ThisWeek Westerville News & Public Opinion
Page B6
October 3, 2013
Cooper runs season best for Blendon The Blendon Middle School boys cross country team defeated Gahanna South 24-31 to raise its record to 63-27. Ryan Cooper finished first in 11:30, the team’s fastest time of the season. Russell Montemarano, Austin Ebbrecht, Michael Hallman and Nathan Ware were fourth through seventh, respectively. The boys finished seventh of 43 teams in the Lancaster Invitational. Hallman was 38th of 250 runners, followed by Ebbrecht (53rd), Cooper (59th), Montemarano (63rd) and Josh Houston (80th). Winning the open championship were Ware, Chris Heermann, Will Steele, Bayden Jung and Jack Parker, as they outran 35 teams. The girls team beat Gahanna South 26-29 to improve to 47-37. Grace Livingston placed second (13:11), followed by Trinity Trimble (third), Mikayla Remington (sixth), Abby Jung (seventh) and Jordan Monsul (eighth).
The girls were 11th of 39 teams at Lancaster, led by Livingston (57th), Remington (60th) and Jung (68th). In the open race, Kaeli Knight was 28th of 300 runners. The golf team shot its best score of the season with a 175, but lost to Bexley. Leading the Bulldogs were medalist Troy Taylor (30) and Ethan Hollern, Parker Degler and Simon Chaney. The team shot a 189 to defeat Johnstown and Heritage, as Taylor was medalist (34) and Shane Hubbell shot his personal-best. The seventh-grade volleyball team fell to Gahanna South 26-24, 25-13 but the Bulldogs led the first game 22-19, as Robin Heft and Tealor Storts had six service points each. Cameron Calhoun, Miquela Hampton and Hannah Holbrook were other standouts. Mitzi Steck, Marley Mitchell and Rachael Bielby stood out as the eighth-grade volleyball team lost to Gahanna South in two games. Worthington Kilbourne football players Daniel Stricker (left) and Alex Meehan work out in the school’s weight room on Sept. 25. CHRIS PARKER/THISWEEKSPORTS
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which he credits to the new workout format. Marysville, he said, had a few hip flexor injuries last season but has not seen a re-occurrence of them this fall. According to Trombetti, each athlete at Kilbourne, regardless of sport, uses a set of core lifts as well as a set of “auxiliary” lifts based on the sport. “I think from a physical standpoint, we’re waking up the next morning a lot less sore,” Schick said. One of the biggest turnarounds among central Ohio programs a year ago involved Ready, which went 7-3 and made the Division IV playoffs after finishing 4-6 the previous two seasons. That success has continued this fall, as the Silver Knights have started 5-0. The biggest credit for the success might have to do with the weight-training regimen that began after Joel Cutler took over as coach in 2012. Cutler and his brother, Kyle, who is an assistant at Ready, have an extensive background in strength and conditioning. Silver Knights senior running back Akili Taylor, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards last year, passed the 1,000-yard mark in week five this season. He carries about 195 pounds on his 5-9 frame after weighing about 180 a year ago. The results of focusing on conditioning, Taylor believes, have been worth it. “I definitely put on a lot of muscle,” he said. “It’s why I’m healthy now and it helps that I’m heavier and can run through tackles better. I’m a lot stronger, bigger and faster.”
After injuries and a 1-5 start doomed his team to a 3-7 finish during his first season last fall, Marysville coach Morgan Cotter traveled last winter to talk to Cal Dietz at the University of Minnesota. Dietz, a Shelby native, doesn’t specialize in football training but heads the strength and conditioning programs for several sports for the Golden Gophers. He co-authored a book about speed and strength performance. Among the focuses of Dietz’s advice were adding plyometrics, which are jump-training exercises that force muscles to exert maximum force in a short time with the goal of increasing speed and power. After instituting many of those ideas into his program during the offseason, the Monarchs have started 4-1. “We got back in the weight room and changed some of the things we were doing,” Cotter said. “As a football coach, I feel real comfortable talking Xs and Os. But in the weight room, I’m not a personal trainer and don’t know all of the physiology. I talked to a couple different college weight-training programs about what we needed to do and we revamped our program to more fieldspecific movements. We still bench and we still squat, but we don’t power-clean anymore. We’ve put a lot of plyometrics and … exercises in.” In addition to an improved record this season, Cotter has seen a decrease in injuries, julrey@thisweeknews.com
Sharks win Flash Summer Sizzler title
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The Columbus Sharks Gold 16-year-old baseball team won the 2013 Flash Summer Sizzler championship held in Hamersville. The Sharks posted a record of 5-1-1 for the four-day tournament, which included pool play. The team went undefeated in elimination play, including a 6-5 victory in the championship game against the Grove City Vipers. Team members are (first row, from left) Kyle Fish; (second row) Patrick LaVelle, David Daly, David Hall, Roby Wholaver, Nick Mitevski, Antonio Marino; (third row) coach Jerry Tulga, Johnny Monsour, Gage Kavy, Chase Antle, Josh Clark, Avery Wilson, Jordan Nishizaki, Luke Nees and Jordan Sabinski.