Athletes of the Week June 17
Katharine DeVilbiss
Back in 2004, Special K channeled a serious case of the coordinated quicks. The Cape girls’ track team of coach George Pepper ran to a Division II state championship with DeVilbiss scoring 38 points in the title takedown, winning the 100-meter hurdles in 15.5 seconds, 300-meter hurdles in 47.1, and pole vault in 9-feet-11-inches, and placing second in the 200 meters in 25.5. The week before at the strong Henlopen Conference Championships, Special K won the same three events while placing third in the 200 meters to score 36 of Cape’s 82 team points. Katharine has a bachelor’s degree from Clemson in fisheries biology and a master’s from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Management. She now works for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission. Special K is the outdoors athletic personality type from mountaineering in the Bugaboos in the Canadian Rockies to rock climbing, yoga and road biking. She has played women’s rugby and intramural broomball. Special K rolls with her sidekick Kuma, a Korean Jindo Dog with a Japanese name.
Tiara Duffy
Delaware field hockey Player of the Year in 2014, Tiara was lightly recruited because the word was out that she wanted to play softball. Tiara was a formidable force in the middle of the hockey field who became a finisher on penalty corners. Smile softly and carry a big bat in softball, that’s Tiara, who went and walked on at the University of South Carolina where she sometimes started in the outfield or at first base and DH’d for the Gamecocks in the tough SEC. Sweet T graduated with a 3.91 GPA and just last month graduated with a master’s degree in public health from Eastern Virginia Medical School. Her mom Tenesha is a teacher at Milford, while sister Tykia teaches at Love Creek after graduating from the University of Delaware.
Derek Savage
Derek was inducted into the Goldey-Beacom College Hall of Fame in 2018 for the sport of basketball. He is a 2004 Cape graduate where he set an unofficial record for high-flying dunks in traffic and was also a star in track, running hurdles and triple jumping. Derek was first-team All-Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference in 2008. Savage also helped lead the Lightning to the ECAC title in 2007. Derek graduated from Goldey-Beacom first in school history with 1,333 points, 772 rebounds, 293 assists, 219 free throws, 96 blocks and 236 steals. Derek and Macky Jones (passed away) provided a great inside/outside combination for the Vikings. Derek was a 3D guy, double-double in points and rebounds, and a dunk or two to keep the crowd into it. Derek scored 26 points over four events in the Henlopen Conference track championships – second in 110- and 300-meter hurdles, third in triple jump and ran on the 400-meter relay team for second. Derek was second in the 110 hurdles at the state meet and third in the 300 hurdles. He is the Jobs for Delaware Graduates coordinator at Lake Forest High School.
Olivia Weir
A gymnast from Garnet Valley High School, she is a member of a nuclear family including brother Andrew (LaSalle soccer) and parents Mike and Cheryl. She grew up a part of the local running tradition. Olivia ran 5Ks as a little girl, always cartwheeling across the finish line. Cheryl ran cross country for the University of Delaware. Olivia is an incoming freshman at the University of Maryland on a gymnastics scholarship. Her favorite event is the bars, just like many of the Dewey runners. “I chose Maryland because I loved the coaches and the strong team bond. It’s also the perfect distance from my house,” Olivia said. Olivia self-identifies as half Asian, as her mom’s family is from the Philippines. Olivia also likes to play soccer and surf. All that stuff is easy if you can survive a balance beam, tumbling runs and vaulting off the back of a rubber horse and sticking the landing.
