DeLand High School has another individual state champion! Earlier this year, Mia Rhodes was an individual champion at the FHSAA Girls Weightlifting Championships. Now, Kylie Neira, a DHS sophomore, has won the pole-vaulting event at the FHSAA State Track and Field Championships in the 4A Division at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.
Kylie took first out of the 18 who qualified for the meet with a clearance of 3.75 meters, or 12 feet, 3.5 inches. Madeline Dutz of George Jenkins High School in Lakeland also cleared the same height, but had more misses, which in turn gave the win to Neira.
Kylie Neira won the district meet at Flagler Palm Coast High School a month ago at 3.67 meters (12 feet, 0.5 inch), which was 2 feet better than second place. She then went to the regional meet at UNF, where she jumped 3.60 meters (11 feet, 9.75 inches), which was 6 inches better than second place, qualifying her automatically for the state championships May 20.
Neira was not the only DeLand girl to score points at the state meet or make the medal podium. Sophomore javelin thrower Emily Lamb took seventh out of 18 competitors with a throw of 36.09 meters (118 feet, 5 inches). She missed sixth place by 18 inches.
Selena Calix of Palm Beach Gardens High School won the event on her last throw, moving her from deep in the competition to first place with a throw of 41.98 meters (137 feet, 8 inches). The top three throwers all went over 130 feet.
The DeLand team scored 12 points at the state meet, which placed them in 19th place out of the 59 schools that competed and scored points.
The DeLand girls’ head coach is Jim Lowenstein, while the boys’ head coach is Chris Madzik. They are assisted by Sebastian Singletary and Tim Shea.
Middle-school basketball
Years back, Volusia County Schools reinstated basketball in middle schools, in which the schools on the west side played one another, while those on the east side did the same. At the end of the season, the top boys’ team and the top girls’ team from each side played for the county championship.
BASKETBALL CHAMPS — DeLand Middle School girls came out as district champs at the VCS Middle School Basketball Championship May 16, beating Hinson Middle School 24-7. The team includes eighth-graders Mimi Ross, Kaylin Spor, Sasha Volodina, Riley Barrow and Tashiya Pettis; seventh-graders Niya Monroe, India Johnson, Navi Ayulo and Janiya French; and sixth-graders Kaylynn Sanchez, Gianna Dolata, Anna Radice and Janiya Felton. The team is coached by Mike Dalia and Kevin Farris, and had a regular-season record of 13-1.
PHOTO COURTESY MICHAEL DALIA
This year, two West Volusia teams won the titles. The DeLand Middle School Lady Terriers claimed the title with a 24-7 victory over Hinson Middle School in Daytona Beach. The boys’ title went to the Galaxy Middle School Rockets of Deltona, who notched a win over Ormond Beach Middle School.
Volusia County Schools
This summer, Volusia County Schools has a Summer Reading Challenge named “Home Run.” Students in pre-K through 12th grade are encouraged to read 720 minutes from June 1 through July 31 to earn tickets to Tortugas (the Daytona Beach minor league baseball team) games. Students will earn prizes as they round the bases in their summer reading and have an opportunity to attend an educational entertainment event at one of the public libraries. Students came home with information about this at the end of the school year.
The Peabody Auditorium Foundation has partnered with Volusia County Schools for a second year of “Youth+Arts=Success Shows.” This program brings actors from the Atlantic Coast Theatre for one-hour stage plays or musical events at elementary and middle schools in Volusia County. This is a free outreach program and an in-school touring program that introduces students to live cultural performances that are age-appropriate, socially relevant and entertaining.
Deltona High School
The Deltona High School softball team recently defeated Ridgeview High School, which is in Orange Park near Jacksonville, 11-3. This moves the Deltona girls into the Final Four for the FHSAA state softball championships.
Pine Ridge High School
Leland Wilbert and Dan Arnold, who are HVAC teachers at Pine Ridge High School in Deltona, have been presented the Workforce Education Innovator Award for going above and beyond to help Floridians access workforce training and educational opportunities so they can achieve a more rewarding career.
University High School
Two athletes from University High School in Orange City competed in the 4A FHSAA state track-and-field championships. Andreas Schulz, a senior, took two firsts, a second and a third at the meet. Schulz won the ambulatory shot put at 31 feet, 3.25 inches, and the 400-meter crown at 56.01, while placing second in the 100 meters at 11.88 seconds and third in the 200 at 24.92.
Angel Barnes picked up fifth- and ninth-place showings in the ambulatory 800 and 200. His times respectively were 2:52.62 and 40.92.
Stetson University
Stetson University ha s announced that Homecoming Oct. 20-22 this coming fall will be celebrating 140 years.
Stetson also announced that U.S. News & World Report has again ranked Stetson University College of Law as the No. 1 law school for trial advocacy and No. 3 for legal writing. Stetson is the only law school to consistently rank among the top schools in the nation in both advocacy and legal writing.
Stetson University Athletics
At the end of the regular season, the Stetson University Hatter baseball team picked up three wins and two losses. They started out losing to Jacksonville University, 5-3, with Hatter Daniel Labrador homering. They then topped JU, 6-5.
The Hats then downed Queens University, 16-0, with Labrador homering again with six RBIs, with Drew Wyers also hitting one out. Queens then inched by the Hats, 14-13, with Hatters Lorenzo Meola, Landon Moran, Brandon Hylton and Andrew Estrella hitting a ball out of the park.
Stetson bounced back with a 11-2 win over Queens, with Meola, Cameron Hill, Christian Pregent, B. Hylton and Jayden Hylton hitting four-baggers.
The Stetson women’s tennis team competed in the Universal Nat iona l Invitat iona l Tennis Tournament in the Peachtree City Tennis Center in Atlanta. The Lady Hats opened up with a 4-1 win over California State University at Northridge, followed by upsetting No. 61 Colorado 4-3. This placed them in the title match against No. 45 Texas Christian University, who won 4-0, placing Stetson in the runner-up title position.
As reported earlier, the Lady Hatter softball team lost in the play-in game of the ASUN tournament to Austin Peay. The tournament found North Alabama upsetting No. 1-seeded Central Arkansas, 2-0, forcing them into the losers’ bracket. Central Arkansas then beat Austin Peay, 10-1, Florida Gulf Coast, 3-1, and Liberty, 2-1. Finally Central Arkansas faced North Alabama again, this time notching a 6-0 win for the ASUN title.