Ugly Sweater 5K a fun and feel-good race for Redemption City

Redemption City - On Saturday morning, I photographed an Ugly Sweater 5K from the Cape Henlopen State Park fishing pier, what locals call the Army dock. The inaugural race was a fundraiser for a homeless shelter in Seaford. I know how the homeless deal works, and I understand the intersection where hopelessness meets helpfulness. I found the staff insightful and inspiring people who smiled easily, and who weren't whacked out on spirituality, because if that were a house, I’d be homeless by choice. Go to the Seashore Striders results page, find the race and click the donate button. The next time you say “Venmo” out loud, realize you are alienating most people in the room.  

Looking for trouble - Top-shelf sports programs will search out stellar competition and travel inconvenient distances to embrace it. No coach wants to shelter athletes and run the risk of inflating the egos of tripping athletes heading toward rude awakenings at the next level. Indoor track invitationals are great for exposure. There were more than 60 teams at the Dec. 16 Ursinus College Invitational. Cape’s top-five performances for boys included: Bailey Fletcher, pole vault, first, 14-feet-even; Eddie Houck, pole vault, fifth, 13-feet-even; Robert Redden, 55-meter hurdles. fifth, 8.01;  Ben Clifton, 800 meters, third, 2:01:24; Jason Baker, 3,000 meters, third, 9:23.50; Stephen Hart, high jump, fourth, 5-feet-10-inches; Machi Savage, high jump, fifth, 5-feet-7-inches; Merric Mumford, triple jump, fifth, 39-feet-2-inches. On the girls’ side, top performers included: Kennedy Johnson, long jump, fourth, 16-feet-4-inches; Addison Bowman, pole vault, third, 9-feet-6-inches; and Katya Geyer, Sussex Academy, high jump, first, 4-feet-10-inches.

Matside minefield - The Beast of the East is a two-day wrestling tournament at the University of Delaware. It is fraught with freakishly good and weirdly proficient guys who will beat other good guys until they run into a better guy. And that doesn’t mean all that much in terms of collegiate prognostications, because focused minds are prone to short-circuiting. It’s just hard to maintain a level of separation when all matchups are different while disappointments are so crushing. Survive the Beast of the East – lose twice over two days and you’re gone – then the rest of the season is easy by comparison. Who am I – Dan Gable, Gable Stevenson, Clark Gable or Dark Gable (see Darryl Dawkins)? 

Whoa, I don’t know - The Cape girls’ basketball team is 54-10 over the last three seasons. In the Henlopen Conference, it's been Cape and Woodbridge over the last four seasons. But what does it mean in the grand scheme of girls’ basketball prowess inside the drivable region? Cape is 2-2 on the current season, losing road games to Spotswood of Virginia 46-29 and Germantown Academy of Germantown, Pa., 75-37. Cape plays at Dover at 6:30 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 19. The Senators are 2-0 with a 63-9 win over Sussex Central and a 64-12 win over Caesar Rodney. Last year, Dover was 9-12, losing a pair of close games to Cape. The game is on the NFHS network, but first you need a paid subscription, then you have to get it to work. It might be easier to just drive to Dover.

Snippets - Yougendy Mauricette, a 2023 Sussex Tech graduate, is on the track roster at the University of Southern California. He is a computer science major. A great kid. He was the 2022 400-meter champion at the USA Junior Olympics and 2023 Delaware Gatorade Boys’ Track Athlete of the Year. Maurki James and Isaiah Ayers were ball boys for Cape football under coach Bill Collick when they were 10 years old. Ayers, now a senior at Sussex Tech, scored 34 points Dec. 14, as the Ravens basketball team defeated Milford 65-58. Ayers is the leading scorer on the team coached by his father, Damon. James, coming off an all-state year at running back, helped the Cape football get to the state finals. Cape's 106-pounder Austin Guerrieri advanced to Day 2 of the Beast tournament. He went 4-2 with two pins and beat Cliff Bakhsh of Saint Mark's, the No. 1-ranked wrestler in Delaware. Cape’s Patrick Donahue had a great tournament, winning three matches and ending a win away from placing in the top eight. The Cape wrestling team will compete at Caravel Wednesday, Dec. 20. Cape is a cold-weather hotbed of lacrosse, an outdoor sport played in shorts, where colleges begin competitive play at the beginning of February. Spring practices for Delaware high schools begin Feb. 27. Go on now, git!