Today at the USA Games – June 8
Bowlers, Gymnasts, Swimmers All Strike Gold on Competition Day 2
Every Team Kentucky bowler, gymnast and swimmer will leave the 2022 USA Game with at least one gold medal after a huge second day of competition in Orlando.
Team Kentucky’s four swimmers – Maddie Brinkman of Union, Justin Hale of Crestwood, Megan McCormick of Lexington and Austin Stine of Louisville – combined for gold in the 4×50-meter medley relay. The quartet finished in 3:18.73 – their fastest time ever as a team. They finished less that two seconds ahead of Team Colorado.
The bowlers also combined forces for gold as the Team Kentucky pairs of Brianna Goode of Glasgow with Casey Freeman of Franklin and Louisville’s Dallas Derringer of Louisville with Levi Oney of Olive Hill both claimed gold in their divisions of the doubles event. Goode nearly bowled a personal-best game, falling just one-pin short with an 85 in her second game. Goode and Freeman teamed up for a 535 series to beat the Louisiana Pairing of Carolyn Nicholas and Brenda Couvillier by 62 pins. It was the second gold for Goode, who won the singles event last night. It was the first medal of the games for Freeman, who placed fourth in her division of the singles. Like Goode, Oney grabbed bronze for the second time already at the Games. Derringer opened with a 213 in the first game and the pair never looked back. They rolled an 878 series and cruised past Ryan Fortney and Simon Feather of West Virginia by more than 160 pins.
Gymnasts have historically dominated the medal chart for Team Kentucky at the USA Games and this year is shaping up to be no different. All three Kentucky gymnasts received at least one gold medal today. Lexington’s Aliya White and Russellville’s Lee Dockins were confirmed as the all-around champions in their divisions from competition that was held yesterday. Each also won at least one gold in their first two event finals that were held today – the uneven bars and the vault. White scored a 17.97 in the uneven bars to claim gold in her division that event. Dockins scored 19.0 in the bars to win the gold by just .2 points. Connor took gold with a score of 17.95. She was almost a full point ahead the silver medalist. Dockins and Connor both followed their gold medal performance with silver medals on the vault.
Hale and McCormick both won additional medals today at the pool. Hale claimed the bronze in his heat of the 200-yard freestyle. He swam a time of 2:32.59. McCormick grabbed a silver in the 100-yard butterfly in a time of 1:50.39. She also took fourth in her heat of the 200-yard butterfly. She also earned fourth place in her heat of the 200-yard freestyle.
Kevin Rates added a silver in the shot put today with a heave of 10.67 meters, improving on his preliminary round score. He also placed 5th in the long jump final.
The Team Kentucky Intercollegiate Unified basketball team played its medal round games today. They battled hard but fell in both games against North Carolina and Ohio to finish in fourth place.
In non-finals events, The Team Kentucky flag football team got its first win today, crushing Texas, 35-12, in hat was the last day of preliminary games. They will open medal round play tomorrow against Illinois.
The Team Kentucky track team ran their 4×100-meter relay preliminary today, finishing in 1:03.82. It was their best ever time in the event. Michaela Hickerson of Louisville and Caitlin Roy both ran preliminary heats of the 200-meters today. Hickerson ran hers in 41.473 seconds. Roy ran her heat in 37.192 seconds. Roy won gold in the 200 meters at the 2018 USA Games in Seattle.
Swimmers Stine and Brinkman both swam prelim heats of the 50-meter freestyle. Brinkman swam her heat in 57.83 seconds. Brinkman blew through hers in :38.66
Unified and traditional doubles both got underway today. In the traditional doubles, Amy Butler of Almo and Kym Dickamore of Murray lost their opener, 9-2 to Gina Klepadlo before rallying in their second match to beat Tyler Poole and Marcus Crowder of South Carolina 9-3.
In the Unified bocce event, athlete Torrey Thompson of Rockport and Unified partner Mark McKinney of Hartford had an early lead in their opening match but fell to Eric Lochiano and Travis Heller of Nebraska. They also came back to win their second match 12-3 over Jeffrey Wrich and Amy Sissel. The win avenged Thompson’s sudden death loss to Wrich in the singles event.
Team Kentucky golfers had a tough time on the links today. Wake Mullins and Unified Partner Dennis Gaines shot a 94; however they go into tomorrow’s second round just two shots out of first in their flight.
Brian Cheely and his brother and Unified partner Kevin , both of Glasgow also encountered some tough conditions, shooting a 58. They will also play their final round of the event on Thursday.
Tomorrow at the USA Games
The Kentucky bowlers will close out their competition tomorrow with all four of them competing together in the team event.
Team Kentucky golfers will be completing their final round and going for the gold.
Bocce athletes Butler and Dickamore will compete in the bronze medal match tomorrow. It’s still unclear if Thompson and McKinney will play for the gold or the bronze tomorrow.
Flag football goes into medal play versus Illinois.
Michaela Hickerson will run in the 100-meter final tomorrow.
Hale, Brinkman and Stine will all have medal opportunities at the pool tomorrow. Hale will swim the 200-freestyle, Stine and Brinkman will swim the 50-yard freestyle.
Stine and Brinkman will also have prelims tomorrow. Stine will swim the 100-yard freestyle prelim and Brinkman will swim the 50-yard backstroke.All three gymnasts will finish their competition with the beam and floor exercise event finals.