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2B ♦ WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2006 *&} *j§i Jjj \jJStfotg} ______ Submitted Huntington Middle School runner Caroline Mauldin runs in the inaugural Middle School State Championship in Cochran Saturday. Inaugural middle school cross country championship held Special to the Journal The first ever middle school state championship was held Saturday in Cochran. Houston County was represented by one runner. Caroline Mauldin of Huntington Middle School ran and trained with the Warner Robins High School girls cross country team this year. She won most of the races that she entered and if she didn’t win she was second. “I told her before the race to stay in contact with the top 10 runners and with 400 meters to go run all out,” said Warner Robins head cross country coach David Erpelding. “She stayed with the top five runners the whole race and finished fourth over all (and) with a time of 13:36, which was her best time of the year.” She has a bright future on the high school level and we should see great things happen in the next few years. I hope that this will get more middle school kids excited about running and maybe one day we will see more middle school teams repre senting Houston County at the state championships. ENI/Gary Harmon Northside offensive lineman work out at practice Monday. Among them is Will Zunino (62) who is making his way back from a torn ACL. LINE From page iB So how has that changed the role of the lineman? Does it make life easier when it’s not a running play every down? “On every play our thing is we are going to butt heads with somebody,” said Stewart. “We’re putting bod ies on bodies all the time. Same thing.” ZUNINO S RETURN No one was more into his post-practice running Monday than Zunino. He was more than just a spectator during his recovery, and had every intention of suiting up before the year ended. “I’ve been out the whole season, my junior year,” he said about that all-important season for a high school pros pect when scouts really start to take notice. “My knee felt Results of the inaugural middle school state championsip held Saturday in Cochran: Girls team results School Points 1. Bleckley County 29 2. Woodland 74 3. Kennesaw Mountain 100 4 North Hall 154 5. Schley County 181 6. West Laurens 243 7. Lee County 250 8. Pulaski County 272 9. Calvary Day School 288 10. Macon County 335 11. Baconton 384 Top 10 individual 1. Sarah Pray, Griffin Middle - 13:14 2. Weezie Chandler, Woodward Academy - 13:30 3. Jessie Dotson, Luelia - 13:33 4. Caroline Mauldin Huntington Middle - 13:36 5. Taylor Harrington, Bleckley County - 14:06 6. Ashley Barerra, Woodland - 14:14 7. Alice Arnold, Bleckley County - 14:17 8. Gabby Minick, Schley County - 14:24 9. Anna Vonck, Kennesaw Mountain - 14:26 10. Sherre Law, Bleckley County - 14:27 really good. Had a good day. “I was definitely going to be back this season. I am probably going to use this week to get ready and be back next week.” “It’s good to have him back out there,” said Nix. “He loves the game. It certainly would have been a benefit to us had he been out there all year. You feel for young men who work so hard when something like that hap pens.” “Will was a great leader last year as a sophomore,” said Stewart. “He has great leadership ability. Just being back out here (Monday), he’s already taken back up the leadership.” Stewart said he’s sure Zunino would feel some sore ness after practice, and Nix said he was interested in how the knee would respond the next day. But from the way he went about his work, Stewart got the impression the knee wasn’t even in the back of his mind. “He was able to come right back out there and do a good job,” said Stewart. “I’m ready to get back in the big-game scenario,” said Zunino, who, if he does play next week, would be in a play in game that determines who gets to represent 4-AAAA in the state playoffs. “It felt pretty bad, but I’m there supporting my team,” said Zunino about how it was missing all the game action so far. “I gave (Shedrick Jones) some tips. I was in his ear the whole time. He’s a good player, and he’s going to be a good player next year, too. “They did really good. We’re putting up points run ning the ball. But when I get back I know we’re going to be able to power the ball running a lot of pro in that shotgun,” SPORTS Johnson attempting to avoid being like Mark Jimmie Johnson is called worse names every day. Much worse. Yet no NASCAR driver Adam Van Brimmer Morris News Service misses in Nextel Cup cham pionships. Martin has four runner up finishes and four more third-place showings in 20 full seasons on the Cup circuit. He is A 1 Gore on an elec tion ticket, Marv Levy in a Super Bowl, Tom Cruise at the Oscars, and that single gal who is every one of her friends’ maid-of-honor all wrapped into one. And Johnson could be Martin’s heir apparent. Consider his Nextel Cup career thus far: Johnson finished second in points three years ago, his sophomore season. He was runner-up again the next year, 2004. Last season, he went into the series finale in second and dropped to fifth. With three races left in the 2006 season, he is in ... second place. REUNION From page iB Grand National (Cup) and Late Model Sportsman (Busch Grand