Local Special Olympians strike gold

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Recreation notes

Date published: 7/7/2006

From STAFF REPORTS

Fredericksburg-area athletes will bring home several gold medals at the 2006 U.S. Special Olympics National Games in Ames, Iowa.

Swimmer Grace Anne Braxton of Fredericksburg won the Division 4 200-meter backstroke (3:46.04) and finished second in the Division F5 100-meter individual medley (1:53.38). She also competed for Virginia's team in the 400 medley relay.

Golfer Ionela Warren of Spotsylvania County won the gold medal in the Level 1, Division 2 Individual Skills competition. She finished with 127 points in a three-day event that included drives, iron shots, pitching and short and long putts.

Power lifter Gloria Jeffries of Mechanicsville swept first place in all the Division B2 categories: bench press (50 kilograms), squat (90 kilograms), dead lift (122.5) and total lift (262.5). Her coach is Spotsylvania resident Mike Canaday.

The Riverbend Grizzlies finished third in the Division A team basketball competition. The Grizzlies lost their opener to Utah (27-18), then rebounded by defeating Northern California (34-29) before losing yesterday to Southern California (42-9).

Members of the Grizzies include Ramona Auclair, Thomas Brent, Margaret Elswick, Shawnthe Faucet, Kristi Long, Melinda Prather, Caitlin Rapp, Darnell Sedgewick, and Samantha Sheehan.

The Special Olympics national games continue through tomorrow and will include over 3,000 athletes from all 50 states competing in 12 events.

Chris Hamm of Fredericksburg tied Curtis Strange's course record at Kingsmill Resort & Spa's Woods golf course in Williamsburg and in the process earned a berth in the upcoming U.S. Junior Amateur Championship.

Hamm followed an opening round of 79 in the recent qualifying tournament with a 7-under-par 65 for a 36-hole total of 144, trailing medalist winner Brinson Paolini of Virginia Beach by two shots.

Evan Beck of Virginia Beach (71-74--145) and Daniel Allen of Richmond (77-72--149) earned first and second alternate spots for the national tournament July 17-22 at Racho Santa Fe (Calif.) Golf Club.

Chancellor's Steven Loccisano broke one of the Rappahannock Swim League's oldest records last night in a dial meet against Curtis Park.

Loccisano swam the boys age 15-18 100-yard freestyle in 47.74 seconds, shattering the old mark of 48.61 set by Jeff Murray in 1988.

Curtis Park's Nevin Cook also broke an 11-year-old record with a 28.22 clocking in the boys 15-18 50 breast stroke. Chancellor is one of the RSL's few remainig yards pools.

There have been technical issues with reporting RSL dual-meet results. They will be published when they are tabulated.

Over 200 athletes have pre-registered for Sunday's 22nd annual Rappahannock Area YMCA Colonial Beach Triathlon.

The race begins at 6:50 a.m. and includes a 1-kilometer river swim, a 40-kilometer bicycle ride and a 10-kilometer run.

Date published: 7/7/2006