastern 11–1 on Wednesday, April 2, and the team lost again to Dayton 7–4 on Thursday.

Yellow Springs’ JV team jumped out to a 2–0 lead against Troy on an error and hits by Cory Daniels and Jamie Kitzmiller. The Eagles came back with 9 runs in the first on four errors, two hits and four walks. Lucas Donnell came in to stop the rally and threw a two-hitter the rest of the way.

Wednesday’s game began with a scoreless first inning, but hits by Ben Armstrong and Ethan Brown put Yellow Springs up 1–0 in the second. In the bottom of the frame the Trojans got three hits and Yellow Springs made two errors to make the score 3–1. In the third Southeastern put together five hits to up the lead to 7–1 on their way to the win.

Against Dayton the Bulldogs again jumped out ahead when Kilan Brown singled, stole second, went to third on an error and scored on Kevin Sikes-Gilbert’s first hit. But like the previous games, the Warriors came back to score six runs in a miserable drizzle by getting four hits, two walks and an error. The Bulldogs revived themselves in the fourth, scoring three runs with a single from Brown and a double from Sikes-Gilbert. But Dayton scored again in the fourth to end it. Sikes-Gilbert had three RBI for the game, and Tyler Fox had a double.