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SPORTS
Bill Murphy Sports Editor | 770-718-3415 | sports@gainesvilletimes.com
Unties
gainesvilletimes.com
Thursday, June 27, 2019
HIGH SCHOOL
BASKCTBALL
East Hall
alumni have
four games
scheduled
The East Hall High basketball programs
will hold four alumni games in conjunction
with boys coach Seth Vining’s 68th birthday
on July 16 at the school’s gym. In March,
Vining came out of retire
ment to lead the Vikings,
after winning four previous
state championships at the
school and more than 700
games in 38 years as a head
coach.
The games are as
follows:
■ GAME 1: Girls alumni
vs. current East Hall girls, 6
p.m.
■ GAME 2: Old timers boys alumni (1964-
2000), 7 p.m.
■ GAME 3: 2001 and 2003 state champi
onship teams vs. 2005 state championship
team, 8 p.m.
■ GAME 4: East Hall alumni vs. current
East Hall varsity, 9 p.m.
Those interested in playing are asked to
contact Vining at seth.vining@hallco.org or
Lady Vikings coach Justin Wheeler at justin.
wheeler@hallco.org.
There’s a $10 entry fee for all adults.
Children and students fee will be $5, and no
charge for kids 7 and under. The funds will
go toward East Hall’s boys and girls basket
ball programs.
Concessions and a 50/50 raffle will be
incorporated.
Compiled by Katherine Wright
Vining
Early impact
out of the
bullpen for
the Braves
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Wednesday’s game at Wrigley Field will
mark the halfway point of the 2019 Atlanta
Braves season. As of Wednesday morning,
those Braves ranked third in the National
League and sixth in the majors in bullpen
ERA. If you said you saw that coming, you’re
lying.
We around here spent the first 2 A / 2 months
griping about how awful these relievers
were.
Anecdotal and statistical evidence sup
ported such plaints. But the bullpen we fig
ured would never go right
has become the lesser of
the Braves’ pitching wor
ries. (As noted yesterday,
the rotation is in dire need
of Dallas Keuchel making
good.) Heck, this bullpen
is the major reason the
Braves lead the NL East by
5-!/2 games. As noted a time
or two, baseball is a funny
game.
Where other Eastern relievers rank
among the 15 NL clubs:
The Nationals are last, the Mets next-to-
last, the Marlins fourth-from-last and the
Phillies sixth-from-last.
The Braves once numbered themselves
among the ranks of the inept, but no lon
ger. And if we’re seeking the reliever who
has done the most to shape these divisional
standings, we wouldn’t ID the Mets’ Edwin
Diaz or Washington’s Sean Doolittle or Phil
adelphia’s Hector Neris
in Philadelphia. Instead
we’d name a guy of whom
nobody around here had
heard five weeks ago. We’d
name...
Anthony Swarzak.
Seattle shipped Swarzak
to the Braves on May 20 in
exchange for Jesse Biddle,
who has managed a 9.82
ERA as a Mariner, and
Arodys Vizcaino, who underwent shoulder
surgery in April and is lost for the season and
will be a free agent come November. This
was a junk-for-junk swap -- Swarzak blew half
of his six save chances with Seattle, where
he’d compiled an ERA of 5.27 -- that turned
up trumps.
Swarzak’s ERA as a Brave is 0.54. He has
yielded one earned run -- a Howie Kendrick
homer on May 28 -- in 16 appearances. He
has 20 strikeouts against six walks, two of
those intentional.
Opponents are batting .127 with an OPS
of .431 against him. Of 10 inherited runners,
■ Please see SWARZAK, 2B
Braves vs. Cubs
When: 2:20 p.m. today
Where: Wrigley Field, Chicago
TV: Fox Sports Southeast
Wednesday’s game: Due to a rain delay,
Wednesday’s game did not finish in time
for print deadline for The Times.
Swarzak
Keuchel
TRACK AND FIELD
Success on his first try
Photos by WES WESSELY I For The Times
Chestatee High’s Luke Gaddis placed first in his first ever 2000-meter steeplechase, as well as the 3000-meter race at the Junior
Olympics State Championship on Saturday at Westlake High in Atlanta.
Chestatee High junior Gaddis
won 2000-meter steeplechase
at the state Junior Olympics
Chestatee High’s Luke Gaddis middle, placed first in his first
ever 2000-meter steeplechase, as well as the 3000-meter race
at the Junior Olympics State Championship on Saturday at
Westlake High in Atlanta.
