SOMO News

Awards accompany the 2^nd day of competition!

Today every one of our teams competed and so many of our athletes received awards. It was supposedly one of the hottest days of the year (according to locals), but everyone competed hard and look forward to what the rest of the week has in store.

Athletics –
Everybody on the athletics team competed today with two of the athletes having finals: Eric Wright won gold in the 50 meter run and Danny won silver in the 400 meter run. Eric was so excited and it was great that his family was there to see it. Officially he was the first medal of the 2014 USA Games for Team Missouri. He didn’t even know it was his final. We just told him to run as if you’re going for the gold and he did. He was so excited and kept asking, “I did good, didn’t I?”

Paige Hall, Maria Arnett and Jane Highland all competed in their preliminary 100 meter run. Maria ran a fantastic race. Allen Tobin and Jason Coffman had their preliminaries in shotput. Shelley Antle had her preliminary in the standing long jump and is within inches of the person who finished first in preliminaries.

Wednesday’s schedule has a lot of Team Missouri athletes competing in finals, so stay tuned as the results come in!

Aquatics –
It was a good day today for the aquatics team as the athletes had their first round of finals and these were the results:

Nathan Baldwin: 4^th place in the 25 yard backstroke
Logan Hulett: Bronze in the 200 yard freestyle
Cody Anderson: Silver in the 200 yard freestyle and bronze in the 100 yard medley
Libby Waddell: Bronze in the 100 yard individual medley and bronze in the 200 yard freestyle

Tomorrow holds more preliminaries and finals for our swimmers and they’re really looking forward to getting back in the pool.

Men’s basketball – 
The men’s basketball team played a really good New Jersey team that was much quicker and stronger than our athletes. New Jersey played a great 3-guard fast break offense that accounted for more than 60 percent of their points. It was just really hard for our guys to stop them. Coach Stan Smith said the team also didn’t handle the kind of press New Jersey threw at them. But he also said that he was proud of the team for not complaining about it and keeping their cool trying to find the best way to break through. The team is still not sure when it’s playing on Wednesday, but will find out as early as possible. Stay tuned to the mobile app for details as they become available.

Women’s basketball –
The women’s basketball team lost to Ohio today 24-12. They women on the Ohio team were just taller and bigger than our Team Missouri athletes and it was too much to handle. Ohio jumped on us pretty quickly with their tall girls in the game, but eventually our girls battled hard to close the gap. The women’s team is also unsure of when it’s playing Wednesday and will find out early in the morning, so check the app early and often.

Bocce –
Today was hot and frustrating one for the bocce team after a couple of technical difficulties and scheduling quirks left the team sitting for most of the day without the chance to compete. They were able to get over to see the powerlifting competition and cheer on Team Missouri’s two athletes competing there, but most of the morning was a wash.

When they all returned in the early evening, Unified Partner Jeanie Byland and Melissa Buss finished 1-1 beating Louisiana 10-6 and dropping their second match. Matthew Cepeda and UP William Reese squared off against fellow Team Missouri members UP Scott Copeland and Pierce Rash with Matthew and William coming out on top. Both teams played an eventual second match against other states, but both dropped those matches. UP Mike Lowry and Lonnie Thornton lost a really, really close first match 9-10 and Rebecca Tincknell and UP Courtney Patton are still waiting to play their second game, which will finish up on Wednesday morning. Linda Tyler and Morgan Coombe weren’t able to play because one of the athletes on the team they were supposed to play spent the day in the hospital. They are set to resume play Wednesday morning at 8 a.m. Coach Kathy Lowry said it’s been nice to see the parents in attendance really help the team out, not just their own athletes, but the whole team.

Bowling –
Today was the finals day of singles competition in which the guys did really well. Michael Lunceford bowled a 160 and his average is a 91, so that was a huge improvement; he finished with the gold medal in his division! Chris Miller was in a really tough group and bowled a 208 in one of his games. Another athlete who bowled way over his average was Ryan Fant who typically bowls around a 100, but in his third game had a 163.  Awards followed at Rider University and the athletes didn’t know how they placed until they were on the podium. Ryan had no idea he got a silver and the look on his face after finding out he got silver place was priceless.  Even the usually stoic and quiet Chris had a smile on his face when he found out he won the gold medal in his division.

As far as the lady bowlers, Tanya Johnson got 8^th place and really was just happy to be there. Tiffany finished 4^th and Lindsey Hawkins took home the bronze.

Wednesday’s schedule includes Unified Doubles and regulation doubles with the team competition set for Thursday.

