THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, February 16, 1996 TAG: 9602150178
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 25 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY LEE TOLLIVER, BEACON SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Long : 141 lines
TO THE CASUAL observer, it would have appeared last Friday that the Beach District had been running high-level swimming meets for ages.
The district championship at the Princess Anne Recreation Center pool easily gave that appearance.
``The folks here at Parks and Rec, and everybody else, involved have done a magnificent job with this thing,'' Salem coach Randy Sterling said. ``This meet has just been fantastic.''
Aside from the multitude of volunteers and officials involved in putting on the day- and evening-long event, Sterling and other coaches sang the praises of Janis Sweeney and Mike McGee.
Sweeney is a recreation supervisor in charge of the Princess Anne pool, while McGee is the city's athletic training coordinator out of the school division's student activities office and a rabid supporter of the swimming program.
Without those two, Beach District swimming might never have become a reality. The program started as a club team format last year in perfect matchup of school and recreation departments.
This year, the sport became the district's newest varsity activity.
MORE SWIMMING: The pride that went into the regular season and district meet will be shown off Saturday to swimmers and coaches from the Eastern and Peninsula districts when the first-ever Eastern Region swim meet hits the water at Princess Anne.
The Beach will likely have an advantage in a couple of ways - swimming in its own familiar waters that are measured in meters. Most other districts swim in yards.
That factor is coupled with the fact that Beach teams feature more of the top club team swimmers in the region and a few that have earned national recognition in their respective sports.
Competition begins at 9 a.m. with consolation championships and final starting at 5 p.m.
This will be the end of the road for Eastern swimmers, as the first Group AAA state meet isn't scheduled until next winter.
Maury captured the Eastern boys and girls titles. At the Beach, Kempsville won in the boys division, while Cox took the girls.
Favorites from Norfolk are Maury's Evan Poston in the 50 and 100 freestyles, as well as Commodore double winner Peter Herbert in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke. Kevin Kresovich took the 200 free. Eastern girls hopefuls are Maury double winner Alison McPhee in the 50 and 100 frees and Lake Taylor distance swimmer Kelley Harkins in the 500 free.
Kempsville's Mark Giusto won in the 100 free and 200 individual medley and participated in the winning 200 free relay. John Herzke of Cox won in the 200 and 500 free and swam a leg on the championship 400 free relay. Teammate Marcy Laderberg won titles in the 100 fly, 100 back and 200 medley relay. Salem's Shannon Turlip won titles in the 200 and 500 free, as well as the 200 and 400 relays. Salem's Julie Lestyan took titles in the 50 and 100 free and swam with Turlip in the relays. Kempsville's John McLaren won in the 50 free and 200 free relay.
REGION GYMNASTICS: A pair of Beach gymnasts and one from the Southeastern District will be the southside's hopefuls in the Eastern Region meet Saturday at Warwick High in Newport News. The competition, with berths to the Group AAA state meet at stake, begins at 10 a.m.
Kellam juniors Brooke Sawyer and Michelle Alexander, and Deep Creek freshman Melissa Suter, are the favorites from South Hampton Roads. Sawyer tied her Beach all-around record of 38.2 points in a district-winning effort. Alexander was second with 37.33. Suter overwhelmed Southeastern in winning every event with a total of 37.55 points.
Advancing out of the region will be the hardest it has ever been, with qualifying numbers elevated from previous seasons. The top two teams, top four all-around performers and top eight in each individual event move on automatically. But the all-around standard for anyone out of the top four has been changed from 35 total points to 36.95. Individual event hopefuls not in the top eight must now score a 9.2 on vault, a 9.4 on floor, and 9.3 on balance beam and uneven bars.
Kellam and Cox will be the team favorites. Cox is the defending region champion, but lost to Kellam in the Beach meet 146.8-146.1.
DISTRICT WRESTLING: Tallwood's Mike Mercado, a defending state champion who hasn't lost to a Beach District opponent since 1994, will be one of five returning champions in the field when the Beach District wrestling tournament kicks off today at Ocean Lakes.
Salem's Romon Copeland (125), Ocean Lakes' R.J. Davis (135, won at 130 last year), Ocean Lakes' Mike Ernest (130, won at 135 last year) and Princess Anne's Bobby Julian (189, won at 160 last year) join Mercado (112 both years) as returning champions.
Meanwhile, Tallwood will be out to add the tournament team title to its regular-season crown. Defending tournament champion Cox and First Colonial, which finished second and third, respectively, to Tallwood during the regular season, again loom as the Lions' chief contenders. The Falcons edged the Patriots in a dual match in mid-January; First Colonial outpointed Cox in the Western Branch Invitational in mid-December.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the Eastern Region tournament Thursday through Feb. 24 at Churchland High School.
THE SCHEDULE
Today: First-round matches, 3:30 p.m.; quarterfinals, 4:30 p.m.; Semifinals and first consolation round, 7:30 p.m. Saturday: consolation quarterfinals, noon; consolation semifinals, 1:30 p.m.; fifth-place matches, 3 p.m.; third-place matches, 3:45 p.m.; finals, 7 p.m.
TOP SEEDS
103: 1. Brad Pond, Cox; 2. Dustin Howell, Kellam. 112: 1. Mike Mercado, Tallwood; 2. Dustin Howell, Kellam. 119: 1. Jason Bernd, First Colonial; 2. Frank Lucero, Tallwood. 125: 1. Romon Copeland, Salem; 2. Shelton Viola, Cox. 130: 1. Jason Boswell, Kellam; 2. Jeff Bernd, First Colonial.
135: 1. Pierre Pryor, First Colonial; 2. R.J. Davis, Ocean Lakes. 140: 1. Ed Stockunas, Kellam; 2. Chris Karhan, First Colonial. 145: 1. Jesse Correll, Cox; 2. Billy Booth, Princess Anne. 152: 1. Andre Kemp, Tallwood; 2. Hunter Hooper, Kellam. 160: 1. Joe Kerr, Tallwood; 2. William Lewis, Cox.
171: 1. Mohammed Youssoffi, Cox; 2. Chris Brashers, Tallwood. 189: 1. Alvin Wilson, Tallwood; 2. Bobby Julian, Princess Anne. 215: 1. Mike Mooney, Tallwood; 2. Bill Tyson, Ocean Lakes. 275: 1. Leevi MacDonald, Green Run; 2. Steve Mings, Cox. MEMO: Staff writer Paul White contributed the wrestling information in this
report.
ILLUSTRATION: HIGH SCHOOL REPORT
Staff photos by L. TODD SPENCER
Green Run's Duane Prasuhn reaches for the wall as he competes in the
200 individual medley at the Beach District swimming championships.
Stephanie Jenkins of Kempsville High strokes her way down the lane
in the 100 meter breaststroke. Cox High won the girls district team
competition.
Kempsville's Kristen Grabb strikes a graceful pose as she begins her
floor exercise in the district meet.
Bayside's Christina George shows off her elasticity during her
balance beam routine at the Beach District gymnastic championships.
Kirsten Strausbaugh, 4, seems to be dreaming of future days as she
sits with the Kellam gymnasts at the district meet. Kirsten is the
daughter of Kellam coach Debbie Strausbaugh.
by CNB