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Local Special Olympians thrive at States

By rscaife
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Updated: June 5, 2017

UNIVERSITY PARK – What started out as a small 35 minute drive came up large for this year’s members of the Mifflin/Juniata Special Olympics team.
It was a weekend full of laughs, fun and competition as six members of the swimming squad and five members of the 3×3 basketball team, the Thunder showed what the had practice all winter for a chance to medal at the state competition.
Most had to travel to Sectionals at St. Francis University to earn the right to battle at states.
The weekend went from Thursday with the opening ceremonies and ran into mud-afternoon Saturday with the official closing of the games.
This season’s State games had a record setting group of competitors.
However, that did not phase the tough group of locals as they did what they were trained to do, compete with honor.
Annie McCartchey Sixth place in swimming, Craig Sainsbury 2 silver medals in swimming, Kristy McClosky bronze medal in swimming, Erin Pyle 2 bronze and a 6th place in swimming, Danika Homan silver and bronze medal in swimming and Olivia Fisher a gold and bronze also in swimming.
Despite having a late start to the season, the teams did not look worse for wear as it ran like a well oiled machine.
In basketball action, the Mifflin/Juniata Thunder went 2-for-2 in weekend action to finish record wise third in the state, capturing a bronze medal in the process. The team consisted of Bobby Fisher, Tracy Woy, David Fye, Zach VanHorn and Chris Alters.