Seniors repeat as hoops medalists
The two top basketball shooters in Florida Senior Games State Championships history – Andy McGuffin and Harry Carothers – continued their tradition of gold medal-winning performances Friday.
McGuffin, of Umatilla, raised his gold medal count to 38 since 1994 with a sweep of the free throw, spot field goal and timed FG shooting events in the 85-89 age group. Carothers, of Pinellas Park, won his 11th consecutive timed FG gold medal dating back to 1999.
McGuffin, the 2005 State Championships Male Athlete of the Year, won his 13th free throw and spot FG gold medals and his 12th timed FG medal.
Carothers, the 2003 Male Athlete of the Year, posted the overall high score in the timed FG shooting with 121 points, hitting 24 shots from the three-point line.
Claudette Braswell of Lake Wales had the highest women’s scores in all three events, hitting 25 of 30 free throws, scoring 11 of a possible 15 points in the spot FG shooting and scored 93 points in the timed event. Braswell also won a horseshoes gold medal Wednesday and competes in racquetball this weekend.
Archie Grant of Fort Myers hit 29 of 30 free throws for the top score of the competition and the gold medal in the 70-74 age group. He missed his seventh free throw of the first round of 10 shots and then connected on the next 23 in a row.
Charles Ripstra (50-59) of Lake Wales and Glenn Boetcher (75-79) of Lakeland had gold medal sweeps of all three events.
In men’s tennis doubles, Fred King of San Antonio and Barry Shollenberger of Valrico defeated Ed Grabowski of Keystone Heights and Jack Morriss of Tampa in straight sets to win the 60-64 gold medal.
In the first of three days of billiards competition at Diamond Billiards in Cape Coral, Gary Stopa of Cape Coral won 9-ball gold in the 60-64 age group to bring his total to six in three years.
For the eighth of nine days, Saturday starts with the 5K road race, race walk and fun walk events at Rotary Park in Cape Coral. Also on the schedule is shuffleboard at North Fort Myers Community Park, mixed doubles tennis at Rutenberg Park, track & field at South Fort Myers High School, 3-on-3 basketball at Estero Community Center, racquetball at the Naples Fitness Center and billiards at Diamond Billiards in Cape Coral.