Europe Athletes of the Week: May 10, 2012
Tyler Holderby
Heidelberg track
Last week - Holderby, a junior who transferred to the defending European boys’ Division I champion Lions from Vicenza during this school year, ran the 800 meters in a hand-timed 1:59.20 on a wet track Saturday in Heidelberg. To put Holderby’s feat into perspective, the time was faster than any of the last four European 800-meter title-winning runs and it came after Holderby had spent the morning taking the mentally grueling Scholastic Aptitude Test.
According to Heidelberg coach Sharon Brady, Holderby’s time, a personal best which when converted to fully automatic timing translates to 1:59.44, fulfilled his preseason goal of breaking the two-minute mark in the event. Holderby, whose previous best in the 800 was 2:01.6, was second in the European 800 last year in 2:02.26, just under two seconds behind graduated champion Trevor Hope of Black Forest Academy.
Brady said Holderby, who was pushed Saturday by fellow European contender Ben Kronk of BFA and who has already qualified for the European 400, will concentrate the remainder of the regular season on qualifying for the 1,600.
Ali DeFazio
Brussels soccer
Last week - DeFazio, a sophomore striker, lived up to her job title with a flourish Saturday by scoring three times and assisting on her team’s other goal in a 4-1 home victory over Menwith Hill. Saturday’s outburst upped DeFazio’s season totals to six goals and two assists, according to Brussels coach Jacob Myers, and propelled Brussels into a three-way tie with Rota and Menwith Hill for the Region I small-schools championship. All three teams finished play in that sub-region with 2-1 records.
Myers emailed that his striker’s and his team’s hard work produced the victory against a Mustang team that came into the game unbeaten against Division III opposition.
“Ali has been working hard with the rest of the team in practice on our offensive strategy and her role in that strategy as a striker,” Myers wrote. “(Brussels) had a great collective team effort on Saturday which created many goal-scoring opportunities. Ali took hers and made them count.”