National) races contested by some of the greatest drivers of that era including Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, David Pearson, Bobby Issac, James Hylton, Wendell Scott and many others. Middle Georgia Raceway PITCHERS From page iB two of which only had half a bad game if that. That duo was Dave McKim and Chuck Poole. McKim pitched from the A Class and Poole from the B. And both won with identi cal records of 4.5 wins and a half game loss. McKim connected for 107 ringers out of 200 for a 53.50 ringer percentage. Poole’s num bers were: 79 ringers out of CLEATS /Bowmen the\t / WORIP «RIE£ \ - / over, you comma \ [ FOCUS. OH FOOTBALL \ OR BASKETBALL’ J /JEROME, 6RAB YOUrT| [ aOVE AMP COME o \ V OOTS-IPE AMP 1@ j =\THRDW WITH ME J | i IWW 1 i§g|ygi m V. II 1/U Hn i < A I .. .J! HnU g - Play Belter Golf with JACK NICKLAUS A- '.'Mfc -ia®—CTßfca in your the extra mental effort Mar action. you ore putting out. Move over Mark, here comes Jimmie. Johnson, to his credit, is optimistic -- or maybe it’s denial. “I’m closer than I’ve ever been, numbers-wise, to the lead in the Chase,” he said Sunday following a - you guessed it - second place finish in the Bass Pro Shops 500. “There is still a lot of racing left and the points are so close you can’t afford to have a prob lem or anything. But I’m excited. I’m optimistic.” Fate is teasing Johnson. He is an experienced cham pion on the off-road racing series. He won six titles on those circuits as a teen-ager and in his early 20s. Yet Johnson has been in a drought since moving to stock cars in 1998. He won more than $1.5 million in four seasons on the Busch Series and has 23 Nextel Cup victories in his five full seasons in NASCAR’s premier series. That’s six more victories than anybody else over that period. Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon are next with 17 each, although Stewart won titles in two of those seasons and Gordon is proven winner with four championships. Johnson, meanwhile, doesn’t have a ring - Busch or Cup - during the span And that leaves Johnson looking a lot like Martin. wants to be called “Mark Martin” or “the next Mark Martin,” at least as it relates to the veteran’s near- was a state-of-the-art rac ing facility and was perhaps the fastest mile paved oval on the NASCAR circuit at that time. In addition to its rich rac ing history, MGR was the site of the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival which was attended by more than 300,000 who gathered to hear rock per formers including Jimmy Hendricks and the Allman Brothers Band. Hollywood also came to 200 for a ringer percentage of 39.50. There were also four other members of the Perry club who contended. They were: Mary Ann Gibbs and Dane Clark who pitched in the A Class, Eugene Davis, who pitched in the B Class and Jerome Kennedy, who pitched in the C Class with Ayer. Gibbs finished 2-3 (113 ringers out of 200, howev er, and a ringer percentage of 56.50), while Clark was sixth. His record was 1-5 ~ta\ iwacm'ttall emoughV I I PREFER ROUMPBALL \ 8 PRO? )( CHURCH 1 TO BE OME OF 8 I PLAYEPirJ i V V PRO | 1(c) 2000 Bill Hinds Dist by Universal Press Syndicate ,e "l2__!T 3OCO " CSCOm 11 /PO YOU THIMK AMY AIK PO Yo ° m \ Tn for thSememplayimg I ) (coip OUTEIPE, ) (IM THE WORLP CERIEA J J ' \ ‘’T J \ IMgCOtP^/ "(c^OOO Btll Hinds', Cbst by Universal Press Syndicate j HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL Johnson claims to feel just the opposite of the reg ular runner-up. Martin sounds like Chicken Little after every crash or mishap - right fully so considering his his tory. Johnson, on the other hand, won’t admit his sky is falling even when it is. Johnson went from sec ond to ninth in points in one race - the Chase open er - and finished outside the top 10 in the next four. He never lost faith despite the bad luck and past fail ures, and with a victory and two runner-up finishes in the last three races is back in contention. “From the five years of doing this and being in the Chase or a championship battle in all five seasons so far, there is a lot of con fidence we can fall back on,” Johnson said. “Our team has been a lot more mature, stable this year in the Chase than any other year. “ No, Johnson is not a cynic yet. He just celebrated his 31st birthday in September. He has many championship chances ahead. As well as plenty of time to find his inner-Mark Martin. Adam Van Brimmer is an Atlanta-based writer for Morris News Service. E-mail him at adam. vanbrimmer@morris.com or telephone him at 404- 589-8424. MGR to film scenes for “Greased Lightning”, a movie depicting the life story of Wendell Scott, NASCAR’s first black driver. The track also gained infamy when a working “moonshine still” was discovered in a cave dug beneath the track. For more information about the 2006 Middle Georgia Raceway Driver and Fan Reunion visit the NVRA website at www. navraracing.org. (66 ringers out of 200 for a 33 percent ringer percent age). Davis was also sixth. He was 0-5 for the tourney with 42 ringers out of 200 for a ringer percentage of 21 percent. Kennedy was 2-3. He had 35 ringers out of 200 for a ringer percentage of 17.50 percent. The Perry Horseshoe Pitcher’s Club now has one more tourney among its members, Saturday, before taking some time off for the winter.