Newspaper Page Text
Houston Itaitg
WEDNESDAY,
JANUARY 17, 2007
The Home Journal's
SANDLOT
Tin- fVw-NfffWr"'
ON DECK
High school
basketball
Friday
■ Coffee at Warner Robins, 7
p.m.
■ Central at Perry, 7 p.m.
■ Piedmont at Westfield, 7 p.m.
■ Northside at Dutchdown, 6
p.m.
■ Tift County at Houston County,
7 p.m.
Saturday
■ Colquitt at Warner Robins,
6 p.m.
■ Westfield at Crisp Academy,
6 p.m.
■ Houston County at Valdosta,
6 p.m.
High school wrestling
Thursday
■ Monroe and Valwood at
Westfield, 6 p.m.
Friday
■ Northside at Dual State
Tournament in Macon Centreplex,
time to be determined
Saturday
■ Northside at Dual State
Tournament in Macon Centreplex,
time to be determined
High school swimming
Saturday
■ Houston County and Perry at
Panther Invitational in Americus,
9 a.m.
■ Warner Robins at Chatham
County Invitational in Savannah,
9 a.m.
IN BRIEF
Warner Robins rec to hold
track, field signups
The Warner Robins
Recreation Department will be
holding registration for the 2007
track and field program Jan. 29
and will continue until the league
is full. This program is limited
to the first 100 participants.
Registration will be taken at the
recreation department located
at 800 Watson Boulevard, on
Monday - Friday between the
hours of 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.
This program is for boys
and girls ages 7-14 year's old.
The age control date is Dec.
31, 2007. A birth certificate
is required upon registration
unless it is already on file.
For more information call 929-
1916. Also, baseball and softball
registration starts Feb. 24.
Westfield association to
hold basketball games
The Westfield. Beechwood,
Baker Alumni Association is
sponsoring its annual alumni
basketball games to be held Feb.
10 in the Westfield Gymnasium.
The girls’ game will begin at 5:30
p.m. and the guys' game will fol
low immediately. The entry fee
this year is sls.
Wayne Morris Ford will pro
vide the T-shirts for the players.
The proceeds will benefit the
Perry Animal Shelter. Alumni
interested in playing should
contact stolleson@westfieldsch
ools.net or 987-0547 to sign up.
Red Cross to hold
inagural bowling tourney
The Houston-Middle Georgia
Chapter of the American Red
Cross will hold its inaugural
“Roll into the New Year” Bowling
Tournament Saturday.
The tournament will be held
from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at the Gold
Cup Bowling Center on Russell
Parkway. The entry fee is $l5O
for a six-person team. It includes
pizza and soda. Registration will
be available the day of the tour
nament. Visit middlegeorgiared
cross.org for a registration form
or call 923-6332 for more.
YMCA extends
membership offer
The YMCA has extended its
membership sign-up offer until
Jan. 31. The center offers: gym
nastics, jiu-jitsu, fit kidz, dance
and much more. Typically, a
family membership consists of
an SBS joiner’s fee plus the first
month of S4B. Under the promo
tion, you pay SBS.
Northside grapplers qualify for state
By DON MONCRIEF
Journal Staff Writer
Northside reached a major mile
stone at the Region Duals wrestling
meet held at Upson Lee Saturday.
The Eagles, for the first time
in their history said coach Dusty
Dykes, qualified for the Dual State
Tournament slated for Friday -
Saturday at the Macon Centreplex.
By way of a bit of explanation,
the Dual State Tournament is dif
ferent than the Traditional Region/
Traditional State Tournament in
Warner Robins girls finish second again
Special to the Journal
Uh oh. After finally break
ing out of the runner-up
mold with a win a weekend
ago - a situation the team
had witnessed for several
weekends leading up to that
point - Warner Robins High
School’s
girls swim
team
returned to
good habits
(you can’t
very well
say finish
ing second
is bad).
Warner
Robins (57-
Coming
Thursday:
Houston
County HS
swimmers
compete in
Augusta
5) finished runner-up to St.
Vincent at the Statesboro
High Swimming Invitational
held Friday. The Demonettes,
out of 13 schools total, were
short by just over 10 points,
95-82.
Junior Anne Culpepper
continues to lead the team
in points earned. Friday,
she contributed 18 points
with first-place finishes in
the 200 Free and the 100
back. Teammate Abigail
Cunningham was close
behind. She had a first in
the 100 free and a second in
the 200 IM for a total of 16
points.
She also improved her
100 Free qualifying time for
state, head coach Barbara
Hawkins said.
Also, Rachel Sundry
X.. Mm —.——— nil l I
Sports
that it represents a “team” accom
plishment.
Only the top two teams qualify
for state. The Traditional Region/
Traditional State Tournament is
more of an individual weight class
event. A team winner is selected at
that venue but the main focus is on
individuals trying to first qualify
< Feb. 10 at Lee County for Northside)
and then win a gold, silver or bronze
medal at the state tournament (Feb.
15-17 in the Gwinnett Arena).
As far as Saturday - and revert
ear ned 8 points. She had
two fifth places, one in the
200 IM and the other in the
100 back. Brittany Wharton
added another fifth place,
this one in the 100 breast
and good for 4 points.
The 200 medley bettered
their state qualifying time,
Hawkins said, for a first
place win and 18 points. The
addition of Shannon Sulik in
the fly, Hawkins said, which
allowed Anne Culpepper to
swim the freestyle helped to
improve the times.
