by JUDITH KIMPAN

The Romeo High Schoolboys’ swim and dive teamheld its end-of-the-yearawards banquet at AddisonOaks Conference Center onMonday, March 29.

“It was a tough year, wehad a good team, but not alot of numbers goingagainst teams with 40swimmers,” said CoachKendall Peake.

He discussed the needfor greater depth; havingthe swimmers take the sec-ond and third places inevents.

“We always have gooddivers, and this year wasno exception,” he said. “Wehad great swimmers whoimproved individually, butour competition is steppingup in Macomb County.What really surprised memost this season was theguys’ energy; they just tookright off. I was close toretirement, but this teamrenewed my spirit to lookforward to another season.”

Academically, the teamhad one of the highestgrade point averages inyears achieving a 3.62 com-bined team average accord-ing to All State Academicstandards. The majority ofthe team received RomeoHigh School’s academicawards.

Individual awards were:Most Valuable Swimmer,Matt Ruman; Rookie of theYear, Danny Abbott;Coach’s Award, Ben Winn;and Most Improved, AdamCusick.

Sam Kimpan wasannounced as swim teamcaptain for next season andseveral swimmers wererecognized for making theAll-County Team.

The 200 yard medleyrelay team of Ruman,Adam Rhein, Chris Faz-

zalare and Kimpan wasnamed “Second Team.”Rhein was named “All-County Second Team” inthe 100 yard breaststroke,and the 400 free relay ofFazzalare, Ruman, Abbottand Winn was also named“Second Team.”

A summer swim campwill be held at the RomeoHigh School pool from 2:30-5 p.m., June 14-July 30.The camp is targeted formale and female highschool swimmers whereendurance training will bethe focus.

by RICK DESOTELLObserver Sports Writer

With its pitching a bitfatigued, the Romeo Highbaseball team needed a liftMonday, and they got itfrom freshman Joe Gard-ner.

Gardner (1-0) allowedtwo earned runs on threehits, walked four andstruck out three in sixcomplete innings for thewin and also drove in tworuns in a 5-2 win atLutheran North.

The win snaps the Bull-dogs’ four game losingstreak and improves theiroverall record to 4-4.

“Joe pitched great for ustonight,’’ Romeo Coach T.J.DeLamielleure said of hisyoung right hander. “Hegave up two early firstinning runs and shut themdown after that. It was abig lift for us after havingour pitching run down abit after the weekend.”

Offensively, catcher jun-ior Jake Vecore went 2-for-5 with one RBI for Romeo.Senior Jake Moore had twohits in four at-bats, hadone RBI and scored onerun; Spencer Szwejk 2 for4, Kyle Reichenbach hadtwo hits and scored a run.Nick Ray had one hit,drove in a run and scored arun and Zak Bellas was 1-for-4 with one run scored.

Junior right handerDane Davis allowed nohits and struck out one inrelief to earn his first savefor the Bulldogs, who hostSt. Clair today and Lam-phere on Friday.

“I think we did a muchbetter job of playing like ateam today,’’DeLamielleure concluded.“I thought we were focusedand did a good job of tak-ing care of business.”

Rochester Adams 6,Romeo 3:

Friday, April 9, atRochester, starting pitcherSzwejk (1-1) gave up fiveearned runs on six hits,walked three, struck out

seven and hit a batter tosuffer the loss.

“Spencer pitched well,’’DeLamielleure said. “Hemade some mistakes up inthe zone that they capital-ized on. I was pleased withthe way he battled andgave his team a chance towin. They were a good hit-ting team. Offensively, wemissed out on a couple ofopportunities with men inscoring position and itended up hurting us in theend.”

Ray had two hits,including a double, JustinMedley went 1-for-3 withone RBI and Davis, Vecore,Szwejk and Keith Biegans-ki had one hit each for theBulldogs.

Rochester Adams 13,Romeo 11:

In game two againstAdams, the Bulldogs blewan eight run lead to fall tothe Highlanders.

“We jumped out to an11-3 lead and I reallythought we got compla-cent, made some mentalmistakes and let themback in the ball game,’’DeLamielleure said.“Hopefully, we can learnthat when you have a goodteam like that on theropes, you need to makesure you put them away.”

Gardner went 3-for-4including a double and hadtwo RBIs. Davis had twohits including a home runand had two RBIs. Szwejkhit a grand slam and JoshReside was 2-for-3, withone RBI, one run scoredand a stolen base.

Chippewa Valley 7,Romeo 6:

In game one on Satur-day, April 10, at Chippewa,Moore, Reside and Rayeach drove in a run in alosing cause.

“We simply struck outtoo many times in thisgame and our bats didn’treally wake up until the6th inning. It was just toolate at that point,’’ saidDeLamielleure.

