Cape should hang a championship banner in wrestling room

Just plain weird - There were 48 wrestling teams at the March state championships at Cape Henlopen High School. Cape placed first in team scores with 191.5 points, followed by Salesianum with 172.5, Sussex Central 157, Delaware Military Academy with 145, Caesar Rodney with 137 and Caravel Academy with 119.5. It was the best state meet performance by Cape in the history of the tournament. Two years ago, Cape was Division I state champion (fire truck escort), but finished below Division II’s Caravel in total points. Last year, Cape was the Division I dual-meet state champion. The wrestling team state champion was determined by points earned by a team in the final individual tournament from 1957-92. Cape’s 191.5 points would have won all but three of those meets. I know, everything was different. The wrestling committee and coaches agreed to do it this way, but every college conference in the country had a dual-meet team champion and a conference champion funneling into the national championship meet to decide an overall team champion. Cape at least needs a banner to hang in “the room” to remind grapplers it’s not about the fire truck unless your house is on fire.  

Rage tweeting - When the canary rages, it sounds like singing, but when a human rages, the sounds are silent because those tweets are written not spoken. I recently went for a postoperative follow-up visit and the intake person asked, “Are you still icing?” And I answered, “No, but I’m chillin’.” Athletes compete, they don’t tweet. Outcomes are determined by the play on the field, and sometimes officials are scapegoated, but they are rarely taken down by a tweet taser because you are likely to see them again, which at best is awkward. My writings enter the Google sphere, and sometimes famous people will email me just to let me know I’m an idiot. My first inclination is to agree with them; it just makes it easier on everyone.   

“If only you believe like I believe, we’ll get by” - I was Cape track coach 1976-85 and carried on the Tom Hickman tradition of borrowing athletes from other sports on days they didn't have games. Track was always the secondary sport because it is the most individualistic. The tradition continues today. A few elite Beacon lacrosse girls joined the track team for the Friday night Blades Invitational. The late Jim Blades was my coaching contemporary. He liked me but treated me like a golden retriever who bites. First-place winners for Beacon girls were Ally Diehl, who won the 200 in 26.8 seconds from a standing start, Shiloh O’Grady in the 1,600 in 6:07, followed by Erin Noonan in 6:08, and Isabel Mastrangelo and Harper Marmele, who cleared 4-feet-10-inches in the high jump. On the Beacon boys’ team, Ozmeer Daisey high jumped 5-6. Amir Allen of Milford won the shot put with a throw of 46-11. Complete results can be found at de.milesplit.com. At the N5CTA invitational April 1 at A.I. du Pont High School, Ryan Baker won the 1,600 in 4:28.94, while and Jason Baker, a freshman, placed second in the 3,200 in 10:12.31. 

Snippets - Virginia Tech women’s lacrosse beat Duke April 1 in triple overtime 13-12. Freshman Ella Rishko (Cape) had three goals for the Hokies. The Notre Dame women defeated North Carolina 16-12. Jackie Wolak, sister of Cape player Andrew Wolak, had a goal and two assists for the Irish. Jackie, a senior, leads the Irish on the season with 29 goals and 29 assists for 58 points. She played high school lacrosse at Ridgewood, N.J., where she was National Player of the Year. Xavier University, a first-year Division I program in women’s lacrosse, is 4-5 on the season. Sawyer Walker (Cape) has six goals and an assist and nine draw controls. Riley Klopp, a field hockey player at Franklin & Marshall, has been named a Scholar of Distinction for a GPA of 3.9 or higher. The recognition goes across all divisions of NCAA sports. Speaking of the Diplomats, a point of clarification is that the F&M wrestling program competes at the Division I level; all other sports are Division III. Luke Bender, a recent national high school champion at 152 pounds, will wrestle at F&M next season. Nick Campbell (Cape) is playing outfield at Penn State Beaver Campus and has appeared in 15 games with six RBIs, six runs scored and three stolen bases. The kid is a gamer! He has a grandfather nicknamed “Buckets.” You may be local if you can chase that ball. Josh Reinhold, the starting shortstop for the 24-7 Christopher Newport Captains, is batting .376 on the season and the stats for HBP have him with 10. Hey, Josh, jump out of the way! The University of Virginia baseball team is 24-3 on the season. Jake Gelof is batting .369 with a team-leading eight home runs. William & Mary women’s lacrosse won a home game against Delaware 13-12 in overtime. Caroline Donovan is a two-time captain and senior defender for the Tribe; she is the daughter of Keith and Lisa Millman Donovan. If you're local, you can run for 10 minutes chasing that kinship ball. Go on now, git!