Athletes of the Week July 10
Hayden Hudson
Playing first base for the Delmarva Freedom 12U softball squad, this Beacon student has posted a .636 batting average over nine games, which includes three doubles, three triples and 12 RBIs. According to her coach/dad Chuck Hudson, Hayden went 70 at bats without an extra base hit last season. “She has worked really hard during the shutdown and her performance has been impressive,” Chuck said. “I’m so proud of her. It's not easy to be surrounded by all those coaches.” Hayden was a seventh-grader last season on Beacon’s 9-2 basketball team. She also plays field hockey and softball for Beacon and does Fastbreakers and Shorebyrds for travel basketball and field hockey. Hayden is an honors student, as is her older sister Grace, a rising 10th-grader at Cape who plays field hockey and basketball with a high GPA, taking after her mom Amy. We should add her grandfathers are retired football coaches Charlie Boy Hudson and Bob Cuthrell.
Terrique Riddick
This great-nephew of Cape star Anthony Burton (Swarthmore) played freshman ball at Cape before transferring to Woodbridge. Terrique rushed for 1,503 yards and scored 18 touchdowns his senior season 2016-17 for the Blue Raiders, earning all-conference, all-state and all-American honors. The Bridge won the Division II state title that year, beating Friends 14-9 in the title game. He also lettered in track and field all four years. Playing for the Pioneers of William Paterson University in New Jersey last fall, his freshman season, Terrique led the team with 754 yards rushing while scoring eight touchdowns. He had 100-yard games against TCNJ, Wesley and FDU. “I really hope we play football this fall. I've been working hard and want to improve on my freshman season,” Terrique said.
Mike Wardian
Wardian is whack in all ways good, and whether you pay attention to him or not, he is going to get whackier until he falls down and like the song by Chumbawamba, “I get knocked down but I get up again, you’re never gonna keep me down.” Mike is a world-renowned ultrarunner who July 3 on a 90-degree day ran a predesigned 135-mile north-to-south length of Delaware route. He completed the distance in just over 24 hours. And then he went and settled on a house outside Rehoboth because with Mike, there is always another chapter. Mike ran seven marathons in seven days a couple of years ago, so on the eighth day, he ran another one. Nick Cruz, Mike Marciano, Joey Andrisani and Martin Rodriguez each ran close to a 30-mile leg escorting Mike to Fenwick Island.
Jose Rivera Yetter
A 17-year-old cross country and track runner from Howard High School glided around Hudson Fields July 4 to capture the Phase One 5K, a carefully engineered event by Races2Run. Jose is an inspiring young man coming off a heart procedure to correct an arrhythmia problem related to exertion. With the problem corrected, he is ready to rock, saying, “I’m training 70 miles a week looking for a great cross country season where I can run faster than I did at last year's D2 state meet where I ran 16:57 for 12th.” It noteworthy that the top 12 runners in that race all broke 17 minutes, but no one went under 16. “I didn’t think when I started running I would be this good, so now I’m looking toward the future and hoping I can go to college and be a runner,” said Jose.