Chippewa Valley 16,

Romeo 6:In game two on Satur-

day, the Bulldogs fellbehind early and werenever really in this one.

“We didn’t give our-selves a chance in thisgame,’’ DeLamielleuresaid. “We didn’t get goodpitching, we walked waytoo many guys and then

didn’t play very gooddefense.”

Offensively, Szwejkwent 2-for-3, with one runscored and one RBI. Moorewas 1-for-2, with two runsscored and stole two bases.Bellas had one hit in threeat bats and had two RBIsand Davis went 1-for-4with one RBI.

Page 2-B — THE ROMEO OBSERVER — Wednesday, April 14, 2010_________________________________________________________

Rachael Gabrielson raising some dust while slidinginto home base against Lutheran North on April 12.

(Observer photo by Mike Nicley)

Junior first baseman Keith Bieganski holding the run-ner at bay so he does not steal the base at Chippewa

Valley on April 10.(Observer photo by Mike Nicley)

SWIM TEAM. The Romeo High School2009-10 swim team. Pictured bottom rowfrom left, Cody French, Max Smith, AlexSharp, Danny Abbott, middle row from left,Ryan Abbott, Brad Schmelzer, Ben Winn,Ridge Downs, fourth row from left, DivingCoach John Pearson, Stephen Figurski,Sam Kimpan, Jonathan Iafrate, Chris Faz-

zalare, Adam Cusick, Jake French, top rowfrom left, Adam Rhein, Captain MattRuman, Max Lennon, Shane Kent, andHead Coach Kendall Peake. Not picturedare Sterling Watson, Mike Szydlowski,Assistant Coach Fred Fitch and AnthonySerio.

(Photo courtesy Kendall Peake)

Senior Nick Ray sliding safely back to first base atChippewa Valley on April 10.

(Observer photo by Mike Nicley)

Taylor Waters stealing first base and making it to sec-ond safely against Lutheran North on April 12.

(Observer photo by Mike Nicley)

by RICK DESOTELLObserver Sports Writer

Sophomore starterMelissa Staelgraeve (1-0)worked five innings andsenior reliever CarolynMuir worked the other twoto combine on a one-hitterwith 15 strikeouts to leadthe Romeo High varsitysoftball team to a 7-1 win

over host Lutheran Northin the season opener forRomeo.

Sophomore TaylorWaters had two hits, drovein four runs and stole fourbases. Rachael Gabrielsonhad two hits, two RBIs,stole two bases and scoredtwo runs for the LadyBulldogs, who host St.Clair today.

The Romeo High Schooltrack team had a stellarstart to their 2010 seasonwith strong performancesat the Macomb CountyIndoor Championships onMarch 31.

Outstanding perform-ances included first placefinishes by Christian Plet-ta in the 60 meter dash(7.13), Steven Saliga in the600 meter run (1:30.36),

Nick Jackson in the 1600meter and 3200 meter run(4:44.40, 10:20.0), NathanFraeyman in the longjump and 300 meter dash(19’4”, 38.00), the 3200meter relay team of KoryLohrmann, Nathan Helle-buyck, Evan Simpson andSaliga (8:58), the 800meter relay team of BrianRoth, Pletta, Ben Brownand Ellis Weeks (1:39.84),

and the 1600 meter relayteam of Fraeyman, Simp-son, Saliga and NickBobek (3:47.89).

Other strong perform-ances included a secondplace finish by Bobek inthe 60 meter hurdles(8.82), a second place fin-ish by Simpson in the 600meter dash (1:31.37), afourth place finish by Rothin the long jump (18’11”), a

fourth place finish byLogan Fracalossi in thepole vault (11’0”), and afourth place finish byBrown in the shot put(44’5”).

Pletta broke the countyindoor record in the 60meter dash in his semifi-nal heat with a time of7.03.

Girls put together 15strikeouts for 7-1 victory

Win over Lutheran North snaps varsitybaseball team’s 4-game losing streak

Boys’ swim team holds annual awards banquet

FIRST PLACE FINISH. Sarah Hennings represented theRomeo Dolphins Swim Club when she competed in the 12and under State Meet March 12-14 in Waterford. She quali-fied in 10 events but was only allowed to compete in sixevents. Hennings took a first place in the 50 yard freestyleevent with a time of 28.28 and placed in the top 16 in all ofher other events. Coach Kendall Peake said Henningsstarted swimming in May 2009 as a beginner swimmer andhas excelled very fast throughout the year. “Keep an eyeon Sarah as she heads into the long course summer sea-son, as she will be one of Romeo’s top state swimmers,”said Peake.

(Photo courtesy of RWB Parks & Rec)

Strong performances start out track team’s season