Island youths compete, place in Gasparilla half marathon
Lifetime island youths Madeline Valadie and Luke Valadie are running fast into success.
They both competed and placed in the Publix Gasparilla Distance Classic half-marathon Feb. 23 in Tampa.
Madeline, a sophomore at Manatee High School finished with a time of 2:05, placing her 13th in the age 15-19 female age group. Luke, an eighth-grader at King Middle School, finished with a time of 1:53, placing him third in the 11-14 male age group.
The siblings both really enjoy running and have wanted to accomplish running a half marathon just to prove to themselves that they could do it, according to Mom Kyra.
Maddy, who runs cross country and played soccer at MHS this year, made use of training from cross-country coach Rae Anne Darling Reed, but mostly just ran whenever she could.
Luke did a lot of running on his own, including long runs with Marcel Sanchez, who finished first in the 11-14 age group.
Playoffs loom in flag football
With only one week of regular season play remaining, teams in all three age divisions of the Anna Maria Island Community Center NFL Flag Football League are jockeying for seed positions to gain a more favorable matchup and the hope of advancing to the Super Bowl games March 21.
The 8-10 division favorite has to be West Coast Air & Heating Dolphins. With two games remaining to be played, the 7-1 Dolphins hold a comfortable lead and are the likely first seed — which comes with a bye to the semifinals.
Beach Bistro Buccaneers, Manatee Diagnostic Ravens and Beach Bum Patriots are bunched up in second-fourth places, each with five wins. Tyler’s Ice Cream Vikings, LPAC Cardinals and Dojo Martial Arts Cowboys round out the remainder of the 8-10 standings and are long shots to advance to the finals.
Sandbar Colts and LPAC Cardinals are the favorites in the 11-13 division to meet in the Super Bowl. The Colts currently hold the top seed with a 9-1 record, but the 7-1 Cardinals are hot on their heels with two games left to play. The first and second place teams earn a bye to the semifinals. Beach to Bay Construction, which has three games remaining, including two against the Cardinals, still has a mathematical chance to overtake the Cardinals. Bark & Company Realty Ravens are in fourth, comfortably ahead of the 1-8 Will C. Photos Falcons and Eat Here Redskins, which are locked into an opening-round playoff match.
Mr. Bones Bengals has clinched the top seed in the 14-17 division and will play Waterfront Restaurant Cowboys, which has clinched the bottom seed with a 0-9 record. The rest of the division seeds will be decided this week. Galati Yacht Sales Buccaneers and The Feast Restaurant Broncos are tied for second place with 6-3 records, while West Coast Surf Shop Jaguars and Integrity Sound Lions are tied for third place with 5-4 records. The sixth and seventh seeds also are up for grabs with Swordfish Grill Browns and Sun Bears tied with 3-6 records.
The playoffs get started March 8.
NFL 30-plus playoffs begin
The 30-and-over football division at the center moves into its second season with the start of the playoffs March 6.
Top-seeded, undefeated Island Gourmet Bills and second-seed Agnelli Pool & Spa Giants earned a first-round bye to the semifinals and play the winners of the March 6 opening-round games.
Agnelli takes on the winner of the Island Real Estate-Jessie’s Island Store matchup, while Island Gourmet takes on the winner of the Tyler’s Ice Cream-Ross Built games March 13. The winners will meet in the Super Bowl, which takes place at the center March 20.
The 18-and-over division has one week left for regular season play and final seedings are still up in the air. Slim’s Place Bears currently holds down the top seed, but they play Agnelli Pool & Spa Giants, which could overtake them with a victory. Duffy’s Tavern Eagles also could move up with a victory over Beach to Bay Construction Dolphins. There’s still a lot at stake in the last week of action.
Opening round 18-plus playoff games are March 12 and the season concludes April 2 with the Super Bowl.
Horseshoe news
Four teams emerged from pool play during Feb. 26 horseshoe action at the Anna Maria City Hall horseshoe pits and were left to battle for the championship.
Bob Palmer and Hank Huyghe defeated Rod Bussey and Herb Puryear 22-18 in the first semifinal match, while Jerry Disbrow and Bill Wright obliterated Steve Grossman and Tom Skoloda 22-1 in the second semifinal match.
Disbrow-Wright then edged Palmer-Huyghe 24-19 in the championship match.
