There are hundreds of athletes from Delaware who are playing college sports across the country, and trying to keep up with everyone’s progress is impractical, but from time to time I’ll post some notes from those that I come across while web surfing.

Tracee Mosch has started every game for the Dickinson College basketball team. Mosch, a St. Marks graduate and Dickinson freshman, is averaging 8.2 ppg and roughly 5 rebounds per game for the 7-10 Red Devils, who compete in the Centennial Athletic Conference in Pennsylvania.

William Penn graduate, Erin Mulshenock, just completed her first regular season with the Penn State swim team. Mulshenock, a freshman, recorded team best times for this year in the 200 Backstroke (2:00.32), the 200 IM (2:01.68) and the 400 IM (4:21.13). The 400 IM mark is a new Penn State record as well. She also logged a 57.85 in the 100 Backstroke, which was good for 4^th best on her team and a 52.42 in the 100 Freestyle, which was good for the best time on her team this year. She was also named the Big Ten Swimmer of the Week for the week ending 1-28. Following is the release about that accomplishment-

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - Freshman Erin Mulshenock (New Castle, Del.) was named the women's Big Ten Swimmer of the Week. It is the second week in a row a Nittany Lion has won the award. Deirdre Dlugonski (Washington, Pa.) was last week's recipient.

Mulshenock has been swimming NCAA provisional times throughout the season and this past weekend was no exception. In a double dual against Indiana and Michigan State she won both the 200 and 400-yard individual medleys in NCAA times of 2:02.14 and 4:21.13. Her time in the 400-yard individual medley (4:21.13) set a new Penn State record, bettering the old record of 4:22.74 set by Jenna Lopano.

She also swam a NCAA consideration time of 2:00.32 in the 200-yard backstroke, earning a second place finish. All three times swam by Mulshenock last weekend were season bests and sit atop Penn State's season best lists for the 2001-2002 season.

Penn State finished the regular season with a 7-3 record.

Another local swimming product producing team-high times is St. Marks graduate and Virginia Tech Hokie Junior Jill Turner. Her times in the 50 Free (23.46), 100 Free (50.69), 200 Free (1:49.94) are all over a half second faster than her nearest teammate. She also has 58.44 in the 100 Backstroke, which is good for third on the team. Turner is also part of three relay teams that lay claim to Virginia Tech school records; the 200 Medley, 200 Freestyle, and 400 Freestyle.

Yet another Spartan is one of Turner’s teammates. Jen Brielmeier is now a sophomore Hokie who swims the 100 and 200 Breaststrokes. She has a 1:06.22 in the 100 – good for 2^nd – and a 2:22.43 in the 200, which is good for third best on the team, and also has the fifth best 200 IM time (2:11.26.)

Archmere graduate, and VT Hokie, David Litchfield is in his sophomore season with the swimming team. He has the third best 50 Free time (21.17), the fifth best 100 Free time (47.50), third best 100 Breaststroke (57.25), and the fourth best 200 Breaststroke time (2:10.57).

Mt. Pleasant graduate and Hofstra University freshman Bianka Brunson is averaging about 17 minutes a game and averaging 3.9 points per game and 4.2 rebounds per game for the basketball team. Hofstra, a CAA member, is 7-13 on the season as of this date. Brunson is playing both guard and forward for her college team. When she played for Jim Simmons’ Green Knights, she was primarily a guard.

Trevor and Travis McLaurin, the McKean football stars have signed a letter of intent to play football with William & Mary next year. That will mean the twins will get to play against the University of Delaware. Trevor was a first-team all-stater and Travis was a second team all-stater. These are good kids who are not only talented, but personable as well. They will succeed at whatever they put their minds to. I enjoyed their radio show appearance last year with me and will follow their progress through college with enthusiasm.

Caesar Rodney's Jill Hajec will run track for West Point Military Academy next year. Jill will be back in action during the spring for the Rider track team. She is on the swimming team during the winter. Another great young person with a great smile who I still remember seeing standing at the end of the cross country championship race, that she had just won, shaking every runners hand that was coming down the shoot.

