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Holy Names' Hoffman Wins Bronze

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By NICHOLAS J.E. MURRAY

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2008

Single sculler Shannon Hoffman of the Academy of the Holy Names won a bronze medal, while the Plant women's varsity 8 reached a nationals final for the first time at the Scholastic Rowing Association of America's National Championships in Oak Ridge, Tenn., last Saturday.

Hoffman, who finished fourth in the event last year, said she couldn't be happier with her performance.

"This year my objective was to do better than I did last year and I did, so I was so excited," Hoffman said. "Being one of the few people from Florida that competed, made it to finals and medal was also very exciting."

Hoffman had won the Tampa City Championships, and finished second in the state championships last month in a time of 6 minutes, 20.9 seconds. At Scholastic nationals, she powered her way to a time of 6:07.5. Hoffman credited the work she did in Sarasota with Dragos Alexandru in the two weeks leading up to the championships for sharpening her skills for the event.

"He is the most amazing coach," Hoffman said. "Every day I would wake up at 6 a.m. and do intense training with him before he went to work, and then I would drive back home to Riverview."
Alexandru has worked in the past as an assistant with the Romanian national team. Hoffman's work with him began when they struck up a conversation at the Southeast District Championships in Tampa three weeks ago.

The race was Hoffman's last as a Jaguar. She had considered competing at the USRowing junior championships next month, but decided to begin preparing for next season instead. Hoffman is joining the Wisconsin Badgers' crew next season, and she wants to be ready to compete for a place on a team that qualified for the NCAA championships being held this weekend.

"I can't wait to join such a strong program," Hoffman said. "I'm excited for next year, because I am going to be part of a team that is super fast."

For Plant, just reaching the final of the women's varsity 8 was a landmark for the program, as it became the first crew in the Panthers' history to accomplish the feat. For Coach Skye Elliott, the achievement ranked as the highest in his coaching career.

"It certainly is a landmark for the program, but that still is an understatement," Elliott said. "After finding our heart and finding our way back to passionate racing, and with the talent we had in the boat versus the people we had to race and the tradition we had to race, it's a little more like a miracle. They had the race of their life, they went the fastest they'd ever gone in fast conditions in the semifinals."

The crew of Molly Hamrick, Sarah Smythe, Elizabeth Murray, Luisa Isbell, Taylor Shimberg, Leslie Hall, Parker Hodges, Ashley Bennett and cox Aubrey Larson finished in a time of 5:12.2 in their semifinal to reach the final with a second-place finish.

While the women's varsity 8 reached the program's first final, the other Panthers crews acquitted themselves far better than they had in the past. The men's junior 8 and women's second 8 reached their semifinals, and other crews like the men's freshman 8 and women's junior 8 just missed out on reaching semifinals.

Berkeley Prep's Steven Cutler also reached his final in the single sculls. Cutler, who finished second at the state championships to qualify for nationals, finished seventh in a time of 5:35.5 in the national final.

Tampa Prep's girls lightweight 4 of Kiffy Balchon, Katie Dorsey, Rachel Krausman, Bre Beirl and cox Allison Martin fell one place short of the semifinals as it finished fourth in its heat in a time of 6:11.3.

Jones Springs Upsets, Falls In USTA Final

Julia Jones of Largo came up one upset short of the title at the USTA Gulfstream Designated Tennis Tournament as she lost in the under-16 final 7-5, 6-2 to Jennifer Pfeifler of Gulf Breeze.

Jones, who entered the tournament unseeded and is currently ranked 105th in Florida in the under-16 age group, had defeated No. 2 seed Lauren Slutsky 6-1, 6-1 in the round of 16. After a win against Denise Starr of Boca Raton in the quarterfinals, Jones defeated No. 3 seed Sarah McClean from Miami 6-4, 7-5 to put her in the final.

Michael Alford of Tampa reached the quarterfinals in the boys under-16 event and won the opening set before he fell to No. 1 seed and eventual champion Gonzales Austin of Miami 4-6, 7-6, 7-6.

Andy Hersh of Valrico also reached the quarterfinals in the boys under-18 draw with a 6-3, 6-1 win against Mitch Wong of Tampa, but then fell to No. 1 seed and eventual champion Sekou Coker Bangoura from Bradenton 6-1, 6-4.

GOLF: George Letson of Tampa finished fifth at the Florida Junior Tour's Memorial Weekend event at the University of Florida Golf Course in Gainesville.

Letson shot a final-round 2-over 72 on Monday to finish with a three-round total of 216, 6 over par and seven shots behind tournament champion Blayne Barber of Lake City. Letson won his first FJT title last month, and has finished in the top 10 in his last five events, putting him third in the points standings for the season.

Temple Terrace's Chris Biuso stayed at second in the points standings and closed the gap on leader Joseph Byun of Lake Mary as he finished 16th with a total of 224. Tampa's Jack Twomey finished tied for ninth with a total of 220.

For the girls, Alexandra Milan of Lutz finished sixth with a total of 233, one shot ahead of A.J. Newell from Tampa.

Nicholas J.E. Murray can be reached at (813) 259-8243 or nmurray@tampatrib.com. Keyword: Youth Sports for more news, notes and live game stories.

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