Downingtown

The Crawford Fitness Center in Downingtown was the scene last month of a weightlifting demonstration by Ted Arcidi, the self-proclaimed "world's strongest man. " Arcidi holds the professional bench-press record of 705 pounds.

It is one week into the Constitution League season and already several things are clear: Defending champion Downingtown is playing superb soccer. West Chester East and Bishop Shanahan are a notch below, but capable of throwing a scare into the Whippets. West Chester Henderson has a way to go before the program is competitive in the league. WHIPPETS ON A ROLL Downingtown shut out all three of its opponents last week. The Whippets beat Harriton, 7-0, on Monday; East, 4-0, on Wednesday, and Henderson, 11-0, on Friday.

Joan Davis didn't know what to expect when she took the job of girls' swimming coach at Downingtown one week before the season started. Davis, 22, had never coached swimming before. She was still a student at West Chester University and said in late November that she hoped the team would be "respectable. " The team has been respectable. Very respectable. In fact, it's in first place in the Tri-County League after trouncing rival Coatesville (2-1, 5-4) on Thursday, 126-45. Downingtown dominated the Red Raiders, taking first and second place in every event except for the medley relay and diving, in which Coatesville captured second places.

A 20-year-old West Chester woman was shot and killed by her 22-year-old boyfriend before he turned the gun on himself Tuesday, Downingtown police said Wednesday night. After Thomas Reck's daughter, Mary Elizabeth, did not come home Monday evening, he contacted police. Downingtown police went to the home of her boyfriend, Kevin Smith, on Jefferson Avenue about 8 p.m. Tuesday to check on the situation. They found Reck inside the house with multiple gunshot wounds, and she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Downingtown has always proved to be a particularly troubling opening-day football foe for Archbishop Ryan. Now that the game is the second of the season for both teams, trouble just gets postponed by a week. The Whippets (2-0), coming off a win over Harrisburg, scored the game's first 17 points and held on for a 24-14 victory over the host Raiders (1-1) last night. The game is intriguing every year because it pits perennial suburban and Catholic League powerhouses. "Archbishop Ryan took us out of some things, but we did some real nice things," Downingtown coach Jack Helm said.

Downingtown rode a five-goal outburst that began right after halftime to a 12-7 victory over Marple Newtown yesterday in a semifinal match of the PIAA District 1 girls' lacrosse playoffs. That victory, coupled with Unionville's win over Ridley in the other semifinal match at Perkiomen Valley, sets up a 3:30 p.m. final tomorrow at Upper Merion between the only two unbeaten teams in District 1. The all-Chester County League final will actually be a rematch between top- seeded Unionville (20-0-1)

Downingtown baseball coach Brian Stackhouse said his team had been able to overcome its mistakes all year. That was until yesterday in the first round of the PIAA Class AAA state tournament against a Waynesboro team that the Whippets seemed to have overmatched in almost every department. Waynesboro scored a run without a hit in the top of the eighth inning and hung on to stun the District 1 champions, 3-2, at Spring-Ford High. The cloudy weather certainly matched the Whippets' spirits after the game.

The Dowingtown Whippets accomplished everything they set out to do against Conestoga but still lost, 2-1, last Monday. The loss, coming in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA District 1 soccer championship, knocked the Whippets out of the tournament. Downingtown, which won the Ches-Mont championship this season, ended the year at 16-3-2. The Central League's Conestoga, 15-1-1, advanced to the semifinal round against defending state champion Lower Merion. "Going in we thought we matched up well against them," Downingtown coach Paul Hurly said.

Downingtown school district officials have selected Ronald W. Gray of Bellefonte, Pa., to become the new superintendent of Downingtown schools. Gray, who currently heads the Bellefonte Area School District, near State College, will replace Superintendent Walter Hessinger, who has headed the Downingtown school district for three years. Hessinger, 63, plans to retire in June. "We were looking for a good mesh between the board and the superintendent and we felt that was there with Dr. Gray," said James Watson, vice president of the school board.

Bobby Nye used his head, both on offense and defense, to send Downingtown to the District 1 Class AAA boys' soccer championship last night. Nye's header off a Dam Massimini corner kick with 12 minutes left in the first half stood as the game-winner. And his head clears from the sweeperback position again and again helped the Whippets preserve their hard-fought 1-0 victory over Strath Haven. It was Downingtown's first district title since 1994. Strath Haven had won the last two district crowns.