I had a chance to see the Caesar Rodney-St. Andrews swim meet on Tuesday. I traveled to Middletown particularly to see Kristina MacLeish and Erin Courtney in regular season action. The two star junior Riders did not disappoint although the Riders lost the meet by a single point.
MacLeish broke Courtney’s pool record in the 200 yard freestyle and then bested her own mark in the 500 free by a half second. The new St. Andrews pool record in the 200 is now three seconds less than it was before the meet.
Courtney won her two solo events as well recording wins in the 100 butterfly and 100 backstroke.
The lack of a diving team hurt the Riders as St. Andrews received 12 points for finishing 1-2-3 without competition.
The Riders have the third best relay times in the 200 Medley relay and the 400 Freestyle relay. Their standings in the top ten are really based on how they figure to do in the state meet. With MacLeish a favorite to win two individual races and Courtney a favorite to win at least one, one could figure that the Riders would pick up at least 150 points without any other Rider recording place finishes in the top 16.

Speaking of fast, Dover’s Jason Lilly ran in the Potomac Valley High School Invitational at the Prince George County Sport Complex in Landover Md. Jason won the 400 meter Dash with a time of 48.76 which is the fastest time in the Nation on a flat 200 meter track. Jason also placed 2nd in the 200 meters with a time of 22.06 which is the 2nd fastest time in the Nation on a flat 200 meter track. As of February 4th Jason has the 2nd fastest overall 48.47 (flat - banked and oversized tracks) 400-meter time in the Nation and 3rd
overall in the 200 meters- 21.83.

The third Delaware Sports – On Location from The Charcoal Pit in Prices Corner was a blast on Monday. Wilmington College and Goldey-Beacom College went head to head in a sports trivia contest and the place was jammed with people. (Thanks for that).
Both schools came prepared to impress in one way or another. Wilmington brought out their cheerleading team (scoring major, major brownie points with the host) as well as the Wildcat himself, while Goldey-Beacom athletes and coaches came in uniform and armed with sports trivia knowledge. Mary Malone, the Lightning assistant basketball coach volunteered to lead the action and she outscored Wilmington Soccer player Brett Scholl 6-3. The Lightning never looked back from that point on. Tune in next Tuesday at 7 to see what happened.
The Goldey-Beacom trivia players included Toby Colella, Drue Matthews (the 1000-point scorer for Wilmington College), O’ Binna Eze, Erin Calloway, Michelle Carty, Lindsay Hageman, and Misty Topolie, all representing the basketball teams. Topolie, from North Bay, Ontario, struggled with names of local schools in nickname trivia, but hopped all over the question "Where is the Hockey Hall of Fame located?" (Toronto, Ontario of course.)
Wilmington sent Brett and Brian Scholl, the former Glasgow soccer stars, Jim Dempsey from the baseball team, Erin McNulty from the volleyball team, Katie Gallagher from the basketball and softball team, and Jenel Lawrence and Tiana Morris from the basketball team.

Missing from the evening’s competition were the soccer goddesses Kristin Hanna and Ashley Dilworth from Goldey and Katie Quigley from Wilmington. That was a disappointment, but there is already talk of a rematch so I expect to see them present at the next one!

The fourth DSOL will be held on the 18^th from 7-9 p.m. and will feature an all-girls contest between athletic teams from Brandywine high. The girls have fared well in sports trivia so far, so we are giving them their chance to shine even brighter.

Soon, we will back in Kent and Sussex County, although on what day and time is yet to be determined. So the planned expansion of Delaware Sports, the TV show, has us reaching into the Charter Cable system which serves Middletown-Odessa-Townsend and portions of Cecil County, MD; Kent and Sussex County; and Chester and Delaware Counties in Pennsylvania.

This syndication, if all goes through and goes well, will make us a major player and there can be no disputing that. With all of those six systems, we will reach into over 600,000 homes with well over a million potential viewers.
But think what that really means for a moment. Sure it’s cool for me and the Most Dangerous Man in Delaware, Dee Meyer, but also for the athletes that we highlight every week. They will benefit from the extra exposure as well. Think of all the colleges in the PA counties alone that have coaches who watch TV- Lincoln, Cheney, Villanova, Widener, West Chester, Immaculata, Neumann, etc. The event selection for our shows would change slightly; we would try to shoot more interstate events and more college events as well as continuing to feature state championships in Delaware and perhaps some from PA also. Could be exciting.

