April 7, 2016 Bulldog Sports Round-up
- Published: April 7, 2016
Springtime: a new season, a new world, a new set of competitions to challenge the limits of physical and mental endurance. It is time to shrug off the confines of roofs and walls in favor of running around out in the elements!
However, like the cold snaps that remind us that the searing beauty of winter was only recently left behind, the accolades for last season’s impressive boys basketball team keep coming. The Dayton Daily News recently voted Yellow Springs boys basketball coach Steve Grasso Coach of the Year, and awarded seniors Isaiah Taylor and Kaner Butler first- and second-team all honors, respectively. Taylor averaged 12.2 points per game, and Butler 13.4.
With that book back on the shelf until practice resumes later this year, Yellow Springs High School tennis, track and softball teams got off to a characteristically successful start.
TENNIS
The YSHS tennis team has opened the season with two big wins at home, said coach Donna Silvert, and is now at 2–0.
“The season looks very promising for Bulldog tennis,” she said. “We have talent, dedication and depth.”
The team played their first game on the penultimate day of March against Greenview High School. The three YSHS singles players — Augie Knemeyer, team captain Gabe Day and Forrest Rowe — “swept their opponents,” Silvert said. The doubles teams of Dylan Dietrich/Kasey Linkhart and Duard Headley/Peter Day fought hard to go three sets, and Calum Siler and Sam Green won their reserves court.
In the team’s second game against Spring Valley, Knemeyer and Day prevailed, said Silvert, even in the deep freeze that has the potential to chill an athlete’s resolve to the bone. Dietrich paired with Day for two close sets. No less than three days later, Linkhart and Henry Potts-Rubin brought home the win for the Bulldogs in three sets over Springfield Catholic Central.
Co-coach Stacey Knemeyer said that one of the biggest problems facing the team is choosing players for the team’s top seven spots.
TRACK AND FIELD
March 30 also heralded the YSHS track team’s first competition of the year. Though the team competed in limited numbers due to the well-deserved reprieve that is spring break, the six first-place finishes prove the Bulldogs are ready to come out fighting, or, more appropriately, running, throwing and jumping.
Boys
2015 regional finalist Kaner Butler earned two first-place finishes. Butler ran the 110 hurdles in 16.12 seconds and the 300 hurdles in 42.13. Aaron Sherwood crossed the 100-meter finish line in 11.92 seconds; Noah Krier ran the 800 meters for first place in 2:23.68 minutes. Rubber-footed Oluka Okia took first place in the high jump with a 5’10” leap, and Joe Plumer crushed the long jump with a 19’4” finish.
Girls
The Bulldogs were led by senior standout Charlotte Walkey, who ran to a first- place finish in the 800 meters with a time of 2:43.08. Olivia Brintlinger-Conn bounded to second place in the 300 hurdles with a time of 56.37. Ayanna Madison’s 70.9 finish in the 400 meters garnered her second place, while the 1600-relay team of Walkey, Madison, Brintlinger-Conn and Dymeisha Banks snagged second with a time of 4:49.
SOFTBALL
The softball team came out swinging — literally — with a 16–4 win over Catholic Central in the season opener. The occasional snow flurries were no deterrent to victory, as the team stole 20 bases and pitcher Hannah Morrison pitched nine strikeouts in five innings.
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