“Our girls had a strong
swim in this event,” Hawkins
said, “which continued to set
the standard for the scoring
in all the other relays.”
The 200 free relay placed
third for 12 points with
members of that team
being Lesley Haller, Brandi
Womack, Culpepper and
Cunningham. In addition,
the 400 free relay team
earned 6 points. Members
of that team are: Brooke
Robles, Rachel Sundry,
Brittani Wharton and Brandi
Womack.
The Demons (40-22) at
the same meet hit the top
five by scoring 56 points.
Coffee County was first with
109. Jackson Smith led the
Demons with 14 points. He
had two second-placed fin
ishes, one in the 200 IM and
the other in the 100 back.
Erik Hanson was second in
the 100 fly and fifth in the
100 free for 11 points and
ing back to the Eagles’ milestone
- Northside finished second.
Only Lee County stood in their
way from winning it all and that not
by much. The Trojans had 37 points.
The Eagles finished with 35.
“If we just could have won one
more match,” Dykes said in regard
to how close they came.
Still, “It was a great day,” he said,
“an awesome day of wrestling.”
Three people who helped make
it that way were: Deonta Jordan in
the 215-pound weight class, Jordan-
tmggm? ’ Y W&F
Contributed
Co-captain Olen Harris leads the team in a cheer while Chelsea dance, front, and
Abigail Cunningham and Anne Culpepper, back, take part in the chant, Friday in
Statesboro.
Stanley Jackson was fourth
in the 500 free for 5 points.
Skyler Holcomb was sev
enth in the 200 free for 2.
“The guys were exception
ally focused this weekend
with every guy dropping
time and/or scoring points,”
Hawkins said. “It was
amazing to w’atch Stanley
Hornet
rewind
LEFT: Westfield’s
Sheldon Hiley
loses the handle
on the ball in the
Lady Hornets’
win over Central
Fellowship Friday
at Westfield.
BELOW: Hornet
Keenan Malone
looks for a team
mate to pass
to. Westfield’s
girls won 54-49,
while the Hornets
came out on top,
46-38.
ENI/Gary Hannon
Jackson, Eric Paradis, Paul
Poorman, Devin Waller to
score personal bests and sur
pass the goals for this meet
in their 50 free times.”
The Demons also placed
fifth in the 200 med
ley relay and the 200 free
relay with team members
Josh Bryant, Hanson, Tyler
Demons, Bears tall short at qualifier
From staff reports
Warner Robins and
Houston County fell short of
qualifying for the Dual State
Tournament, or taking one
of the top spots for that mat
ter in the Area Duals held
Saturday at Colquitt County.
In regard to the Demons,
they opened with a 51-
9 loss to Lowndes County
(the Vikings and Valdosta
were the two teams to qual
ify). They then beat Colquitt
County 66-12 but in the next
round fell to Tift County 48-
21 and were eliminated.
“(There’s) really not much
to be upbeat about,” said
Warner Robins head wres
tling coach Skip Johnston.
“I truly think we are a much
Perry wrestles to flfth at Area Duals
From staff reports
Perry’s wrestlers took
fifth - with only the top two
teams qualifying for state
- at the Area 4-AAA Duals
hosted by Henry County
High School Saturday. The
Panthers finished the day
2-2. They beat Southwest-
Macon 54-6 and Jackson
42-21 but fell to eventual
Area 4-AAA champions West
Laurens 72-6 and eventual
runner-up Ola 60-21.
“I’m proud of the effort
all our kids put into their
matches this weekend,”
said Perry head wrestling
coach Randy Mizell. “It was
very difficult to overcome
PAGE 6A
Dooley in the 285 heavyweight class
and Bill Walker in the 119-pound
weight class.
“All” Northside’s wrestlers did
well, Dykes said, but those three
each finished the day 3-0.
Walker, he added, “pulled one
out with two or three seconds left
that helped us clinch second in the
match. Everybody’s peaking at the
right time,” he added. “We’ve got a
month left ... hopefully we’ll be able
to take and build on that for the
individual meet.”
Harris, Mathew Kinsey and
Poorman. Two of the team’s
scored in the 400 free relay
with a sixth and eighth place,
and for 8 points. Members
of those teams were: Travis
Boggs, Olen Harris, Tyler
Harris, Holcomb, Jackson,
Kinsey, Eric Paradis, and
Devin Waller.
better team than what we
showed. (The) bottom line:
“We have much work to do
if we have any notion of win
ning our county duals, plac
ing in our area and qualify
ing our guys for the state
tournament.”
And with that in mind,
Warner Robins had a chance
to do just that Tuesday. It
hosted Coffee, Central and
the Georgia School of the
Blind in a match at Rumble
(results pending).
As far as Houston County,
it finished fourth. “We had a
couple of guys go undefeat
ed,” said Houston County
head wrestling coach Heath
Burch, “but we didn’t wres
tle everyone.”
the 30 points we gave our
opponents from forfeits this
weekend.
“We’re going through a
tough time as a team right
now,” he added. “We started
the season with 35 kids, and
now we are down to 14 for
various reasons.”
Drew Benefield at 119
pounds, Brandon Golden at
171, Jon Beale at 215 and
Jonathan Clowers at 285 led
the way for Perry’s wres
tlers, each finishing 3-1.
Evan Jones at 160 was also
2-1, while Ross Tew (125),
Dustin Talley (130) and
Tyler Andrews (189) were
2-2.