It’s not too early to think about the Delaware Sports Athletes of the Year for 2002. Our fifth annual presentation to our Male and Female Athlete of the Year should be made in late May or early June depending on how the logistics of surprising the winners are worked out.

Our Athletes of the Year are chosen ultimately by our staff, but we accept input during the course of the year from readers and viewers of Delaware Sports, all who have good knowledge of who is worthy of such an award.

Just off of the top of my head, here are some good candidates so far. For the boy’s award- Dover’s Jason Lilly, Hodgson’s Jordan Sianni, and St. Marks Andrew Donofrio come to mind. These athletes are steps ahead of their competition in their specialty events, which is a good measure to use for voting.

We do also take into consideration a person’s character as well. So please keep that in mind when the official nominations and voting processes take place. Humility is one of our top categories that are taken into consideration in the character department.

For the girls there are plenty that come to mind for me; Tatnall’s Meredith Lambert and Jackie Ciconte; Glasgow’s Kamilah Salaam, Polytech’s Tyresa Smith; St. Mark’s Michelle Huyhn-ba, Cape Henlopen’s Maren Ford, a few swimmers such as Kristina MacLeish, Kaitlyn Brady from Mt. Pleasant, and Christy Williams from Newark. There are plenty more of both genders of course, and when we open up nominations we will list all of those of are worthy of consideration and then let the voting begin.

Ok, time for some reader mail! It’s been a couple years since I did this and now since there are thousands of readers each day instead of dozens, there are some good ones. I’ll pull out some of the most common ones and stick to responding to the general topics as opposed to posting whole letters. I’ll leave out the authors of these of course.

Q: How come you spend so much time on boy’s sports?

A: I don’t really. I actually prefer to cover girl’s and women’s events. It’s an attitude thing more than anything else.

Q: How come you spend so much time on girl’s sports?
A: See the second part of answer number 1.

Q: You are wasting valuable web space. Quit and die.
A: That wasn’t really a question. But I think I know what you are going for. First, there is plenty of space out there and I have purchased my share of it to achieve some goals that I have. Second, I won’t quit, but someday I will die, so you will have your wish at that time, but not before my time.

Q: Thank you for putting forth the effort that you do to promote our kids and our state.
A: It’s fun and that’s why I do it.

Q: How do you choose what games to cover on your website and on your TV show?
A: During the regular season, it sometimes is as simple as figuring which game is closest to where I will be when my regular work day is complete. That usually ends being someplace close to my house, but I get to wherever I think will have the best game that I wish to see. During the playoffs, if there isn’t a crew available to help me shoot tape, then I pick teams that I haven’t covered as much first, then the next choice is which game will be the best.

Q: What is your favorite sport to write about?
A: First, get it out of your head that I am a writer. Stephen King is a writer. I am a hack with some free time. But when I have that free time, I prefer girl’s sports. Basketball is my least favorite, and softball is my favorite.

Q: You suck!
A: Show me where I said that I didn’t.

Q: You should get a job with the News Journal.
A: They never called me back after I sent in my resume. I guess the question before this one may have something to do with that. I actually was the Sports Editor for The Newark Post for a while. The News Journal Sports Editor Ron Fritz pointed them in my direction so that was cool. I don’t have anything against them, I should say, and would work there if there were an opening with which they would like me to fill. I have met most of them and they are all nice people who are just doing jobs the best that they can. I also like the freedom that I have here since I am the boss and would lose that if I worked for a big company.

Q: Who does the top ten rankings?
A: You are talking to the main person. But, there are five other people that help me reach certain conclusions who shall remain nameless so that they can stay free of bribery attempts.

