Bulldog sports roundup
- Published: May 22, 2008
Boys track wins MBC title
The Bulldog boys track team won the Metro Buckeye Conference meet at Troy Christian on Friday, May 16, by an overwhelming margin over the seven other teams. Yellow Springs had 169 points, well ahead of Dayton Christian’s 113, and host Troy Christian’s 105.
Behind the strength of two victorious relays, the YSHS girls track team finished third with 80 points in that day’s MBC meet. Miami Valley finished first with 148 points, ahead of Dayton Christian with 119.5 and the Lady Bulldogs with 80.
YSHS senior Andy Peters, who is headed to Saint Xavier University in Chicago on a combined track and cross country scholarship, helped anchor the win. Peters took the 800-meter dash and along with teammates Alexis Onfroy-Curley, Jacob GunderKline and Brock GunderKline, also won the 800 relay and then the 400 relay with Raphael Allen, Anthony Pettiford and Onfroy-Curley.
The stellar 100-relay squad of Ron Cobb, Ryan Newsome, Allen and Robert Harden brought home another first place finish for the ’Dogs, which only added to Pettiford’s win in the 400-meter dash and Newsome’s victories in both the long jump and the high jump.
Second place points were added by Allen in the long jump, Jake GunderKline in the 3200-meter run, Peters in the mile and Josh Meadows in the 300-meter hurdles. The boys’ 200-relay team also took second place at the meet.
Austin Bailey earned a third place finish in the pole vault and the 110-meter high hurdles, while Steve Scott took third in the discus. Josh Meadows added a fourth place finish in the 110-meter high hurdles.
For the girls, the winning 200 relay squad posted a time of 1:52.6 thanks to runners Elizabeth Gonder, Kristen Foster, Melodie Wright, and Leslie Holland. Foster and Gonder then teamed with Gina Laurens and Brenda Jones to win the 400-meter relay in 4:34.86.
Gonder, a freshman, was the team’s top scorer of the day. She added a second place finish in the 400-meter dash in the outstanding time of 61.9 (top five all time by a YSHS girl) and a third-place finish in the long jump.
Second place finishes were earned by the strong 100-relay squad of Natasha Perry, Laurens, Holland, and Jones. Individually, Wright added a second place finish in the discus.
Third place finishes were posted by Laurens in the 100 hurdles, Jones in the 100 dash, Foster in the 400 dash and Wright in the shot put.
Doubles team advances to district
Seeded first in the Division II sectional tournament held last week, YSHS doubles pair Olivia Chen and Alex Turner slipped past three opponents and won the fourth match 6–4,5–7,6–4 against Franklin to qualify for the district level tournament. Chen, who plays first court, and Turner, who plays second for Yellow Springs, face Franklin in the first round of Districts on Thursday, May 22, at Centerville High School. They must win four matches to be one of the four doubles teams to qualify for the state meet in Columbus on Friday and Saturday, May 30-31.
Baseball ends winning season
Tournament began this week for area high school baseball teams. The Bulldogs traveled to Emmanuel Christian for the first round on Tuesday, May 13. The ’Dogs took control early as they rapped out five hits (Andrew Ferguson, Ben Armstrong, Ethan Brown, Cory Daniels, and Jamie Kitzmiller) in the first inning to go up 6–0. The hitting performance continued, and when the dust had cleared, the Yellow Springs team was the 15–2 victor. Ferguson and Armstrong led the way with three and four hits, respectively. Ethan Brown had 3 runs batted in. Todd Sheets pitched a fine game, allowing only one earned run.
Rain delayed the second round game until Friday, and the ’Dogs were forced to play without two starters, who were traveling. This forced Ferguson to the mound for his first start of the year. In fact, because of arm trouble he had only thrown two innings previously. Ferguson pitched gallantly in the game at Franklin-Monroe versus the number one seeded Jets. In the first, the Jets leadoff batter got on, but he was nailed at second on a steal attempt by Jamie Kitzmiller’s throw. The Jets plated one run in the second. Then in the third an error paved the way for two more unearned runs. Ferguson went four innings before making way for Lucas Donnell, who was touched up for four unearned runs in the sixth.
The Bulldog bats, meanwhile, slumbered until the sixth when hits by Sheets, Armstrong, and Kilan Brown produced a run. In the seventh Donnell walked and scored on a base hit from Ferguson. In the end the Dogs dropped an 8–2 decision.
The Bulldogs close out the season 9–8, only the third team to have a winning season in Coach Chris Rainey’s career. Armstrong finished the season with a .467 average and earned a share of Player of the Year honors in the Metro Buckeye Conference. Sheets hit a robust .393 and had a 4–2 record with a 4.32 ERA. Those two players will be honored at the MBC banquet on Friday, May 23. Awards for the remainder of the team will be presented at the school awards ceremony slated for Monday, June 2, at 7 p.m. in the YSHS gym.
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