Appoquinimink’s (from left) Ryan Steckline, Chandler Fitzgerald and Matt Alexander converge to celebrate the school’s first DIAA baseball title last June. The DIAA tournament will expand from 16 to 20 teams this spring.
The Conrad boys swimming team knows it has no chance against Salesianum in the Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association state meet, where depth makes all the difference.
But Conrad coach Michelle Northshield thought if she structured her lineup just right, and perhaps caught the Sals at a little less than full steam, a dual-meet upset was possible.
Mission accomplished.
Conrad stunned Salesianum 90-80 last Tuesday at the H. Fletcher Brown Boys and Girls Club in Wilmington, a result Northshield and her team will never forget.
“The stars were aligned,” the coach said. “We had a full roster, and I think they were missing a few. We went with our full roster and lined up the best way we could, in hopes that we could outmaneuver them.”
Salesianum has won the last 10 DIAA titles, and 25 of the last 28. Conrad finished 13th in the DIAA meet last year, and its best finish has been ninth. So even though dual meets are different, this was unexpected.
“We thought if we put forward our best lineup, put all the cards on the table, we thought there might be a small window of opportunity,” Northshield said. “But even if we didn’t win, we thought we could make a showing and make them think that Conrad gave them a run for their money.”
Conrad had two dual winners – freshman Ryan Pirrung in the 200 individual medley and 100 backstroke and senior Brett Saunders in the 100 freestyle and 100 breaststroke. Freshman Josh Eckrich won the 100 butterfly, and the meet came down to the final event – the 400 freestyle relay.
Conrad had to either win or finish second and third. Eckrich, eighth-grader Jacob Benson, Pirrung and Saunders won in 3:34.02, and the upset was complete.
“We’re getting a little stronger each year,” Northshield said. “It has taken some time. We’ve only had a team for six years now, and we started with two boys and three girls.”
Conrad now has 23 on the boys team and 21 on the girls team. Against Sallies, the boys also got a victory from Eckrich, Saunders, Benson and Pirrung in the 200 medley relay. The Sals got wins from Andrew Boyle in the 200 freestyle, Andrew Halberg in the 50 freestyle, Derrick Kennedy in the 500 freestyle and Boyle, Anthony Marion, Michael Portmann and Owen Riley in the 200 freestyle relay.
Baseball tourney expands
The DIAA board of directors has approved a proposal from the Delaware High School Baseball Coaches Association (DEBCA) to expand the DIAA baseball tournament field from 16 teams to 20, starting this spring.
The new format will begin with an interesting twist on Saturday, May 21. The tournament’s top four seeds will host playoff doubleheaders, with the 13th- through 20th-seeded teams starting the day with four first-round games to earn the right to advance to a second-round game against one of the top seeds on the same day.
“With the play-in round, it gives teams a chance to play a game where they might feel a little bit more competitive,” said George Eilers, Polytech coach and DEBCA president. “And if they get on a roll, who knows what could happen?”
The exact format of which lower-seeded teams will play which higher-seeded teams has yet to be determined. But the new format will reward the top 12 seeds by allowing them to avoid a first-round game. And it will especially reward the top four seeds, who will be opening the tournament against a low-seeded team that likely just used its best pitcher in the day’s first game.
“I think it’s going to bring about a lot of interest in that first round,” Eilers said. “It will bring more strategy into the mix.”
DIAA approved the proposal on a two-year trial period. DEBCA examined the playoff point indexes from 2010-15 and found that the margin separating teams 16 through 20 was just tenths of a point each year.
“That shows you how close it is, how competitive it has been,” Eilers said.
The baseball tournament was last expanded from 12 to 16 teams in 1989, when there were 37 high schools playing baseball in Delaware. Now, the state has 50 teams.
Rounding it up
— Archmere boys soccer coach Bob Bussiere has been named Mid-Atlantic Private-Parochial Coach of the Year by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. The award places Bussiere in the running for the national high school coach of the year award, to be announced in January.
— Cape Henlopen’s Tess Bernheimer and Erin Coverdale, Delmar’s Peyton Kemp and Paige Twilley-Webster, Mount Pleasant’s Kate Walker and Tower Hill’s Gretchen Zungailia have been named to the Harrow Sports/National Field Hockey Coaches Association All-Mid-Atlantic regional team.
— DIAA champion Delaware Military Academy (20-0) finished 43rd in the final CBS maxpreps.com Xcellent 50 national high school volleyball rankings.
— Salesianum tailback-safety Colby Reeder has been named Gatorade Delaware Football Player of the Year. Delaware Military Academy setter Sydney Fulton has been named Gatorade Delaware Volleyball Player of the Year.
— Appoquinimink midfielder Matt Dina is among 56 boys nationally named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America Fall High School All-American team.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