Q: Who are you to decide whom the top ten teams are? The News Journal does the top ten teams.
A: They have their opinions and so do we. Sometimes they are right where we are wrong and vice versa. It makes for good water cooler chatter though doesn’t it? Sometimes we are even both wrong and sometimes we are even both right! I see five games a week and more and have what I think is a decent eye for talent and talented teams. So, since I pay for the space, I reserve the right to express my opinions. That is why America is the most awesome country in the world.

Q: You really shouldn’t be on TV. You’re not very good looking.
A: Never said that I was and I don’t disagree. But I pay for that space too and I think I do a decent job announcing highlights so I’m staying.

Q: You are a handsome man. Are you married? Do you party, big guy?
A: Not according to what the other dude says. But thanks, and no. Never was married and I don’t have any children. That is also a long sad story that I won’t go into here, but for now just realize that I cover high school sports and love to do it partially because I don’t have kids. I gave up partying a long time ago much to the delight of everyone who knew and knows me.

Q: What are some of the highlights that you have covered since you have been doing this?
A: Hmm. Good question. That would take some time to deal with, but one off the top of my head has to do with a second place cross-country finish by St. Andrews Morgan Scoville a few years ago. He ran himself sick just to get from third to second place and I couldn’t really appreciate why until he won state championships in each of the next two years.
I thought the Soccer championship that the St. Marks girls’ team won against A.I. duPont a couple years ago was something special. I was taping from the field and got a close-up experience of the emotions down on the field when the final whistle blew. It was something that still gives me chills when I go over the tape.

The softball championship game between Sussex Central and Caravel a couple years ago was fun because the Golden Knights Betsy Lecates and Caravel’s Jackie Homiak were pitching dueling no-hitters for six innings. Lecates was perfect through six and in the top of the seventh, a basehit into rightfield was turned into an out as rightfielder Kim Helm threw the runner out at first for the last out preserving the no-hitter through seven for Homiak. But the Bucs couldn’t celebrate since they still hadn’t reached base. That all changed in the bottom as Debbie Austin drove in the championship winning run to begin the three-year championship streak by the Bucs.
The Newark-A.I. duPont girl’s soccer championship in 96 or 97 went two days long. The Tigers were down late but late game heroics by freshman Beth Belanger tied the game, which eventually was finished in a driving rainstorm.

Those are some of few that stand out.

Q: How do you pick the Athlete of the Year?
A: The fans do. We just make sure that the nominated athletes are worthy and then we carefully track the voting process. We wanted our award to be one which the real sport fans and those who support Delaware Sports (most of which are the same people) had a big say.

Q: Why do so much high school stuff? What about the Blue Rocks, and the other semipro teams?
A: We have dabbled with other things beyond high school on the TV show. The reason we have stuck with high school events, primarily, is because there are more of them to choose from. This makes getting to events on time easier. And I think that high school events need more exposure and the kids can benefit more than athletes in other areas. The Blue Rocks have been very cold to me so not only do I not cover them, but also I don’t buy tickets to go see them.

Q: What happened to the newspaper? Are you going to start that again?
A: Ugh. Man, that was expensive and since I can’t effectively sell advertising and can’t seem to find anyone willing to do it for me, it will have to wait. It was very expensive, and I am broke from the Diamond State Games. (Which will answer the question about the DSG.)

Q: Which people have been your favorites to cover in the last couple years?
A: That’s a loaded question. I haven’t met too many people that I don’t like. Let’s just put it that way.

Q: How can I become part of Delaware Sports? How much do you pay?
A: Just call or write and we can talk about it. All of the people that do things for Delaware Sports have done so because they love to do it or they are here to learn something or get some exposure for themselves. Hopefully that will change sometime soon, but I’ve thought that might have happened already. But I won’t quit (see above)!

Q: Why don’t you stick to just one thing?
A: That would be boring for me.

Q: Were you an athlete?
A: Not in the true sense. I dabbled, but was only mediocre at best.

Q: Who will win the _______ game?
A: I don’t know, but I will let you know who wins it after they get the score to me. I can only speculate on any given game. All of the games have to be played because any team can win on any given day no matter how powerful one team may be. I really try not to answer that question because even forecasting to the best of my ability means that someone will send me a "you suck, quit and die" letter.

Wow, look where the time went. Q and A was fun this year!