Spring Sports Spring into Action
Track & Field, and By: Molly Scheffler
Tennis Start Seasons
The Raider tennis team began
their season in March. Their first
tournament was March 18. They will
have six tournaments beginning in
this month and ending at the end
of April. There are two teams,
composed of about 50 athletes.
The boys and girls
track and field team also
began their season. Tryouts
were Feb. 17-21. In tryouts,
Coach McFarlin was looking for
many characteristics of athletes,
“Of course ability, speed in
whatever event they are doing,
coachability, dependability
and effort.”
All teams had one
meet on March 5
and
almost all the teams
came in
first. The seventh grade
Raider
girls placed first in the
meet
Scoring in Sochi
with 339.5 points beating out
second by 146.5 points. And the
eighth grade lady Raiders
placed first in the meet. The
seventh grade Raider boys
placed second overall for
the meet. Sam Sloan came
in first in the 2400 meters,
Cade Pettijohn placed
first in the 110 hurdles, and
Preston Briley came in first
in pole vault. The eighth
grade Raider boys placed
first in the meet. Something
significant was that eighth
grader Colby Green tied
Preston Miller for the
HPMS Record.
Both teams have
more meets and
tournaments to come.
By: Molly Scheffler and
Christina Bambach
The 2014 Sochi Winter
Olympics began on February
7th and ended on the 27th. It
was hosted in Sochi, Russia. A
total of 295 medals were handed
out (not divisible by 3 because
of ties), 28 of them belonging to
the United States. In comparison
to the other countries competing, Russia received the most medals followed by
the United States and then Norway. There were 87 countries competing, Europe
with 49 countries, Oceania with 3, Asia with 17, Africa with 3 and the Americas
with 15.
The opening ceremony, lasting two and a half hours included 3500
fireworks, and 18 performances. Some of the performances featured segments
about Russia’s history. There was a total of 40,000 audience members,
including Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.
Some of the highlights included:
Julia Lipnitskaia, a 15 year old Russian women’s individual figure skater,
who had an outstanding performance at this year’s games. She became the
pus
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most talked about athlete at the games. The Washington Post called Lipnitskaia a
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Photo co
“tiny genius.” This 5’2” athlete won a gold medal in figure skating.
The
United States ice dance couple, Meryl Davis and Charlie White won a gold medal. They also won a bronze medal in the
team figure skating competition. In addition to the support that they get in the United States, Davis and White’s mothers go with them to
every competition to cheer them on.
Some disappointing results were:
The popular snowboarder, Shaun White, did very well in the qualifications ranking number one with 95.75 points. However in the
finals, White missed out on a medal ranking number four and receiving 90.25 points.
Both United States men and women’s teams had a defeating loss to Canada in Hockey. The women’s team made it to the finals but
suffered a 3-2 loss against Canada. The men’s team lost to Canada 0-1 in the semifinals.
Although White, and the U.S. Hockey team did not do as well as we hoped, it seems like the other American athletes did well.
However, the Olympic Games had to end. In response to the Olympic ring failing to light in the opening ceremony, Russia showed a sense
of humor acknowledging the mistake by showing that a large snowflake made out of performers failed to turn into the fifth Olympic ring in
the closing ceremony.
Although there were some problems concerning stray d