Aug 7, 2019 2 min read

At The Meadows

There was no floating like a butterfly for Stinglike A B K; he powered right to the top and widened his lead late to capture Wednesday’s co-feature at The Meadows, an $11,800 conditioned trot.

Hydration took Wednesday’s companion feature, an $11,800 conditioned pace, in similar front-end fashion, scoring in 1:52.1 for Dave Palone, trainer Brian Brown and owners Country Club Acres, Joe Sbrocco and Strollin Stable.

Tony Hall pointed Stinglike A B K to the front, and the 3-year-old son of Andover Hall-Winning Missbrenda brooked no challenges, prevailing in a career-best 1:56.2. Just Fly Beyond was second, 21/4 lengths back, with Bellesvictorysong third. Rich Gillock trains the winner for owner/breeder Bob Key.

Jim Pantaleano piloted three winners on the 13-race program while Aaron Johnston enjoyed a training/driving double.

Cal hires coach

An alumnus of the program and a veteran head coach at the NCAA Division II level, April Gitzen was announced as the head swimming coach at California University of Pennsylvania on Wednesday.

Gitzen will replace longtime head coach Ed Denny, who will be retiring from the position in early September.

Gitzen, formerly April Staniszewski, has served as the head coach of the men’s and women’s swimming programs at West Virginia Wesleyan for the last eight seasons. She was tabbed the Mountain East Conference (MEC) Coach of the Year three times over the past two years, receiving the laurel for men’s swimming in both 2018 and 2019 and women’s swimming in 2019.

“April was a standout leader as a student-athlete and excelled in and out of the pool,” said Cal athletic director Dr. Karen Hjerpe. “She took the skills she learned at Cal U and built a successful men’s and women’s swimming program at West Virginia Wesleyan.”