BY KATHERINE WRIGHT
kwright@gainesvilletimes.com
He could feel the breath of
his last opponent as he hur
dled the last barrier, overpow
ering the fellow 16-year-old to
the finish line. It was his first
time racing steeplechase —
an itch he long had was finally
scratched.
Luke Gaddis was thrown
into fire and came out wet,
slightly warm and victorious.
“Right afterwards, I was
super dead at the end, but
when I had realized what I’d
done, it was super exciting,”
he said. “I just feel super
blessed by what God had
allowed me to do by running.”
Gaddis had just won the
2000-meter steeplechase at
the Junior Olympics State
Championship at Westlake
High School as a member of
the Lanier Running Club.
In order to qualify, the ris
ing junior at Chestatee High
School placed in the 3000-
meter preliminary race in
Stockbridge.
From that point forward,
he decided to compete in the
2000-meter steeplechase and
3000-meter race at state, tak
ing gold in each.
Wes Wessely, president of
the Lanier Running Club and
community coach at Ches
tatee High School, knew that
Gaddis was a prolific dis
tance runner, so the former
professional runner asked if
he’d be interested in compet
ing in the 2000-meter stee
plechase. Gaddis loved the
challenging idea.
Training for the event he’d
never previously competed in
began three weeks to the race
date.
First, they began practic
ing on regular hurdles, as
steeplechase barriers weren’t
accessible. The coach tried
incorporating random dis
tances with different repeats
and reps to tire the cross-coun
try runner out. Sometimes it
worked; most of the time it did
not.
The last practice before
state, Wessely made Gaddis
run 1000-meters with four
hurdles scattered across the
track.
‘“Gah-lee! You didn’t tire
out?”’ Wessely asked him.
Never hitching over a
steeplechase barrier before,
Wesseley denied some vet
erans of the event the top
achievement.
After the first lap, he was
dead last, but once he started
moving up, no one could
mimic his pace.
“Over the last hurdle, he
catches (the leader) and out-
sprints him at the end and
has a fantastic time,” Wessely
said. “His first time ever doing
steeplechase, I was amazed.
I’ve been around 40 years and
I was shell-shocked. It was tre
mendous time, tremendous
effort and couldn’t have hap
pened to a nicer kid.”
Gaddis was always fond
of jumping.
Even when he was younger,
reaching to touch the ceil
ing in his garage was a daily
routine. The now 5-foot-9,126
pound athlete continues to
jump and touch the ceiling in
the field house.
Jumping turned into a fas
cination, and the fascination
turned into an obsession —
the productive kind.
Hurdles gave the young
distance runner a feat worth
thirsting for. Once overpass
ing hurdles became second-
nature, Gaddis switched his
sights toward steeplechase.
The race always intrigued
him — the splash of the water
after hurdling the first bar
rier, the barriers’ unforgiving
■ Please see GADDIS, 3B
COLLEGE WORLD SERIES
Vanderbilt cruises to championship
NATI HARNIKI The Associated Press
Vanderbilt’s Philip Clarke (5) celebrates with Ethan Paul
(10) after both scored on a single by Stephen Scott against
Michigan during the third inning of Game 3 in the College
World Series finials on Wednesday in Omaha, Neb.
Associated Press
Mason Hickman and Jake
Eder combined for 14 strikeouts,
Vanderbilt knocked out Michigan
ace Karl Kauffmann in the fourth
inning, and the Commodores won
the College World Series with an
8-2 victory in Game 3 of the finals
Wednesday night.
Vandy (59-12) won its second title
in its four CWS appearances, all
since 2011. The other one came in
2014.
Hickman struck out 10 in six
innings and limited the Wolverines
(50-22) to one hit after he gave up
three in a row to start the game.
Kauffmann, making his third
start in the CWS, struggled with his
control, and Vandy broke open the
game with three runs in the third
inning and two in the fourth.
When Ako Thomas flew out to
center to end the game, the Vandy
dugout and bullpen emptied and
catcher Philip Clarke sprinted to
the mound to embrace Eder.
The Commodores were a model
of consistency from start to fin
ish this season. They swept the
Southeastern Conference regular-
season and tournament titles, set
the league record for wins, tied the
record with 13 draft picks and lost
back-to-back games just twice.
They’re the sixth national cham
pion from the SEC since 2009 and
12th overall, second only to the 18
won by the Pac-12 and its previous
iterations. At No. 2, Vandy became
the highest national seed to win it
■ Please see VANDY, 3B