January 13, 2005

sports

Junior Jacob Wishart swimming in the 200 freestyle at the Wayne Invitational at Wright State on Saturday. Wishart placed fourth in the race, helping the YSHS boys swim team finish third in the meet.

Swimmers slash personal best times

By Lauren Heaton

Nearly every swimmer on the YSHS girls and boys swim team broke personal best times competing in the Wayne Invitational at Wright State on Saturday.

Out of seven teams, the boys took third place with 214 points, behind Wayne (287) and Stivers (254). The girls came in sixth out of eight teams with 135 points, behind Stivers (347), Xenia (331) and Clinton-Massie (263).

Bulldog swimmers turned around the next day to swim even faster times in the Shawnee Invitational at Wittenberg. The boys finished 8th out of 10 teams, and the girls finished at 12th.

On Saturday, the pool was cold, deep and fast, giving the athletes a boost. Coaches David Wishart and Abby Guiler had a different theory about their teams’ impressive performance.

“They worked really hard all week, and it paid off finally,” Guiler said. “I’m excited that if we keep getting people to practices, I think we’ll have a really strong finish to the end of the season.”

“These were breakthrough meets for us,” Wishart said. “It’s very rare to have meets on consecutive days and drop time on the second day. The kids did a fantastic job.”

The boys 400 freestyle relay was the nail-biting race on Saturday. Jacob Wishart leaped from the platform and traded first place with the swimmer from Wayne. On Carey Dixon’s leg, a few late turns and a pair of loose goggles caused the Bulldogs to lose a few seconds, before Will McCuddy followed and Evan Gerthoffer finished a strong second behind Wayne. On Sunday the same team came in fourth with a season-best time, dropping 14 seconds over the weekend.

The 200 medley relay team (Wishart, Brandon Carver-Halley, McCuddy and Gerthoffer) finished fourth on Saturday but was disqualified for a false start on Sunday. Wishart, McCuddy and Dixon all scored points and dropped time, placing fourth, fifth, and eighth, respectively, in the 200 free on Saturday, while on Sunday, Wishart placed seventh.

Four boys took on the first, third and fourth heats of the 100 free and left the pool clearly pleased with themselves. Gerthoffer reached his goal of breaking a minute to finish third, Dixon dropped 3.5 seconds to place sixth, Carver-Halley improved for eighth place, and Sam Borchers placed 10th in his first attempt in the event. Gerthoffer improved his time again on Sunday to place sixth.

Gerthoffer scored 16 points, placing third in the 50 frees on Saturday. Peter Lovering placed seventh and scored on Saturday with a season-best time. Wishart and McCuddy finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the 500 free. Lovering finished fourth in the 100 breaststroke on Saturday with a best-ever time, then dropped time again on Sunday to finish 11th. Wishart placed eighth in the 100 backstroke on Sunday.

In the girls competition on Saturday, the 200 medley relay team (Miriam Barcus, Olivia Dixon, Eve GunderKline and Tina Chen) placed sixth, improving by five seconds on their previous best performance.

GunderKline led the Yellow Springs girls in the 100 freestyle and swam her fastest time both days, finishing 4th out of 23 swimmers on Saturday and 8th out of 70 on Sunday. Chen placed sixth in the 100 free on Saturday. Sarah Morrison and Michaela McCuddy posted season-best times in the 100 free on Sunday, while Dixon also dropped time in the event.

Barcus swam a season best for 11th place in the 200 freestyle on Saturday, then finished 12th in a stronger field on Sunday. Stephanie Goode dropped three seconds in the 50 freestyle on Saturday.

In the 100 backstroke, GunderKline finished third on Saturday and fourth on Sunday; McCuddy improved her time on Saturday and placed eighth; and Dixon finished fifth. Chen swam her best 100 breaststroke on Saturday and placed seventh.

The 400 free relay (Chen, GunderKline, Morrison and Dixon) finished fifth. On Sunday, a different 400 free relay team (Barcus, Morrison, GunderKline and Chen) finished eighth.

Bulldog sports roundup

Girls basketball wins 1 of 3
The YSHS girls basketball team came back from the break last week to shake off some rust with a 56–46 loss to Troy Christian on Jan. 4. But three days later they were back in form to throttle Middletown Christian, 68–31. The Lady Bulldogs lost a close game to Jefferson, 70–63, on Monday.

The team is now 5–8 overall and 2–4 in the Metro Buckeye Conference.

Though the Lady Bulldogs claimed the game’s two high scorers against Troy, YSHS fell behind 14–10 at the end of the first quarter and never recovered the lead. Troy led 27–18 at the half and 43–31 at the end of the third quarter.

Evin Wimberly scored 23 points, pulled down 14 rebounds and grabbed 4 steals. Megan Burrick had 17 points, including 4 3-pointers, 11 steals and 5 assists. Carly Bailey helped out with 13 rebounds, and Tricia McLinden had 4 assists and 5 steals.

At home on Friday the Lady Bulldogs again had the game’s top three scorers: Wimberly had 26 points, Burrick had 19 and Bailey, 14. Alisha Lucas, McLinden and Jesslyn Yelton also scored for the Lady ’Dogs.

The Lady Bulldogs put a choke hold on Middletown in the first quarter, taking a 24–4 lead. The home team continued its charge, scoring 28 points in the third quarter, while allowing their opponents just 8.

The Lady ’Dogs’ defensive hustle helped keep them in the game against Jefferson, which led by at least 10 the entire game. YSHS had trouble converting in the second and third quarters, missing 26 layups altogether.

Wimberly had a game-high 26 points, including hitting 7 3-pointers. Bailey had a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds, while McLinden and Burrick also scored in double figures.

Boys basketball goes 2 for 3
The YSHS boys basketball team beat Dayton Christian, 70–55, at home on Jan. 4, and did the same in a slightly closer game, 52–49, against Middletown Christian on Jan. 7. Then in a hotly disputed game, the Bulldogs fell to Cincinnati Summit Country Day, 62–50, on Jan. 8.

The team moved up in the MBC to tie with Ridgeville Christian for fourth place. The Bulldogs are 6–5 overall.

The ’Dogs and Dayton Christian were tied at 11 at the end of the first quarter, and YSHS pulled ahead 39–34 at halftime. Leading with four minutes left, the Bulldogs hit 8 of 14 free throws.

Support from key role players Johnny Pamplin, Aaron Willis, Matt Hull and Joe Lawhorn gave a boost to the players on the floor, coach Brad Newsome said. Jerrico Stubblefield, Issa Walker, Anthony Gillmore and Nick Eastman also provided necessary substitutions and held up the team’s morale.

Friday’s game against Middletown Christian was close throughout, as the Bulldogs missed several opportunities to take control of the game. The Bulldogs were up at halftime, 29–19, before Middletown cut the lead to several points late in the game. Though YSHS was plagued by poor free-throw shooting down the stretch, the team got the rebounds and put backs that made the difference. Cody Johnson hit one of two free throws in the last 30 seconds to give the Bulldogs the conference win. Brad Benning-Clark, Ryan Silvert and Issa Walker scored in double figures.

The Bulldogs had a school record of four players — of all whom are starters — foul out in one game in their loss to Cincinnati Summit Country Day on Saturday. Cincinnati shot 36 free throws while the Bulldogs had 10. YSHS was up 38–33 at the half. The game remained close until the fourth quarter, when Cincinnati scored 19 points from the foul line.

“Despite the adversity, we learned something from it to help us handle the calls in future games and get defensive stops without fouling,” Newsome said.