Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507170082
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Shortly after finishing 12th in the archery competition during those Los Angeles Olympics, Rowe put her arrows back into her archer's quiver and put away her bow for eight years.
Now, she is aiming to get to next year's Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Her comeback road wound through Salem's Green Hill Park on Saturday, where she is competing in the Commonwealth Games of Virginia, which continue today.
Getting to the Olympics again is ``one of the reasons I'm here,'' said Rowe, who lives in McLean. ``I'm going to the Olympic trials in mid-August. I've used up all my vacation time this summer going to competitions.''
Already this summer, Rowe, a two-time national champion, has competed in the state festival in New Jersey, the World Championship tryouts in San Diego, the Penn State Championships and a couple of other local and regional tournaments.
Ten years ago, that kind of travel schedule wore down Rowe.
``I'd been shooting for 15 years'' before retiring, she said. ``It was work, shoot, work, shoot. ... I burned out. I said, `This isn't fun anymore. I'm not doing it if it's not fun. I'm not doing this again until I want to.' That wasn't until '93.''
From 1985-1993, Rowe didn't take part in any tournaments. It wasn't until she dabbled in coaching that she realized she still wanted to shoot.
Disgusted with the attitude of some of her students - ``They wouldn't listen to me,'' she said - Rowe decided in 1993 it was time to pick up a bow again.
``If I couldn't get my point across directly by telling them,'' Rowe said, ``I thought I'd get it across by showing them.''
Those points, like the tips of her arrows, hit the mark.
She said she is getting the most enjoyment out of archery since her college days, when she first picked up a bow during a physical education class at the University of Pittsburgh. Rowe said she believes she's a better archer now than she was 11 years ago, when she was considered one of the best female archers in the United States.
``I'm much better,'' she said. ``I'm much more consistent. ... My mental perspective is better.''
Rowe took silver during this year's Pan Am Games in Argentina. She won the Pan Am gold in 1983.
Last year, she won a gold medal on her first visit to the Commonwealth Games.
Rowe, who works for a telecommunications company, traveled to the Commonwealth Games with fellow members of the Fairfax Target Archers. It is the first archery club she has joined, and its affect on her countenance can't be underestimated.
``It's so much more fun going shooting with other people,'' Rowe said. ``It's all fun again.''
Other Games highlights from Saturday, when 33 sports were contested, included:
BASEBALL: The North squad is the only unbeaten team after winning two games - an 8-2 victory over Central and a 7-6 triumph over the East. Cache Decker homered and Juan Piniella had three hits for the North in the second game.
The West team, which includes Southwest Virginia players, lost 7-5 to the East, then beat the Central 4-3 when Anthony Pennix singled home the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning. Larry Bowles of Boones Mill pitched two innings of scoreless relief to earn the victory.
In the West's loss, Doug Kenney of Cave Spring High School homered and Pennix had a double and two singles.
Play resumes at 8:30 a.m. today, when the West plays the North followed by the East and Central.
BASKETBALL: Virginia Tech's Ace Custis scored 36 points and former Hokie Jay Purcell added 27 as Blacksburg beat the Jaguars of Washington, D.C., 114-69 in a men's 18- to 34-year-old division game. Blacksburg will play Stan's Team, the only other unbeaten squad in the field. Stan's Team beat Paye's Team 100-90.
HANDBALL: Roanokers Andy Hudick and Tom Stocks knocked off 1994 national doubles champions Jim Larson and Pat Lowery of Arlington 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 10-11, 11-6 in the Open Doubles gold-medal match.
Richmond's Bob Dyke beat Larson 11-9, 10-11, 11-10, 2-11, 11-9 to win the Open Singles.
RACEWALKING: Nearly every record fell during the men's and women's 10-kilometer race at Blackwater Creek Natural Area in Lynchburg. The top three men's walkers finished faster than the previous record. Phillip Dunn of Falls Church set the mark by winning the 20-29 division in 44 minutes, 17 seconds.
Salem's Bruce Booth broke his previous record in the 40-and-over division by winning the race in 56:10. Marykirk Cunningham set a women's record by winning the 20-29 race in 49:15.
by CNB