They flew to Ireland to test their game. They will play for their first national title this weekend. And then they will compete in the first state championships. The Lady Dingoes, the under-19 girls' team from the Downingtown Rugby Football Club, clearly have taken off. Their sport has been going places, too. "I tell them all the time that this is an unbelievably special year of rugby because I can't think of any other year where you can have the opportunity to represent your country, the area where you are, and then be able to take our program and go out and compete for a national championship," Dingoes coach Matt Dziunycz said.

It wasn't the most exciting, and it lacked the scoring punch of the other periods, but the third quarter of its 12-6 win at Springfield (Delco) was perhaps the most emblematic reason that Downingtown East continued to roll Saturday in boys' lacrosse. After building an 8-2 halftime lead in the nonleague game, East (8-3) dominated possession for nearly 11 of the 12 third-quarter minutes, practically camping in Springfield's defensive zone. Oddly, Springfield (7-3) had scored the stanza's first goal, with 1 minute, 17 seconds to go. But East wasted little time in re-extending its lead to six. Junior midfielder Kyle Lauletta netted his third goal of the game by posting up a Springfield defender, like a power forward on the low block, before slinging the ball past goalie Jeremy Cavanaugh just 26 seconds later.

Cheltenham qualified for the PIAA state basketball tournament for the 27th time in the last 29 years by virtue of a 49-41 victory Wednesday night over visiting Downingtown East in the second round of the District 1 Class AAAA tournament. By advancing to the final eight, the top-seeded Panthers (23-1) are assured of earning one of District 1's nine available berths in the state tournament. Four players scored for Cheltenham, including Ciara Andrews, who made 7 of 8 fourth-quarter foul shots to finish with 20 points, Ming Seawright with 12 points and 11 rebounds, Christina Coleman with 9 points and 9 boards, and Giana Clark with 8 points and 9 rebounds.

Downingtown West got off to a fast start and claimed its first Ches-Mont League basketball championship in nine years with a 43-36 win over rival Downingtown East on Tuesday night. Brittany Sicinski tossed in a game-high 19 points, and Allison Shaw added 9 points and a dozen rebounds for West (22-2), which swept its three meetings with the Cougars (15-9) this winter. Noelle Alicea scored 13 points to lead East, which fell behind by 23-11 at halftime and 33-17 entering the final period.

Downingtown West got off to a fast start and claimed its first Ches-Mont League basketball championship in nine years with a 43-36 win over rival Downingtown East on Tuesday night. Brittany Sicinski tossed in a game-high 19 points, and Allison Shaw added 9 points and a dozen rebounds for West (22-2), which swept its three meetings with the Cougars (15-9) this winter. Noelle Alicea scored 13 points to lead East, which fell behind by 23-11 at halftime and 33-17 entering the final period.

A Coatesville-area man with a long history of criminal and motor-vehicles offenses was charged Monday with fleeing the scene of a fatal accident that claimed the life of a 26-year-old Downingtown father. Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said Michael J. Bristow, 39, of West Caln Township, was traveling on Route 322 in East Brandywine Township about 11 p.m. on Feb. 5 when he struck a motorcycle driven by Michael Orsini, who was turning into his apartment complex. Orsini, the father of a 9-month-old daughter, was taken to Brandywine Hospital and then to Paoli Hospital, where he died of his injuries less than two days later.

Downingtown West and Morrisville each posted wins Thursday and completed their regular-season league basketball schedules with perfect records. Downingtown West (20-2, 13-0 league), ranked No. 10 in Southeastern Pennsylvania by The Inquirer, clinched the Ches-Mont League National Division championship with a 37-32 win at town rival Downingtown East (14-8, 11-2). Kayla Feairheller led West with 12 points as the Whippets grabbed a 20-11 halftime lead. East's Noelle Alicea led all scorers with 13 points.

CARSON, Calif. - An odyssey involving a long suspension, a personal crisis, and trips to three different countries finally brought Jeff Parke into a safe harbor. The Downingtown native and former Drexel standout is participating in his first camp with the United States men's soccer team following perhaps his best season in six years. Parke, a defender with the Seattle Sounders, made 28 starts and played 2,387 minutes - his highest figures since 2006, when he played for the New York Red Bulls.

Devin DiFranks was awarded a pair of free throws, but she would need only one of them to give visiting Downingtown West a 27-26 win over Bishop Shanahan in a Ches-Mont League girls' basketball game Tuesday night. DiFranks was fouled at the buzzer with the score tied at 26 and ended the game by hitting her first from the line. Diana Cusick had tied the game for Shanahan with less than a minute left. In other Ches-Mont League action, Noelle Alicea dropped 14 of her 19 points in the first half as Downingtown East cruised past visiting West Chester Henderson, 69-37.