Bits and Pieces 36 

 June 19, 2001

  It has been a busy June for us at Delaware Sports. After concluding our taping of the final high school championship season it was time to concentrate on the operation of the Diamond State Games, our biggest project to date.

 Our initial projection for the number of competing athletes was 2000. Despite canceling one event entirely (field hockey) and having what we thought were bad turnouts at Track and Wrestling, we will still come fairly close to that number at around 1900. There were more than a few people out there who thought I was completely out of my mind this time when I quoted that original number. Some of those same people thought I was nuts when I said I would start a TV show, a radio show, a website, and a newspaper, but all of those projects became reality at some point also.

 So will there be a 2002 Diamond State Games? What happens in the next few months will be critical. We are still in need of a lot of help in the form of man/woman power and sponsorship. Without it, who knows what will happen. 

 There have been a whole bunch of people who have helped make the DSG come about and become a first-year success. It starts with all of the coordinators and the volunteers and all of the athletes and their supporters and the sponsors. There are literally a couple thousand people to thank and it's tough to do so here, so let's just throw out a blanket THANK YOU to everyone.

  Here are some brief highlights from the first two weekends of competition.

Notes from Track and Field 
Former State sprinting champions Josh Abrams (Caesar Rodney H.S) took home golds in the 100 and 200 meter open division. Abrams, currently on the Delaware State University track team ran a 10.8 100 meter dash and a 22.2 200 meter dash.

State champion Rob Randolph (Tower Hill) won gold over former rival and current Delaware Diamonds teammate Quinn Martin in the 200 meter dash. State high jump champion Ivan Schmidt finished third to complete the Delaware sweep.
Randolph, who owns the second fastest high school time in the 300-meter hurdle Delaware history was nipped by Philadelphia's Tony Fulton Jr. Fulton ran a 54.1, Randolph a 54.3. Quinn Martin finished third in 57.5.

Mike Burke, current track coach at Concord High School and National Masters hurdling champion ran an 11.7 100-meter dash to win the 35-39 masters division gold medal.

State Pole Vault champion Matt Johnson (Christiana H.S.) won gold with a vault of 13'0". "Vault Squad" teammate from the regular season track team Kristin Tunell won the high school girl's pole vault with a 9'0" vault matching her New Castle County Championship vault.

The meet's oldest competitor Robert Meader, 75, ran an 18.9 100-meter dash to set the Diamond State Games standard for future senior athletes to reach.

A set of brothers took home gold in two master's division of the discus. Kelly (35-39) and Pat Cannon (45-49) were on the same field with former state high school champion Chris White who out-tossed everyone attending with a throw of 143'3".

The Delaware Diamonds Nikko Brady was a double gold-medal winner. Nikko won the 9-10 100-meter dash in 14.8 and the 9-10 High jump with a 3'9" leap.

The Delaware Diamonds also have a rising distance star in Anna Brousell in the 13-14 age group. Brousell won the 3200-meter run in 12:12.7 which would have been good for fourth place overall in this past season's state high school championships. Brousell's 2:28   800-meter run less than an hour later would have placed her fifth in the same state championships.

The Delaware Diamonds Alex Coppadge won gold medals in the 13-14 girls high jump (4'7") and the 13-14 200-meter hurdles (29.5)

Kamilah Salaam (Wilmington Track Club), the four-event state high school champion from Glasgow High School, tuned up for her appearance next week at the high school nationals with a gold medal performance in the High School 100-meters with a 12.4 mark. Brittney Hackett (Padua Academy) from the Delaware Diamonds was second in 12.5.

Despite monsoon type conditions, the second weekend of activities in the inaugural Diamond State Games took place.

The only events that weren't able to be contested were the Co-ed Grass Doubles competition on Sunday and the girl's 18-and-under fast-pitch state championships.

The men's and women's grass doubles volleyball divisions were held on Saturday even through what was a driving rain at times during the day.

The competition was spirited and fierce for both divisions. For the women, Dana Steinbrunner and Heather Millerchip knocked off Sandy Sobocinski and Kendra Molloy in the finals. Steinbrunner is a recent graduate of the University of Delaware and former volleyball at St. Marks High School where she helped the Spartans win two state championships during her stay.

Former Wilmington College All-Americans Brenda Paloni and Jessica Phipps reunited to compete in this first-ever Diamond State Games event and finished fourth.

For the men there was an upset for the gold medal when Chris Parris and Randy Hill knocked off the decidedly taller duo of Pete Szczerba and Bryan Hoopes 15-12.

The Delaware Cobras from Middletown cruised through their 10-and-under bracket. The hitting highlight of the tournament came in Saturday pool play when catcher Shannon Skomorucha hit two towering homeruns out of Smyrna-Clayton Little Lass Fields in one game.

A nationally ranked wrestler from St. Marks high school won a gold medal  in the senior division over the weekend. Bobby Shaw took the honor at 130 pounds over Rusty Hunt from Somerset, NJ.

Ben and Brandon Geary from Fairmont, WV won golds in the senior 160 and 171 lb. divisions respectively. Delcastle High School graduate Tommy Lawhorn took the silver in the 160 pound weight class.

The match of the weekend came in the open 170 lb. division when two former Delaware state champions did battle. William Penn graduate Ray Calloway defeated Hodgson Vo-Tech graduate Ryan Smith 6-5 on an escape point with time ready to expire in the third period of the match.

The Escape from Fort Delaware Triathlon was successfully completed on Saturday. Out of the 320 entrants, 266 actually jumped into the churning waters of the Delaware River as the heavens opened up above them. Only one swimmer asked to be pulled from the waters by the coast guard due to bad muscle cramping.

The overall winner was Otto Keller from Maryland who finished the 1.1 mile swim, 22.3 mile bike, and the 6.25 mile run in 1 hour, 52 minutes, and 24 seconds. In second place overall was Delaware's own Kevin Danahy who finished just shy of two minutes later.

The winner for the women was Joanne Fusco from NJ. Fusco was 35th overall finishing with a time of 2:10.53.

The faster female finisher from Delaware was Casie Brinton who was the 36th female and 183rd overall finishing in 2:44.29.

The final weekend of the Diamond State Games is June 23 and 24. Flag Football will be held at Conrad Middle School on both days and the Co-rec ASA State Championships will be held at Delcastle Recreation Center.

Senior Division activity heats up with Men's and Women's Volleyball at Wilmington College on both days and Men's Senior Division Baseball will be held at Banning State Park in Stanton on the 24th.

The Co-ed Grass Doubles Tournament postponed from the 17th will take place on the 24th at New Castle Baptist School on Basin Rd and Rt. 273 in New Castle.

The girl's fast-pitch division and ASA  State Championships will be held later this week under the lights at Alapocas Field in Wilmington. Some of the athletes that make up the four remaining teams in contention for the gold are St. Elizabeth's Kim Joyce and Kelli Nepi; Wilmington College's Jaleah Brown; Caravel Academy's Jackie Homiak, Erin Bilbrough, Erin McGlynn, Kim Helm, Alexis Niggebrugge, and Nancy Tokar; Hodgson's Katie Gallagher and St. Marks' Ashley Constantini.

Marshal Manlove