Jerry Moore, Appalachian State University head football coach, will be the featured speaker Wednesday at an event sponsored by the Moore County Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

“A Night of Family Celebration” is the theme of the event, which will be held at Grace Church in Southern Pines, beginning at 7 p.m.

For more information, contact Chris Metzger at (239) 248-0808 or by email at cmetzger @ncmcs.org.

Falcons Finish Fifth in Tennis

The O’Neal School varsity boys’ tennis team earned a fifth-place finish last weekend in the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state 2-A tennis championship in Wilmington.

In singles, the Falcons’ Garrett Klumpar came from behind in his first singles match, beating Winston Pantelakos of Fayetteville Academy 3-6, 6-3, (10-8) before losing to the eventual state champion Rob High of Cape Fear Academy.

At No. 2 singles, Evan Davies dropped his first match of the day to J. Kim of Cary Christian 6-3, 6-3. At No. 3 singles, Crawford Liner of O’Neal lost to Mike Taylor from Grace Christian School 6-0, 6-1.

At No. 4 singles, Ryan Williams had to play the top seed and lost 6-3, 6-0 to Parker Anderson, who was the eventual state champion in the flight. O’Neal’s No. 5 player, John Ronalter, lost his first set, but came back to defeat Taylor Abbott from Kerr Vance Academy 5-7, 6-3, (10-3) before suffering a loss in the next round.

Caleb Wood of O’Neal defeated David Essensoy of Fayetteville Academy 6-2, 6-4, before losing to Taylor Smith of Cape Fear in the semifinals. Smith also went on to win the title at No. 6 singles.

In doubles, Klumpar and Davies lost to the eventual state champions Sindon and Griffith from St. David’s in the semifinals 6-2, 6-0.

At No. 2 doubles, Williams and Ronalter defeated Taylor and Hillmann from Grace Christian 6-2, 6-3, before losing to Aziz and Anderson from Cape Fear Academy.

At No. 3 doubles, Liner and Wood won their quarterfinal match 6-1, 6-4 over Cross and Butler from Coastal Carolina, before losing the semifinals 6-2, 6-2 to Gallop and Smith from Cape Fear.

Coach Don Woodfield was most pleased with the improvement at the state level, going from finishing 14th in 2011 to a fifth-place finish this year.

He said the improvement showed great promise for the future.

Overall, Cape Fear Academy won five of the six singles titles and two of the three doubles titles to win its fifth state title in a row.

St. David’s won the other two flights to take second.

Three Falcons Place in Track

The O’Neal track teams competed in the N.C. Independent Schools state 1-A track and field championships at High Point University last weekend, with several Falcons placing in both the girls’ and boys’ event.

The girls, propelled by the efforts of Savannah Merritt and Aleksandra Majka, finished ninth overall with 28 points. Victory Christian won the meet with a total of 184 points.

Both Merritt and Majka set school records in placing in their respective events. Merritt earned a second-place finish in the 3,200-meter run, setting a school record with the time of 12:04.98. Majka finished third in the 100-meter hurdles, also in a school record time of 17.3.

Austin Puleo led the Falcon boys’ team, earning two thirds. He placed third in the 400-meter dash in a time of 51.33 and third in the 800-meter run in a time of 2:03.76. The Falcon boys finished 16th with 12 points in the meet won by Westchester Academy with 128 points.

Several Falcons set personal records during the meet, including Mark Bonville in the 300-meter hurdles (51.51), Megan Bloom in the 200-meter dash (31.53), Allison Johnson in the 400 (1:20.96) and Katherine Wooddell in the 100-meter dash (15.31) and 200-meter dash (30.02).

In the 3,200 boys’ race, Falcons Josh Russell (12:06.30), Tomi Lawal (12:27.46) and Kyle Flechsig (13:01.54) all set personal best times.

Also setting personal best times for the Falcons were Dakota Merritt in the 100 (13.63) and Alexander Waddell in the 1,600 (5:19.61).