Athletes of the Week March 29
Jake Gelof
As a sophomore at Cape last year, Jake was the starting goalie on the 12-3 soccer team and posted 10 saves in a state tournament win over St. Georges. He was also a starter at third base on the state championship baseball team. In the 10-inning, comeback 6-5 win over Dover, Jake got the win on the mound and knocked home the winning RBI. Jake is now at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., maintaining a 4.4 scholastic average, where he is rostered on two teams – one is ranked No. 1 in the country. Jake plays mostly on the IMG National Black baseball team. Last week in a tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jake had back-to-back games where he combined to go 7-for-8 with six runs scored, including four RBIs, two doubles, a triple and a stolen base. He also pitched 3.1 innings without allowing a hit, and his fastball touched 90 mph. Jake committed to play baseball at William and Mary, which plays in the CAA, the same conference as the University of Delaware.
Meredith Lockwood
March Madness, the final four of the Lockwood girls, following Kristin, Liz and Victoria. Meredith has been going through athletic changes her junior year. She gave up field hockey – basically didn’t like it – and ran some cross country and winter track, where she was an 800-meter runner. But her real passion is lacrosse. Now a junior, she’s already been a starter on two state championship teams as a midfielder. Meredith was moved to attack this spring as Cape graduated Lindsay Monigle, Mallory Jones and Katie Frederick. The move paid dividends in the comeback win at Decatur March 25, as she tallied three goals, scoring Cape’s seventh, eighth and ninth goals in the improbable victory. “We had a pair of hat tricks on attack, which is great news for us,” said coach Lindsey Underwood. “As a team, we are athletic and can run.”
Maya Miller
Maya is a 5-foot-2, 96-pound high school sophomore who plays the ponies, as in riding a 1,000-pound horse for the Maui Polo Club. Her parents are Adam Miller and Lenna (Pritchett) Miller, both Sussex County natives and Cape graduates. In February, Maya and her team secured a win at the 2019 USPA Girls Western Regionals in Indio, Calif., where they beat longtime rival Cal Poly Interscholastic in the finals. The Maui Polo Club girls’ team advanced to the USPA Girls Nationals, held last month in Houston, Texas, for the first time in six years. The girls lost in the semifinals to home team Houston, but won against Boston, earning third place in the tournament, the highest Maui Polo Club has ever achieved. “Pretty impressive for a few island girls to come from the middle of the Pacific and end up third in the nation,” said team mom Lenna Miller. Maya would like to play intercollegiate polo and become an equine veterinarian.
Sawyer Walker
A left-handed junior who plays attack for the Cape girls’ lacrosse team, Sawyer is always going to be the tallest athlete on the field. She’s in the running for the nicest, too, but when she cranks up her “nasty” game, she is lethal. Sawyer scored her first career hat trick March 25 in the season opener at Stephen Decatur, scoring Cape’s only first-half goals as the Vikings trailed 7-2. She was then part of five straight second-half scores with a third goal and two forced turnovers that led directly to goals. “I’m so happy we won, and honestly this morning I wrote down the word ‘hat’ and hoped I’d be able to finish with ‘trick’ by the end of the day,” she said. Sawyer did indoor track this winter, high jumping 4-feet-10-inches. She is more of a loper than a sprinter, but Sawyer can quickly eat up some ground when she goes to goal, and on redefend, she makes clears problematic.
