Faces in the Crowd
Karl Towns | Piscataway, N.J. | Basketball
Karl, a 7'1" junior center at St. Joseph High (Metuchen), had eight points, eight rebounds and three blocks in a 49--47 win over Newark East Side in the state final for the Tournament of Champions title. The Gatorade national basketball player of the year, Karl, who averaged 20.9 points, 13.4 boards and 6.2 blocks, plans to play next season for Kentucky.
Crystal Wang | Boyds, Md. | Table Tennis
Crystal, 12, a sixth-grader at Roberto Clemente Middle School, who trains at the Maryland Table Tennis Center, finished third at the USA team trials to become the youngest member, boy or girl, in the history of the national team. In December she became the youngest, at 11, to win the U.S. 21-and-under title by beating Angela Guan, 15, of San Jose.
Gerek Meinhardt | San Francisco | Fencing
Meinhardt, a Notre Dame graduate student, won his second Division I national foil title, defeating Penn State's David Willette 15--12. A two-time Olympian (2008 and '12), Meinhardt took bronze at the Paris World Cup in January to become the first U.S. men's fencer to earn the No. 1 foil world ranking. He is currently ranked fifth.
Phyllis Francis | Queens, N.Y. | Indoor Track and Field
Francis, an Oregon senior, ran a 50.64 anchor leg in the 4 √ó 400, the final event of the Division I championship, to help the Ducks set an NCAA record (3:27.40) and clinch their fifth straight title. Earlier in the meet she broke the four-year-old mark in the 400 (50.46). Francis was a three-event All-America at last year's outdoor championships.
Anastasia Bogdanovski | Fanwood, N.J. | Swimming
Bogdanovski, a Johns Hopkins junior, won Division III titles and set school records in the 50-yard free (22.80), 200 free (1:47.74), 200 free relay (1:32.38), 400 free relay (3:22.44) and 400 medley relay (3:42.90). She also won an 800 free relay title (7:21.49). The D-III swimmer of the year, Bogdanovski holds four Macedonian national marks.
Glenn Gruber and Hubie Kerns
Pasadena; Pacific Palisades, Calif. | Swimming
Last month, Gruber, 65, set a 400-m freestyle short-course world record for men 65 to 69 (4:55.10) and Kerns, 64, set the 200 IM world mark (2:35.67). The Ventura County Masters teammates have set seven masters world relay records.
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SUSAN GOLDMAN/GATORADE (TOWNS)
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LARRY HODGES (WANG)
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MIKE BENNETT/LIGHTHOUSE IMAGING (MEINHARDT)
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GODUCKS.COM (FRANCIS)
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JOHNS HOPKINS ATHLETICS (BOGDANOVSKI)
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SHARON CLARK (GRUBER)
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COURTESY OF DRIVERS INC. (KERNS)
