By MONTE DUTTON
On Saturday, I watched the closest finish in Kentucky Derby history. On Sunday, I watched the closest finish in NASCAR history.
On TV, mind you. I’m not some globe-trotting bon vivant hiding behind a cloak of seeming poverty. I’m worse than a poor boy. I’m a poor old man.
I can, however, make fun of myself.
The other day I heard someone say Clemson was suing the ACC over meteorites. I thought that was one of those newfangled power cliches somehow derived from a Star Wars movie. Then I realized the fellow was talking about “media rights.”
At a baseball game, I was having a conversation with a fellow who said his daughter went to Northwestern. I thought he meant Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., and mentioned that Charlton Heston went there. His daughter seemed amused.
After I walked away it occurred to me that Laurens was playing Northwestern High School of Rock Hill.
I would think I was losing my marbles, but I’ve been absentminded all my life. I used to imagine being run over by a bus while walking along reading a newspaper. Fortunately, few read the paper anymore, and a cell offers greater peripheral vision.
Thus far Big Fiction has shown little interest – little being defined by polite declines – in my new novel, The Graduate Transfer. Next I’ll approach publishers, not large publishers, mind you, but publishers. Mid-Major Fiction.
Meanwhile, I’ve written one paragraph in a new novel. It’s just forming in my mind.
But enough about me.
Furman won four events Monday on the first day of the Southern Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships at Samford’s Shauna Yelton Field in Homewood, Ala.
Senior Cameron Ponder won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase while senior Nicole Matysik followed with a victory in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase. Freshman Owen Shifflett and junior Lily Feingold followed by closing the opening day with wins in the men’s and women’s 10,000-meters, respectively.
Ponder, a native of Winston-Salem, N.C., won the men’s 3,000-meter steeplechase for the third time in his career, crossing the finish line with a time of 8:52.32.
Matysik captured the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase after posting a time of 10:40.45. The Key West, Fla., native won the event for the second time in her career with the first coming in 2022.
Furman recorded the top three times in the men’s 10,000-meters led by Shifflett, who hails from Free Union, Va., who won with a mark of 30:57.53. Junior Nick Goldstein was second at 31:06.21 and sophomore Luke Taylor placed third with a 31:17.18.
A Mt. Pleasant native, Feingold vaulted from third to first over the final five laps in the women’s 10,000 meters to give the Paladins their fourth win in the event over the past five seasons. Feingold crossed the finish line in 36:55.66 with sophomore Emma Jones coming in second at 37:14.20.
The Paladin men currently sit second in the team standings with 48 points while the women are in fourth place after compiling 28 points.
Furman had three all-freshman selections on day one in Feingold, Kempney, and Shifflett.
The meet concludes on Tuesday.
Gail Wallach is the new head coach of the Furman lacrosse program.
Wallach becomes the fourth head coach in program history and comes to Greenville after spending the past two seasons as head coach at Anderson University.
Wallach guided the Trojans to a 24-11 record over her two seasons, including a 15-3 mark this year, an appearance in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament semifinals, and the program’s first-ever Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association (IWLCA) Poll Top-25 ranking. She was hired as the program’s first-ever head coach in 2021 and promptly guided Anderson to a 9-8 record in 2023.
Center fielder Ashlee Lykins made first team All-Southern Conference in softball, designated player Caitlin Goldwait earned second team and Paladin second baseman Ansley Chiang was selected to the all-freshman team.
Lykins batted .369 with three triples, 34 runs, and swiped 18 bases in 21 attempts during the regular season. The senior and Naples, Fla., native registered five hits in last weekend’s sweep of ETSU to eclipse 200 career hits and move into the top 10 on Furman’s career hits list. She ranks second in school history with 66 stolen bases and fifth with 117 runs.
Goldwait caught fire in league play, batting a team-best .361 with 14 runs scored in 19 SoCon games. The Sugar Land, Texas, product finished the regular season with a .313 average while scoring 19 runs and driving in seven.
Chiang, a native of Cumming, Ga., made 45 starts in Furman’s middle infield as a freshman and posted a .256 batting average with five doubles and 14 RBIs. She stole nine bases in 10 attempts during the regular season and posted a .938 fielding percentage, including fielding at a .962 clip in league play.
Furman, 24-29 overall and 9-12 in the SoCon, will be making its 28th appearance in the SoCon Softball Championship and holds a 42-50 all-time record in the tournament. The Paladins captured league tournament titles in 1994 and 2007 while finishing as the runner-up a league-record seven times.
Entering the postseason as the No. 6 seed, Furman will take on No. 7 seed Western Carolina in a single elimination game on Wednesday at 1 p.m. at UNCG Softball Stadium in Greensboro N.C.
SoCon Postseason Awards
Player of the Year
Brooklynn Maxwell, Sr., INF, UNCG
Pitcher of the Year
Peja Goold, So., RHP, Chattanooga
Freshman of the Year
Olivia Shaw, DP, Samford
Lily Bell, 2B, Western Carolina
Coach of the Year
Chelsea Butler, Wofford
Audrey Ryu (+4) and Anna Morgan (+6) completed the first round of Monday’s NCAA Auburn Regional, held at the par 72, 6,456-yard Auburn University Golf Club in Alabama.
Ryu, a freshman from Dublin, Ohio, shot an opening-round 76 to tie for 26th while Morgan, a Spartanburg product who earned her bachelor’s degree from Furman on Saturday, followed with a 78 to grab a share of 41st.
Ryu and Morgan, among six individuals competing in the event, join a field of 12 teams battling for a berth in the 24-team NCAA Championship, which will be held May 17-22 at Omni La Costa Resort & Spa in Carlsbad, Calif. The top five teams and one individual on non-qualifying teams will advance.
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