Other local sports

Saturday was the first official bout of the Destruction Junction Derby Dames roller derby league. The Blarney Ban-Shees, donning green, orange and black skated against the Yo Ho Hos in blue and black.

On a sun-splashed, warm afternoon, 52-year-old John Weston showcased his talent on Sunday at A.L. Gustin Golf Course, winning the Columbia Seniors Golf Championship over close friend, 51-year-old Dee Sanders.

It’s 6:20 a.m. Friday and she doesn’t seem ready to begin. However, Freude will be competing at 7:27 this morning, and she needs to practice with her partner if their dance is going to be perfect.

“Get a good picture of this birdie I’m about to make,” Zane Cobb said confidently from the green on the fifth hole of L.A. Nickell Golf Course on Friday.

Golf is a tough sport. Sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way, no matter how hard you try, something Doug Solliday is all too familiar with.

The clunk of rubber wheels on the wooden floor and the smell of sweat. Hot red faces under shining, colorful helmets. These are a few of a roller girl’s favorite things.

This weekend at Midway Exposition Center, about 111 horses and riders from Missouri and various other states will compete in the 2007 Missouri Dressage Classic.

Wakeboarding enthusiasts will have a chance to see some of the best at the fourth annual Midwestcoast Summerfest wakeboard competition on Saturday and Sunday at the Lake of the Ozarks.

An avid cyclist, Summers had seen the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia, the two most notable cycling events in North America. He mentioned the possibility of a race in Missouri to the governor.

Brittany Haines, 18, was born without a thumb on her right hand. That didn’t stop her from stepping onto the mat when she was 2 years old and beginning her gymnastics career. As her daughter grew older, however, Vivien Haines was confronted with a surgery that would give her daughter more use of her right hand.

One week after failing to make the cut in the U.S. Senior Open, Dee Sanders is back on the golf course and facing a new group of competitors at this year’s Columbia Seniors Championship.

The sound of cow bells cheers on the riders as more bikes fly past a clump of trees, on their next run through the 5 1/2-mile course Sunday at the Tall Oak Challenge mountain bike races.

Despite the warm temperatures and that most people don’t consider the first part of July to be football season, athletes from throughout the state came to Columbia to participate in this weekend’s Show-Me State football games.

Dee Sanders thought he had come just short of an invitation to the U.S. Senior Open. Hoping to join the 156-man field, Sanders made the trip to Kansas City for the qualifier at Oakwood Country Club.

Runners from as far away as Utah and Idaho joined Columbia residents Wednesday for the annual Parley Pratt Memorial 4-Mile run.

Fifteen PGA Tour Professionals will be in Columbia on Monday, July 9 for the kick-off of the 17th annual Rainbow House Cornerstone Insurance Golf Classic at the Country Club of Missouri.

Justin Phillips announces strikes with a low, guttural rumble that can be heard from the outfield.

To add a bit of showmanship to his performance, Phillips turns his body to the right, pauses, and then throws up a firm fist to prove his groan indicated, “Strike one.”

What appears to be a menacing medieval structure near Epple Field on the southwest edge of the MU campus is really a tool for personal growth and team building.

Standing atop the 10-foot water slide at Wilson’s Beach Club, 13-year-old Mariah Lucero had butterflies in her stomach — not because she’s afraid of heights or because she had never gone down the slippery track to the pool below.

Young athletes gathered Saturday at Hickman High School in hopes of qualifying for a trip to the U.S. Olympic Training Center in August.