Bits and Pieces 19 

   Let's deal with the Caesar Rodney wrestling team first this week. Yes, I am aware that they are probably the team to beat. Their 54-10 win over Hodgson was a major victory for the Riders and now that William Penn has knocked off St. Marks straight up, Rider fans believe they are the team that should be ranked number one here as they are in the News Journal.
  I'm not really in disagreement. But, let's face facts here. The Colonials ARE the defending state champions and haven't been beaten on the mat head-to-head in quite some time AND they have been a better tournament team so far this year. 
  AND just go back to the Bits and Pieces archives #17 of last week to read a little more in depth about what I think of the Colonials and you will understand why they are number one here right now. 
  It's as simple as this....the Colonials have earned the number one spot and they should have been there from day one this year and they will stay there until they are beaten head-to-head. So let's just live with that for now. I wouldn't be surprised if Caesar Rodney could take the Colonials out, but they haven't had the chance to yet. But Rider fans shouldn't be surprised if William Penn takes them out either. After all, remember the Sussex Central match in the dual meet states just two years ago. That 70-something regular-season Henlopen Conference streak didn't mean anything that day.
  Which reminds me that the Riders still need to get past Sussex Central this Friday night IN G-town. I am going to do my best to get there to tape the match for the show, but I can't promise that it will happen.

  Someone asked me the other day if it was fun to watch a girl's swim meet. That might have been the dumbest question ever asked of me, but there is no such thing as a dumb question in my book, so the simple answer was "yes, it's fun." It's fun to watch any number one and number two team go to battle as Newark and St. Marks did in the pool last Friday.
  The Spartans put their 138 meet win streak on the line against a talented group of Yellowjackets lead by one of my favorite athletes, Cassie Connell. 
  The Spartans were perhaps more worried about this meet than any other in the past few years, and rightfully so. Not only did they know that Connell was good for two wins by herself, they also now had to contend with freshman star Christy Williams and Amber Walker. Williams and Walker would also win two individual races during the meet that evening and Newark would sweep the three relays as well. That gave Newark nine wins out of eleven races, but they would come up a little short and fall 99-87.
  The Spartans were just too deep. Scoring in these meets goes as follows; a team gets 6 points for first in an individual race, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth. There are no points for sixth. In the relays, a team get 8 points for a win, 4 for a second, and 2 for a third. The Spartans took those seconds and thirds in the relays and most of the other second and thirds in the individuals as well to keep them close. 
  They took key wins in diving while taking a second and fifth, and also won in the 500 free which was enough to pull it out. Alesha Hruska was the winning diver and Austin Enderle won the 500.
  But this wasn't decided until the next to last race. The second relay, the 200 freestyle relay went to the wire, and initially the Spartans lane was called as the winner. But the lanes were hand held and Amber Walker was judged to have out-touched Sarah Stephens at the last split second and Newark won the race. (The video tape we shot proved Newark did win by the way.)
  The Spartans were clearly shaken at poolside after the call was reversed. All the veteran swimmers, including co-captain Stephens, were behind each of their fellow swimmers before the starts of the 100 backstroke and 100 breastsroke to remind them what was at stake. 
  Katie Kuczmarski stepped up for St. Marks and won the 100 breaststroke and sealed the win in the next to last race, which was the Yellowjackets third relay win.
  So this will set up a very interesting state championship in a couple of weeks. Again, the Spartans will have to rely on their depth. Scoring goes down 16 places at States which will benefit St. Marks for sure.
  Even though Newark looks like they could pull out three relay state championships, it's Caesar Rodney who has two of the three fastest times in the state, and Brandywine will surface near the top there also.
  Yes, it's fun to watch those meets. It's loud, it's spirited, it's all that and a bag of chips...for me anyway.

  Speaking of Stephens'. Sandy Stephens, a graduate of St. Marks, and a freshman at the University of Delaware, broke the school record in the 100 meter breaststroke recently. She shaved 3/4 of a second off of the mark to boot, not too shabby for a freshman.
  Take a look at some of those UD pool times the next time you at their pool. Many of our high school swimmers have marks that contend, if not even beat, those times. Erin Mulshenock from William Penn, Connell, Kaitlyn Brady from Mt. Pleasant are a few that could swim for the Blue Hens right now and make them a better team.

  The same thing goes for Indoor Track and Field. Ivan Schmidt would be the school's top high jumper. Hodgson's Mitch Ryan would have taken home a medal at the Delaware Invitational in the long jump with his recent Tower Hill leap of just over 20 feet. 
  Then there is Christiana's Danielle Bailey who broke two Tower Hill records this past week. She would be chased by many college athletes right now herself.

   But besides Bailey, and perhaps Brandywine freshman Aysha Gregory, there hasn't been too much to talk about in indoor track. The Dover teams haven't really showed up yet, so we haven't seen Jason Lilly in top form yet, and Schmidt hadn't even had a chance to practice high jumping until the day of the first Tower Hill meet. 
  Distance running is in a bit of a slump right now also. There isn't anyone blistering the track from 800 meters up although Ursuline's Colleen Taylor is pretty much unbeatable in all three distance events right now. She just hasn't been pressed at all so her times aren't that great. Let's see if she is up for a rare triple at states which I believe is February 17th.
  On the boy's side, times are high also. There isn't anyone laying claim to any sort of superiority yet and it seems as if they are just trying to make sure that they qualify for states with their main focus on that meet.
  There is the Grand Prix that they might focus on, but maybe that's not as prestigious as it looks on the outside. I did hear some talk that the Grand Prix needs to be tweaked a little bit, because sprinters have an advantage because they can run more races per meet...or something like that anyway. It seemed to make sense when I heard it initially. (For more on the Grand Prix, see N5CTA.com)

  Ok, that's enough for now. Two big wrestling matches this weekend, the one in G-town and then William Penn and Hodgson on Saturday. We'll be there for that one in New Castle, so bring your "We watch Delaware Sports" signs to get yourself a shot on TV.
    

Marshal Manlove