Best way to determine a 100-meter time is to run it

Bits and bytes - There used to be information in printed newspapers called agate, which were basically stats from the scorebook, obvious box scores and occasionally recaps. Now, there are websites that are sport-specific where you can find out so much minute information that you regress into some disordered syndrome. Trackwrestling.com and de.milesplit.com are just two places for wrestling and track & field fans to get information. Websites4sports on the Delaware side of scholastic sports is a useful site, but many folks responsible for data entry – could be a coach or AD – are lame to lackadaisical in reporting results. The good news is lots of athletes are out there competing, and they can follow sports results in real time on their phones. The Cape Gazette is an outlier in the industry, a successful publication in the marketplace serving a community where making the paper is still a big deal – unless it's a mugshot in the police report. 

Look fast go faster - Top-shelf sprinters look fast standing still. Most look slow walking to class during the day, like a small jet taxiing on the runway. Cape junior Trey Johnson fits the profile and has stepped into the ring of honor as one of Cape’s all-time fastest humans. Trey set an indoor school record in the 55-meter dash Dec. 14 while competing at the Virginia Beach High School Opener, running 6.48 to break the previous record held by Ricky Pitts, Class of ‘86. Trey moved to the finals and placed second overall. Allison Ortiz, a freshman, ran a personal-best time of 5:40.72 in the 1,600 and backed that up with a time of 2:30 in the 800 meters at the Alvernia Holiday Classic. Freshman Abigail Crowley of Sussex Academy, competing at the Tower Hill Invitational, won the 3,200 in 11:25 and placed second in the 1,600 in 5:24. Katya Geyer won the high jump, clearing the bar at 5-feet-even. Jason Baker, running in the Virginia Beach High School Opener, placed second in the 1,600 in 4:33, which is a top 50 performance this indoor season. What is Trey Johnson’s 6.48 projected for 100 meters? The website speedendurace.com makes an inarguable point: “The best way to determine 100-meter time is to run 100 meters.” 

We Are Marshall - The 2006 biographical sport drama stars Mathew McConaughey as head coach Jack Lengyel. It is about a 1970 plane crash that killed 37 members of the Thundering Herd football team and 75 total, including coaches. The news in 2024 is that Marshall opted out of the Independence Bowl versus Army because 25 players had entered the transfer portal. Days earlier, coach Charles Huff departed the program for a job at Southern Miss. Randy Moss played at Marshall (1996-97) and won a 1AA national championship with Chad Pennington at quarterback. Moss recently stepped away from his on-air job with ESPN to battle bile duct cancer. Pennington is the head coach at Sayre School in Lexington, Ky., who just won the Class 1A state title. Cole Pennington, Chad's son, is a quarterback on the Marshall football roster. On Nov. 30, 1996, Marshall beat Delaware 59-14 on the way to the 1AA national championship. Rob Myers was a sophomore quarterback on that Delaware team. Eddie Conte was a wide receiver. And there were three players from Sussex Central – Cliff Lawson, Todd Lawson and Kurt Hussong. Concentric circles of connections over a generation of time. 

Snippets - Morgan Bradford, a field hockey player for Delaware straight outta Delmar, will play her final season as a graduate student assistant at Shippensburg University. The 2025 University of Southern California track roster features two players from the Henlopen Conference – Jazonte Levan, a freshman sprinter out of Seaford, and Mauricette Yougendy, a sophomore hurdler who ran for Sussex Tech. Go to usctrojans.com and read all about them under the track roster bios. Levan is a mechanical engineering major, while Mauricette is majoring in computer science. Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter said during his acceptance speech, “I have always looked up to myself, so I’m not surprised when other people look up to me.” Travis is raw and doesn't roll with fake humbleness. Lil Wayne, who made the front row of Hunter’s group while grandmom was in the balcony, wrote a lyric from the song Dr. Carter, “Excuse me if I’m late but like a thief it takes time to be this great.” Go on now, git!