Cara De Carlo's feature on Hopewell's Shatori Walker-Kimbrough:

"She's no lawyer, but most of Hopewell senior Shatori Walker-Kimbrough's accolades have come for her performance on a court -- the basketball and volleyball kind.

Today, she's in the news for her track and field escapades.

Walker-Kimbrough won WPIAL Class AAA girls championships in the long jump and triple jump events last Thursday at Baldwin. She won her long-jump title with a 19-foot, 23/4-inch leap. Her best triple jump covered 37-113/4 ."

track

Multi-sport achiever Shatori Walker-Kimbrough may be one of Hopewell’s best-known athletes. But Walker-Kimbrough swings her kettle bells one motion at a time.

What this means is that all jumpers on Hopewell’s track team (including Walker-Kimbrough) have tricky-but-effective training drills. Assistant coach Jeff Brunton makes the jumpers swing kettle bells (large teakettle-shaped weights) to train their jumping muscles.

Brunton explained that the jumpers swing the bells upward from a point between their feet. They swing one or two bells, anywhere from 10-20 times a set.

“It’s basically just jumping without ground contact,” Brunton said. The weight and motion train the “explosive jumping muscles” of the legs without excess impact upon the ankles.

The athletes have liked the kettle bell workouts so much that they continue the workouts as a group in the offseason.

“We’re starting a Junior Olympic track club,” added Brunton. “They kept the Kettle Bell Club for the track team’s name.”

track

Hopewell cruised through the regular season with a 17-3 record, earning the second seed in the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs. In the regular season, the Vikings scored nine runs or more in 12 of their 20 games but, in the first round, Hopewell edged out 15th seeded Derry 1-0 on a seventh inning run.

In the next round, though, the bats came alive. The Vikings banged out 12 hits in a 13-3 win over section rival Blackhawk. Stefan Mrkonja led the win with seven strikeouts and no walks in five innings while accumulating a double and two singles at the plate.

baseball

Last year, Hopewell finished 17-3 in the regular season and this year the Vikings were again 17-3. But the same record if more of a coincidence than a reflection of the team.

This year’s 17-3 Vikings are under the direction of a new coach in Mike Shuleski as one change and the other is what that 17-3 record has earned the team. Last year, Hopewell finished second in Section 1-AAA but this year, the Vikings were 9-1 in section play, earning the section crown and a second-seeding in the WPIAL playoffs.

baseball