There is one thing of concern that should be mentioned before all of the cool stuff to talk about gets started. There were a few cases this week of athletes getting kicked off of teams for a couple of different reasons. Though there might have been others that come in under the radar, three particular cases stood out.

I won’t mention any names, since these still are just basically children, but it still needs to be talked about. The St. Marks wrestling team lost a varsity member when he was caught smoking cigarettes. That loss cost the Spartans 9 points against Caesar Rodney in the championship finals. This particular wrestler was favored to win his weight class (3 points at least for the win) but his replacement was pinned giving Caesar Rodney six points. The margin of victory for Caesar Rodney was four points.

People can talk all they want about Spartan coach Steve Bastianelli making a lineup move that was questionable; he was the first person to admit the blunder. But give him and the school credit for suspending the player, as he should have been. There are some things more important than victories; developing team and personal character must come first in this case. This is a hard lesson to teach and to learn, but it must be done.

On the basketball court, the Glasgow Lady Dragon JV team was decimated by a lack of passing grades. It also has had a major effect on the varsity squad as they have lost perhaps their most important player to grades. That case is being appealed right now, so there is no telling right now if the Dragons will be headed into the tournament a key player short, but they lost an important game to A.I. duPont yesterday that they wouldn’t have lost with her in the lineup.

The Dover girls track team lost one of their top runners to grades also. This had a major effect on the team standings and in some of the sprinting events.

No one is perfect and I’m certainly far from it myself. These mistakes not only cost personally, but they also effect teammates, friends, and families. What is truly sad is that failing to keep up with a 1.5 GPA is ludicrous. Basically one just needs to show up to get a 1.5. And smoking? Just say no already.

There was someone else who wasn’t at the track meet who has had some trouble with grades. But this is a person who has a mother who is terminally ill. He has been bathing her and taking care of all her needs. This is an excuse not to be able to help the team. But smoking and failing to go to class because you don’t feel like it today? Let’s get a grip on reality and try to develop some level of personal responsibility here.

The Glasgow grade trouble is curious though isn’t it? How can five kids fail off the team? Doesn’t somebody know that’s coming? Doesn’t the coaching staff check to be sure that players are passing class? Doesn’t someone go to the coach and say, "Look, like half of your team is getting ready for an early Spring break here, would you like to try to figure something out?"

Ok, enough of that. Congratulations to Caesar Rodney and Hodgson Vo-Tech for winning state wrestling championships. For the Riders, it was their first, even though they lost more matches than St. Marks in the finals. For the Silver Eagles it was their fifth straight, and it came easily at the hands of Middletown and Lake Forest.

Give the St. Marks team some credit here. Not only did the kids that did wrestle step up to the task against Caesar Rodney, but they did so in the rematch against William Penn in the semifinals also. That semifinal wasn’t even really close as the Spartans won 33-16.

The Bastianelli move of Geoff Ashton from 189 up to 275 wasn’t really the move that I thought was strange. (It was one of them though). I thought that not bumping up A.J. Cessario to 160 after Andrew Donofrio was bumped to 152 was strange. Having Tyler Bastianelli wrestle Zack Kopp who wrestled down to 145 was odd also. Donofrio would have beaten Kopp and Bastianelli would have pinned the kid that Donofrio did at 152, so there was another six-point swing.

Congratulations to the Spartans Bobby Shaw who picked up his 100^th career victory and to Hodgson’s Mike Welch who picked up his 146^th career win to set a new state record for career wins surpassing the mark held by St. Marks’ Peter Santoro.

The state indoor track meet was exciting this year. There were new state records set in a few events including Danielle Bailey’s new mark of 7.01 in the 55-meter dash. She actually slipped out of the blocks but still nearly became the first ever high schooler to break the 7-second mark in that event.
Glasgow’s Kamilah Salaam broke the state record in the 200-meter dash with a 24.96. She needed to break it because it was Danielle Bailey who finished second by a fraction of a second.
Ursuline’s Colleen Taylor crushed the 1600-meter record by ten seconds. Her 5:04 caused Lou Olivere to jump high enough in the air to qualify for Gold himself and caused her little sister Julie to cry with joy. On hand to witness Colleen’s record was her older sister Tricia who was a star runner in her own right.

Brandywine’s Ashley Sullivan-Kirkse won four gold medals at the meet. She was on all three Bulldog winning relay teams and won the open 800 meters. Jen Meier was on all three winning relay teams also.

The Bulldogs were just one point shy of winning their first-ever-indoor championship. The meet came down to the final race of the day, the 4x400 relay. Glasgow was five points ahead of the Bulldogs and just needed to finish in third place if Brandywine was the winning team. Glasgow entered the race with the best qualifying time and the Bulldogs came in with the fourth. Brandywine pulled out the race win and Glasgow managed a third place to give them the overall championship.

The William Penn Colonials weren’t favored to do all that much during this meet, but behind the strength of their shot putting combination of Carlton Rose and William Brown, the Colonials pulled off the team upset overall victory. Rose was the winner in the shot and Brown took third.
Akeem Pierce and Robert Edwards finished 1-2 in the 55-meter dash for 18 points also.

Salesianum finished third as a team. The full-strength return of Charlie Diehlman, who was a double winner in the 800 and 1600, was the key factor.

Congratulations to the Glasgow boy’s 4x800 and 4x400 for winning gold. Staff writer Laurens Maliepaard was on both winning teams and his leadoff 800 set a pace that buried the balance of the competition.

Smyrna’s Randolph Faulkner pole-vaulted 13’ 8.25" to break the record set last year of 13’ 3" by Seaford’s Nathan Rose.

Pictures of some of the winners are in the boys and girls winter track sections under 2001 champs.