Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 19, 1993 TAG: 9307190123
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Swimmer Betsy Durrant and fencer Dean Halstead proved as much Sunday during the Commonwealth Games of Virginia.
Durrant, 51, swam until she was a teen-ager, quit for 15 years, and took it up again in 1974. At Fallon Park on Sunday, the Virginia Beach resident won the 50-54 age-group gold medal in the women's 100 breast stroke and 100 backstroke at the masters' meet.
Halstead, 41, is a former A-rated fencer - the sport's highest rating - who sheathed his foil 10 years ago. Having started again last year, he is C-rated, and Sunday at Hollins College he beat B-rated Brian Martin 2-0 in a best-two-of-three bout for the gold medal in men's foil.
"I took one year off, and it stretched to 10," the Annandale resident said. "I changed jobs, had children, one thing led to another.
"I've been doing a little competition. That was one of the best bouts I've had since I came back."
Halstead and Martin, a 34-year-old from Alexandria, fence for the same Washington, D.C.-area club. So this wasn't a match of strangers.
"He's very tough," Halstead said. "Fencing him was a whole different level than everyone else here. [But] fencing is not tricks. It's fighting. You've got to concentrate and fight and don't let down."
At Fallon Park, Durrant didn't have comparable competition, but that wasn't the point. Masters' meet events put swimmers of all ages in each heat; age-group winners are then filtered out by times.
There were no silvers or bronzes awarded in the races Durrant won, but she was watching the clock. Her times Sunday were about two seconds off her best, she said. She's training for the national meet next month in Minneapolis, Minn.
"It's a lifestyle now," she said. "As an adult, I keep improving."
\ The Games' main weekend ended Sunday. The junior golf tournament is scheduled for today and Tuesday at Hanging Rock Golf Club. Cycling will be held Thursday through Sunday. . Tennis continues Saturday and Sunday, and the cross country run, powerlifting and mountain biking are scheduled for Sunday.
\ Two other swimmers in training for the nationals, Jim Miller and Maria Velikonja, also excelled Sunday.
Miller won the 100 freestyle and 100 backstroke in the 40-44 age group. Velikonja won the 50, 100 and 200 butterfly and 50 and 100 freestyle in the 35-39 age group.
"I don't train in a 50-meter pool, and all this is part of my training," she said. "It's a good gauge to see how your times are. I'm really trying to just swim against myself and see how I can do."
Miller, the chairman of masters' swimming in Virginia, was similarly comfortable with his day.
"I'm really pleased," he said. "I'm training pretty hard, lifting [weights] pretty hard, and I set a goal in my mind where my times should be. I hit every single time I set for myself."
\ The gold-medal baseball game Sunday was settled early.
With the bases loaded in the second inning, North outfielder Mike Colangelo fouled off two two-strike pitches to right field.
"I just wanted to keep it in play," the right-handed hitter said.
In fact, he put the next pitch out of play - over the left-field fence for a grand slam that gave the North a 6-0 lead. First baseman Steve Walson's two-run homer followed in the same inning, and North was en route to a 13-5 victory.
North's Billy Deck added a home run, double and two RBI.
"They came in second last year," said first-time Commonwealth Games participant Colangelo, a Dumfries resident and brother of Virginia Tech outfielder Sal Colangelo. "They wanted it more than anything."
\ In the boys' 18-under singles tennis final, Salem's Eddel Veloso fought off Danville's Brett Moyer in a second-set tiebreak, but couldn't outlast him, losing 6-1, 6-7, 6-2.
Veloso and David Arnold of Roanoke won the boys' 18-under doubles. That's the fourth straight year Veloso has won a doubles gold medal at the Games - two in the 16-under and two in 18-under; two with Salem's Aaron Church and two with Arnold.
In the men's open tennis final, James Madison University junior Kevin Long beat Dan Fariss of Forest 4-6, 6-0, 6-2. Of the five seeded players in the bracket, only one - Jim Ellett of Lynchburg - made it to the semifinals.
\ The first disc golf tournament at the four-year-old Games went smoothly, coordinator Mike Overacker said, although he had hoped for more players than the 24 who showed up at Fishburn Park.
Two of those, Roanoke residents Tim Reynolds and Don Wetzel, had to go to a playoff to decide the silver and bronze medals in the men's amateur division. Reynolds birdied the second hole and Wetzel parred, giving the silver to Reynolds.
Dean Gregory Miller of Roanoke was the gold-medal winner.
\ In basketball, James Stokes had 31 points as the Northwest Roanoke Stars beat the Alexandria All-Stars 86-69 for the boys' 15-under gold.
In the boys' 18-under bronze medal game, the Young Achievers, composed of players from Staunton and Harrisonburg, took the Floyd Dragons into overtime and lost a player to fouls. With only four players on the floor, the Young Achievers won 98-91. Not only that, but they drove back to Staunton between their 8 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. games.
In girls' 18-under, Hoops R Us (formerly the Alexandria Vogues) had a three-year gold-medal winning streak snapped when the Cyclones, a hybrid team from Charlottesville and Pulaski, won 59-52.
by CNB