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Crystal Maston ran a great races in both the 4x100-meter relay and the 100-meter dash. |
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Louisville swimmer Jonathan Shelton had the unenviable task of cramming all of his most important races at the 2006 Special Olympics USA National Games into just one day. A butterfly specialist, Shelton had three finals today, and while he earned medals in all three events, he truly saved his best for last. At the end of a long day, Shelton told Team Kentucky swim coach Jan Krekel that he wasn't satisfied with the silver medal he won in the earlier 50-yard butterfly, that he wanted gold.
When he hit the pool for the 25-yard butterfly, things didn't look good early. Shelton fell a length and a half back in a a very short race. But Shelton battled on, and made a tremendous comeback, touching the wall with just two one-hundredths of a second to spare and his gold medal secured. His time of 22.27 seconds was a personal best.
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Basketball
The Owensboro Bulls advanced to the gold medal game with a 36-25 victory over Oregon today.
Chad McCarty led a shorthanded Kentucky team to the victory with 12 points and nine rebounds. Joseph Sapp, who was filling in at point guard for Kentucky, added nine points.
The Bulls won despite losing starting point guard Dustin Smith to a stomach virus. Chris Willis, another starter, was recovering from the same virus and was only able to play sparingly.
The undefeated Kentucky team will go for the gold medal on Friday at 1:15 pm (CDT) against Massachusetts. Kentucky beat Massachusetts on Monday to open pool play.
Bowling
All four Kentucky bowlers-- Keith Cottrell of Georgetown, Cindy Cusick and Mitchell Walls of Louisville and Julie Queen of Frankfort -- joined forces in the team competition today and Team Kentucky's winning ways just rolled on. The foursome rolled a 1580 combined series to capture the gold medal by 58 pins over a team from Missouri.
For Cottrell it was the third gold medal of these games, having won in singles, doubles and team. Walls earned his second gold medal teamed with Cottrell to go with the silver he won in the singles. It was the second medal for Cusick and Queen. They won a bronze medal together in the doubles competition. Cusick also won a sixth place ribbon in singles. Queen took fourth place in her singles division.
Softball
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In addition to the Team Kentucky athletes and coaches, Special Olympics Kentucky volunteer Stephanie Barnes is serving as a softball official at these Games. |
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Team Kentucky opened up an 8-3 lead in the semifinal round, but a late offensive burst from Pennsylvania proved to be too much. Pennsylvania scored four times in the sixth inning to tie the game and added an inside the park home run in the seventh.
Team Kentucky played well, but just couldn't get the bats going late in the game and couldn't answer the Pennsylvania outburst, falling 9-8. It was the same score by which Kentucky had beaten Pennsylvania in the pool play round.
Kentucky will play for the bronze medal at 1 pm (CDT) on Friday.
Swimming
It was a banner day for the Team Kentucky swimmers. In their first race of the day, all four swimmers -- Lindsay Davis of Crestwood, Kyle Gathof of LaGrange, Katelyn Hale of Nicholasville and Shelton combined to take the gold medal in their heat of the 4x25-yard medley relay. Their time of 1:53.97 was the fastest they have recorded as a group since they began training together for these Games.
Like Shelton, who added a silver in the 50-yard butterfly, each of the other three swimmers also earned an individual medal.
Gathof struck gold again in the 50-yard backstroke in a personal best time of 49.63 second. It was his third gold medal of these Games. Davis took silver in a time of 31.02 seconds in the 25-yard breaststroke and Hale captured silver in the 25-yard freestyle in a time of 35.12 seconds.
Track and Field
The Team Kentucky 4x100-meter relay team opened the day with a bronze medal finish. Christy Farwell of Alexandria, Crystal Maston of Bowling Green, Matthew Minning of Taylor Mill and Jeremy Thompson of Lexington finished in a time of 1:07.42.
Thompson added another medal in the long jump, leaping 2.440 meters to capture silver in his division. He also received a sixth-place ribbon in the 100-meter dash.
Maston was edged at the line finishing fourth in her heat of the 100-meters, missing the bronze by just .15 seconds.
Lindsay Davis swims the 50-breaststroke at approximately 11 am (CDT).
Basketball plays for the gold medal at 1 pm (CDT).
Softball plays for the bronze medal at 1:15 pm (CDT).
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