Flag Football –
The flag football team is still trying to get on track after losing both games today. Coach Steve Wilmesherr said the second game was a lot closer and they played better and really should have won, but they still made too many mistakes to come out on top. The team will square off against Colorado at 11:45 a.m.  Wednesday

Golf –
Coach Ken Neff said the golf team collectively took a step back during competition Tuesday, but athletes still had their heads held high with smiles on their faces as they walked off the course and that’s what is key. As a whole everything is running really smoothly at the golf venue and all of the athletes will need to step up their game on their final day of competition on Wednesday. Ken also said that Tina Jones and Tere’e Trussell’s scores in individual skills (higher scores are better) on Monday weren’t as low as reported in the Monday night newsletter, but in the low 50s instead of the 40s. The team attended the baseball game tonight and Tere’e was one of the athletes who got to throw out the first pitch. They all had a blast at the game.

Powerlifting –
Powerlifters Dary McIntyre and Brianne Chavez had an absolutely phenomenal day of competition according to coach Ed Blaylock. Brianne just totally dominated everyone in the female division and probably could have outlifted most of the men. She set a personal record by squatting 330 lbs. and probably could have done 350 easily if given the chance she was that on it today. She then benched 165 lbs. and deadlifted 358, which gave her a total of 854 lbs. on the day. All of those lifts won her a gold medal and was obviously good enough for the overall gold medal in the combination as well (four gold medals in total).

Dary McIntyre was in a really tough division against some really good competition, but still started off the day by taking gold in the squat. He then took fourth place in the bench press and bronze in the deadlift with 330 lbs. Overall, these three places earned him a silver medal in the combination portion. So, Dary won each of the medals and ribbons available (gold, silver, bronze and 4^th place).

While on the awards stand, the athletes not only received their medals, but also get a nice bouquet of flowers. Well, for some reason the flowers weren’t available for the female powerlifters, but following Dary’s awards ceremony, he gave his flowers to Brianne who, isn’t one to really show much emotion, started crying. All in all it was a good day of competition for the Team Missouri powerlifters. They are now finished for the week.

Tennis –

Both Bobby Williams and Brittany Selken competed in singles today before their finals begin on Thursday. Unfortunately, both of them lost their matches. Bobby lost a really close match against an athlete from New Jersey. Coach Peggy Llewellyn-Neff said it was a really close and intense match and probably was the gold medal match with the way it was played.

Both sets of Unified Doubles (with UPs Jeremie Ballinger and Ashley Wurst) will compete Wednesday morning, both for the gold medal.

Volleyball –
The volleyball team had preliminary matches again Colorado and Pennsylvania on Tuesday. In the morning session, Team Missouri won both games (in three sets against Pennsylvania and two against Colorado). In the afternoon, they beat Pennsylvania again (this time in two sets), but lost to Colorado in three really, really close sets. They are adding another team to their division tomorrow in New Jersey. They are set to play at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Wednesday.

Blog posts – 
“This morning, Alex Kunz had gotten a hat from Olympic Village yesterday and he was wearing it. The athletes could get whatever they wanted on it. Alex accidentally said Mom Magic so they put Mom Magic on his hat.” See more of Rachel Antal’s (PR Assistant while at the 2014 USA Games) blog here.  

“If you’re a sports fan there’s a game or performance you always remember, like Michael Jordan’s Flu Game or Tiger Woods winning a major with an injured leg.  Special Olympics is like that as well. There’s always an athlete or a moment that stands out and reminds you why it’s so inspiring. Today was that day for me.” See more of Jeremie Ballinger’s (Unified Partner in tennis) blog here.

“Have I mentioned this bowling alley has 82 lanes? That is pretty challenging when you have six athletes spread out from lane 12 to lane 64. Coach Bea and I took turns running around to check on everyone and give them a little encouragement when they needed it. Luckily MO Magic fans are the best, so there were only a few times when our athletes were truly on their own.” See more of Mandi Steward Ballinger’s (sports manager for bowling) blog here.

“Day 4 (Monday) Competition Begins or the Best Day of My Life…” See more of Linda Wiederholt’s (sports manager for powerlifting and tennis) blog here.

Mobile App –
Don’t forget to download the Team Missouri mobile app on your Apple or Android devices. This will be the most immersive MO Magic experience and the best way to follow the team all week while our athletes are busy making you all proud back home. Whether you’re joining us in New Jersey or watching from afar, the app really does have something for everybody (schedules, photo galleries, alerts on when athletes receive awards, videos and more!). If you don’t have a mobile device capable of utilizing the app, you can still access the app via the web at https://m.core-apps.com/somo_2014 or just stay tuned at www.somo.org/momagic.

Videos –
Get a first-hand account of what it’s like for the athletes as they go through Healthy Athletes® Park with these two videos (here & here)

Photo Galleries –
Photos from the sports and fun activities are available both on our Flickr account and on our Facebook page. They will be updated throughout the week so be sure to check in on a daily basis!