Thunder and lightning caused hours of delays. And not all placement matches were played. But champions were crowned nonetheless Saturday in the Korean-American Interscholastic Activities Conference Division I soccer tournaments.

In the rain at Osan Air Base, Seoul Foreign outscored Yongsan International-Seoul, 5-4, in a penalty-kick shootout to win the boys final, 1-0. Meanwhile, at Suweon, freshman Amanda Jackson converted a penalty kick in the 42nd minute as Seoul American’s girls upset Seoul Foreign for the second straight year, 1-0.

“She’s been a consistently outstanding player all season,” Falcons coach Scott Bittner said of Jackson. “The girls worked hard and stayed focused for this. We’ve been third all year; I don’t know if people expected us to do this. The girls deserved it.”

The Falcons beat the Crusaders in the 2010 final on a penalty-kick shootout.

Seoul American was the highest-finishing DODDS Korea boys squad, taking third as Josh Chung scored twice in a 2-1 edging of GSIS, pleasing coach Steve Boyd, who’d worried his team might not bounce back after Friday’s semifinal loss.

“They stepped up today. I’m very proud of them,” Boyd said.

Daegu American’s girls finished fourth after losing in a penalty-kick shootout to Taejon Christian International for the fifth straight year. “So frustrating,” coach Ed Thompson said.

DODDS meet in Korea canceledThe pyrotechnical weather did snuff out one event entirely – the first full DODDS-Korea track and field meet featuring hurdles and field events had been slated for Camp Casey’s Schoonover Bowl, but the weather wouldn’t allow it.

League coaches were to discuss moving the meet to May 14, Seoul American coach David Abbott said. “These kids worked so hard, everything was orchestrated perfectly,” he said, adding that the postponement puts DODDS Korea “behind the curve more” in preparing for Far East May 23-25 on Okinawa.

Swimming, soccer, baseball, trackIndoors at Seoul Foreign’s pool, Seoul American shined brightly, sweeping regular-season team honors and capturing the boys and overall team championships in the KAIAC swim meet.

Senior John Graham broke his own league record in the 50-meter butterfly and Seoul American topped its own 200 freestyle relay mark. Graham and Samantha Merritt of the Falcons earned season Most Valuable Swimmer honors.

In Japan, where bad weather was hardly a bother, Nile C. Kinnick’s boys took first place and the Red Devils girls finished second in soccer tournaments around the Tokyo area. Zach Yoder scored three times to boost the boys to two wins at Yokosuka Naval Base, while Audrey Parker had two goals for the 2-0-3 Kinnick girls.

“It was a nice little tournament,” Kinnick coach Nico Hindie said of the six-team Kanto Plain girls tournament, played with 25-minute halves and hosted by champion American School In Japan. “We played five different teams, more than we’d played all season and it was constant action. No waiting.”

Kinnick’s baseball team rallied from a 7-0 deficit to edge Yokota 9-7 en route to sweeping two games in a small DODDS Japan tournament at Yokosuka.

Concluding their regular season with a school-best combined 25-3-2 record were Matthew C. Perry’s boys and girls teams, which swept four matches from E.J. King over the weekend at Sasebo Naval Base. Tyelor Apple and Bre’Onna Ray also firmed their hold on Pacific leading goal-scoring honors, Apple with 29 and Ray with 38.

“That ain’t bad for a high school of 120 kids,” Samurai girls coach Rick Stanford said. “The planets did align for us this year. This is great.”

In a track meet at Yokota with more than 1,000 high- and middle-school athletes, sprinter/hurdler Sungji Kim of Christian Academy Japan and sprinter Preston Brooks and hurdler Fred Gustafsson of Yokota each won three golds. Yokota swept the 400 and 3,200 relays and American School In Japan’s Trevor Maggart swept the boys distance events.

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