Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 17, 1995 TAG: 9507180144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR. STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Dominick Millner, the sprinter, was a revelation.
The former William Fleming High School star turned a triple play of track and field by winning gold medals in the long jump, 100 meters and 200 meters during the Commonwealth Games of Virginia on Sunday at Salem High School.
The meet marked the first sprint competitions for Millner, who this spring as a freshman at the University of Florida finished fourth in the NCAA long jump.
Shortly after shattering the previous Games long-jump record by more than two feet with his leap of 25 feet, 7 inches, Millner traded the springs in his shoes for some rockets and ran a record-tying 22.2 seconds in the 200.
Since there weren't enough runners to warrant heats for the 100, the race was moved up in the schedule.
That gave Millner only 30 minutes to rest for the 100, which he ran in 11.06 seconds, good enough for the gold but more than three-tenths of a second off the record.
``The sun just drained me,'' Millner said. ``I was up here yesterday working as a volunteer [for the youth track meet] and I was outside all day. That wasn't very smart.''
Millner's day in the sun hardly was spoiled by a 100 time he called ``disappointing.''
It hardly was that, considering he had not run anything shorter than 400 meters in high school.
He said Florida's coach, Ralph Spry, wants him to compete in the 100 and 200 next year to improve his speed for the long jump.
``He wants me to be more explosive,'' said Millner, who set a personal best in the Southeastern Conference meet with a leap of 25-103/4, then followed that by jumping 25-6 in the NCAA meet.
``The only way for me to [be explosive], is to build my speed,'' he said. ``I can do that in the sprinting events. If I never become the best sprinter in the world, it's OK with me as long as it helps me in the long jump.''
Millner needed little help in that event Sunday. On a runway where he had set his high school personal best of 24-51/2 more than a year ago, he soared well past the previous Games record of 23-4 set by James Eckerode in 1991.
``I knew I'd break the record,'' Millner said. ``It was a matter of how much I'd break it by.''
Millner followed that by tying the 200 record set by Brian West of Falls Church in 1992.
Other highlights from Sunday's Games competition:
BASKETBALL: So, Ace Custis, was it more thrilling to win a Commonwealth Games gold medal than it was to win the National Invitation Tournament championship?
``Oh, no,'' said Custis, who helped lead the Blacksburg team to the gold in the 19- to 24-year-old division. ``But it was still fun.''
Custis, the leading scorer for Virginia Tech's 1995 NIT champs, scored 32 points in a 93-85 victory over Stan's Team of Lynchburg in the gold-medal game at Patrick Henry High School. Former Hokies point guard Jay Purcell added 20 for Blacksburg.
That game was a two-point contest until the final minute, but the two teams played a better game earlier in the day when Blacksburg won 125-119 in triple overtime.
Jon Maher led Blacksburg with 27 points in that game, Custis had 26 and Purcell 21. William Ratliff led Stan's Team with 25 and Otis Tucker had 24.
``That game was frustrating,'' Custis said. ``I just wanted it to be over. This was some tough competition. I'll admit, I liked running up and down the floor and that was an up-and-down game if there ever was one.''
In girls' basketball, local teams dominated, with Roanoke Star squads winning championships in the 12-and-under and 13-and-under divisions. Roanoke FOP won the 14-and-under, and Floyd took the 15-and-under title.
In boys' basketball, the Roanoke Valley Jaguars won the 11-and-under division.
BASEBALL: Dennis Champagne led off the bottom of the eighth with a home run to give the East a 5-4 win over the North in the gold-medal game at Cave Spring High School.
North's Barry Blake sent the game into extra innings with a dramatic solo homer over the scoreboard with two out in the top of the seventh.
The West took the bronze with a 3-2 victory over the Central. Cave Spring's Doug Kenney had three hits and knocked in the game-winning run in the fifth.
MOUNTAIN BIKING: A high-speed crash allowed Kyle Dixon to pull off a major upset in the Pro/Expert bike race, which is the fifth of eight races in the Pedro's Mid Atlantic Championship Series.
Race leader and current Pedro's leader Gunner Shogren, 32, of Morgantown, W.Va., wiped out on the descent near Explore Park. Dixon, 21, of Reston took the lead for good and won by two minutes with a time of 1 hour, 36 minutes, 30 seconds.
``This is a huge upset,'' said race coordinator Jim Swasey. ``Those guys had to scrape themselves off a cliff after that crash.''
Shogren regrouped to finish second in the race, which is known on the circuit as the ``Blue Frog'' and consists of four 10-kilometer laps. Shogren retained his yellow leader's jersey for the series by a slim margin over Dixon.
by CNB