Bits and Pieces 16 

  Happy New Year to everyone. It's good to back and recharged for what will be a very busy 2001.
  The first Tower Hill meet of the year was held yesterday the 6th and I went over to see what was going on. This time I didn't have the video camera with me (I'll wait for states to tape) so it was just some basic observations and some conversations.
  Brandywine's Ivan Schmidt handily won the high jump competition with a leap of 6'6". That wouldn't normally be a great leap for him, but it was the first time he had high-jumped since last summer. Now that's pretty frightening. I asked Schmidt where he was going to school next year and he seemed to be leaning towards Penn State. He thought he might be able to start on the football team as wide receiver and also perform with the track team. If that could be the case, then by all means he should sign there. When he does, we'll report it here.
  Christiana's Danielle Bailey is in mid-season form. The senior sprinter, headed to Seton Hall in New Jersey next year, won the 55, 200, and 400 meter dashes. Her 55 time was 7.13 just off her own mark of 7.04. The win in the 400 was perhaps most notable because she beat Dover's Camie Baker, who normally wins this event, by nearly four seconds.
  Brandywine featured a new freshman to keep an eye on. Aysha Gregory took a fourth place in the 55 and a second place in the shot put. Gregory might have beaten Glasgow's Kim Chase on her last throw had she not fouled on an over 40 foot toss. Gregory was also sixth in the 200.
  Dover's Jason Lilly was a double winner but not a surprise. He took the 200 and 400 with ease. He is the current 400 meter state indoor record holder and is just a junior. 
  It was nice to see staff writer Laurens Maliepaard take a fifth in the 400 wiht a 55.53 just under five seconds behind Lilly. Laurens also took a third in the 55 hurdles behind Dover's Odun Balogun and Christianas Quinn Martin. 
  Glasgow's Kamilah Salaam is back on track this year after missing the Spring track season. The Sophomore took the hurdles and finished second to Bailey in the 50 yard dash.
  Ace Reporter Dana Anderson ran in her first 4 x 400 relay race for Brandywine. It was an experience she will recall for quite some time I'm sure. One that will make her appreciate softball and field hockey even more from what she tells me.
  There was a surprise winner in the boy's shot put. Woodbridge's Josh Judy edged out Isaac Wolkowicz from Newark by an inch. Wolkowicz was the state champ outdoors last Spring. Judy also took a fourth in the hurdles.
  I was disappointed that Salesianum didn't enter their "A" team in the 4 x 800 race that was won easily by the defending champions from St. Marks. I thought it was also interesting that both schools made camp on opposite ends of the field house. 
  Salesianum's Jim Delgrosso made his return to the indoor track. Jim was injured during soccer season in 1999 and made only a token appearance during the outdoor season after missing the entire indoor year. Delgrosso is a talented hurdler and high jumper who uses a unique five step approach to the high jump. His 5'10" fifth place jump had some onlookers questioning the short approach. What they might not have noticed was the group of young women who gather around this good looking kid in between jumps. My thought was that the five-step approach wasn't the problem.
  Automatic timing systems seemed to slow down the meet yesterday. The girl's meet was scheduled to end by 1:30 but didn't get done until 2:30 or so. But that's still not too bad for the first meet of the year and it's nice to get a more accurate time for all the races.
   
  It was off to St. Marks to watch the 4th ranked Raiders of Ursuline and the 3rd ranked Spartans of St. Marks compete in Newark. The game...yes 3rd and 4th ranked teams...was interesting and entertaining with the Raiders pulling out a 48-44 win.
  The Spartans simply lack height. With three of Ursuline's starters at 5"10, 5'11", the Raiders quickly dominated the boards and ran off 11 straight points. The Spartans finally brought in the 6' Kelly Papili who made an instant impact to stop the flow of Raider points. The Spartans have also missed Kristin Sullivan (5'11") with a crack in her spine. (That's gotta hurt I would think...I'll go ask Danae Chambers from Wilmington Christian)
  Michelle Albanese then poured in eight points to make the score Ursuline 11, Albanese 8 before other Spartans chipped and ran their point scoring streak to 15. 
  The story of this game, besides the height, was the play of Raider freshman Kate Mills. She played with composure and grace late in the game even while triple and even, during one play, quadruple teamed but still scored the key late-game baskets to end up with a Raider high 16 points. 
  Alexis Henderson, who recently scored her 1000th career point, scored 13, but didn't seem to be much of a force. The other Raider forward Eileen Webster also had a big game defensively and scored 11 points of her own. 
  Albanese finished with 20 points to lead St. Marks and the 5'2" inch guard even had a blocked shot...of 5'1" Ursuline guard Sarah Boltz' last-second half-court shot at the end of the first half.
  There was a decent crowd at St. Marks for this midseason Catholic Conference rivalry. I couldn't count past 100 though so it was anyone's guess from there.

  Sallies sports fans who read this site know that I don't think much of their football team but that's not the case about their swim team. Every time they hit the water someone rewrites the honor roll. It doesn't seem to matter what combination of relay team that new head coach Chip Hanning sends out there either. All three relays have at least three different Sallie relay combinations in the top five. 
  The anticipated match with McKean was a blow out, 114-54, but that wasn't a surprise at all because the Sals swim team always gets up for big meets and McKean has been hurt the past two years by graduations and a lack of incoming talent.
  The Sals have broken state meet team point records in the past two years and I would figure them to do it again this year because they should take more individual honors along with three wins in the relays.

  There was a diving invitational that I was totally unaware of at St. Andrews yesterday. I wish I had known because I would have taped it for the TV show.
  The top five finishers were 1st- Kim Rusk AI Dupont
2nd- Melissa Calder Saint Andrews
3rd- Joanne Hunt Concord
4th- Heidi Johnson Tower Hill
5th- Katie Morton Christiana

  Please feel free to send schedules to my attention either via e-mail or by fax. Our new fax number is 302-731-0167.
  
  If you are aware of an impending milestone by any local high school or college athlete, please drop us a line so we can try to capture the moment on tape for the television show. Milestones that are based on accumulated accomplishments are what we are trying to capture; 1000 points in a basketball career, 100 coaching wins, 100 goals in soccer, or events of that nature are what I'm referring to here.

  The Delaware Sportswriters and Broadcasters Association met yesterday to select winners for the following awards: Delaware Athlete of the Year, Team of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Herm Reitzes award for outstanding service to sports. 
  Unfortunately I can't reveal who won, but the winners are all deserving and we'll talk about them here a little later on.
  I can say that the Athlete of the Year, which will be given out at the DSBA banquet which also honors the all-state football team, has not been given to a high school athlete since the 1950's (I think I heard our president Chuck Durante correctly). I found that surprising for sure since I cover high school sports. The winners have often gone to athletes from Delaware, or at the college level (like at the U of D or DE State). I guess that's fine, but I left the meeting wondering why some of these fine writers and broadcasters are so enamored with athletic endeavors outside our borders. And there is always some horse jockey who gets votes which blows me away and, I'm sorry, but jockeys, bowlers, and golfers will never get my vote for an "athlete" of anything award.
  Well, that's one reason we created the Delaware Sports Athlete of the Year anyway. This way we can almost be certain that a high school athlete can earn some sort of ultimate recognition. 

Marshal Manlove