Wednesday, June 13, 2001
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Wednesday, June 13, 2001 |
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Georgia State gets a boost from Fayette County athletes By MICHAEL
BOYLAN
Georgia State University has won the All-Sports trophies for the second consecutive year and for the third time in four years, and several Fayette athletes contributed to that success. It was the eighth time that the school has won the title in the past 15 years overall. The school won six Trans America Athletic Conference titles in men's and women's basketball, men's soccer, women's volleyball, women's cross country and men's golf. All of those teams, except the cross country team, earned NCAA berths. Georgia State's men's basketball team finished in the final 32 of the NCAA basketball tournament. Shernard Long was named conference Player of the Year and Coach Lefty Driesell was named TAAC Coach of the Year and Georgia Division I Coach of the Year by the Atlanta Tipoff Club. The state of Georgia helped produce these winners from Georgia State as 122 of more than 200 athletes hail from the Peach State. Fayette County athletes contributed to the success of several of these teams as well. James Bendetti and J.B. Wood of Fayetteville and Justin Koehler and Micki Stone of Peachtree City were all members of the soccer team which finished as TAAC champs. The baseball team also got a boost from Fayette County players. Jay Fields, a Sandy Creek graduate, made the second team All-TAAC and was a team leader with a .371 batting average. He had 73 hits, stole 19 bases and had a .525 slugging percentage. Fields hit four home runs this season as well as 11 doubles, and drove in 23 runs. Ryan Patrylo, a McIntosh graduate, had a 4-5 record with 40 strike outs this season. He also had a 1.000 fielding average and was an academic award winner on the dean's list. |