The March 1 games saw eight teams finish with 2-1 records. Acting pit boss Bob Mason called it a draw, sending everyone home a winner.
Warmups begin at 8:45 a.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays followed by random team selection. There is no charge to play.
Key Royale golf news
Spring-like weather resulted in a busy week of golf at Key Royale Club in Holmes Beach.
The big news is the crowning of the club’s men’s non-handicap champion and a hole-in-one. Gary Risner rolled past Ron Pritchard in the men’s championship match 5 and 4, meaning he held a five-hole lead with four holes left to play in the match played Feb. 28.
Also on Feb. 28 Chet Hutton dropped in a hole-in-one with a hybrid 7-iron on the 114-yard eighth hole.
Regular golf action at the club began with the weekly quota-points game Feb. 24. Ron Buck, Tom McDonnell and John Estok each carded plus-4 scores to finish in a three-way tie for first place. McDonnell was part of the team that included Bob Lang, Greg Shorten and Gerry Dahl that combined on a plus-6 to win the team competition for the day.
The women played a nine-hole, individual-low-net golf match in four flights Feb. 25. Joy Kaiser grabbed first place in Flight A with a 2-under-par 30 to edge Jean Holmes by one shot.
Kris Landkammer fired a 4-under-par 28 to take first place in Flight B by four shots. Joyce Lathrop’s 6-under-par 26 was the low-net round of the day, also good for first place in Flight C, and Sally Keyes carded a 4-under-par 28 to take first place in Flight D.
Maxine Mitchell and Pam Alvord had chip ins, while the team of Connie Lavanos, Penny Williams, Judy Ward and Joy Kaiser won the team low-putts game with a combined 69 putts.
The men played a nine-hole scramble on nine par-three holes Feb. 27. First place went to the team of Ron Pritchard, Barry Anderson, Ken Pritchett and Barry Izzard with a score of 5-under-par 22. The team of Jerry Elson, Dick Mills, Ron Buck and Larry Solberg was two shots back to finish alone in second place.
Members played a nine-hole coed scramble Feb. 28 that saw the team of Paul Kaemmerlen, Marlyn Thorton, Ann Hitchen and Markie Ksiazek combine on an 11-under-par 21 to grab first place.
AMICC NFL Flag Football schedule
5-7 Division
March 7 6 p.m. Miller Electric vs. Air & Energy
March 10 6 p.m. Beaches Real Estate vs. Miller Electric
8-10 Division
March 7 6 p.m. Dojo Martial Arts vs. LPAC
March 7 7 p.m. WCAC vs. Beach Bums
Playoff Schedule
March 8 9 a.m. 4th Seed vs. 5th Seed
March 8 10 a.m. 3rd Seed vs. 6th Seed
March 8 11 a.m. 7th Seed vs. 2nd Seed
March 10 6 p.m. TBA vs. 1st Seed
March 10 7 p.m. TBA vs. TBA
11-13 Division
March 5 6 p.m. Beach to Bay vs. Eat Here
March 7 8 p.m. Beach to Bay vs. LPAC
Playoff Schedule
March 8 12 p.m. 5th Seed vs. 4th Seed
March 8 1 p.m. 6th Seed vs. 3rd Seed
14-17 Division
March 6 6 p.m. The Feast vs. Sun
Playoff Schedule
March 8 2 p.m. #8 Waterfront vs. #1 Mr. Bones
March 8 3 p.m. 7th Seed vs. 2nd Seed
March 8 4 p.m. 6th Seed vs. 3rd Seed
March 8 5 p.m. 5th Seed vs. 4th Seed
18-and-Over Division
March 5 7 p.m. Waterfront vs. Beach Bistro
March 5 8 p.m. Slim’s Place vs. Agnelli Pool
March 5 9 p.m. Beach to Bay vs. Duffy’s
30-and-Over Division
March 6 7 p.m. #5 IRE vs. #4 Jessie’s
March 6 8 p.m. #6 Tyler’s Ice Cream vs. #3 Ross Built
Adult Volleyball
March 11 6:30 p.m. Duncan RE vs. Southern Greens
March 11 7:30 p.m. FL Discount Signs vs. Southern Greens
March 11 8:30 p.m. Duncan RE vs. FL Discount Signs