Led by veteran jumpers Erica Zenn and Mary Hunter Benton, who each won 16 medals, the Chapel Hill-based Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Rope Team collected 449 medals – 228 gold – at the World Jump Rope Championships held July 2-4 in Washington, D.C.

The Bulldogs took gold in the Team Show Small Group Junior Division and won silver in the Senior Division, with ProForm Airborne of Idaho Falls, Idaho, winning the Senior gold. In the Jump Rope Showcase Championship, the gold went to the Bulldogs’ Junior 14-and-younger team of Rebeccah Musson, Isabel Osborne, Reagan Roeber, Mia Stopa and Adam Weston.

The Bouncing Bulldogs have done it again.

The internationally known rope-skipping team from the Triangle is
heading back to the USA Jump Rope National Championships to try to win
their seventh consecutive national championship.

Forty Bulldogs in 15 events qualified for nationals during a USA Jump
Rope Region 2 qualifying tournament against other teams from the
Carolinas on Saturday at Green Hope High School in Cary.

There was a lot of data and emotion coming from supporters of Wake County's school diversity policy at Saturday's Great Schools in Wake Coalition forum.

As noted in today's article, researchers presented national and state data on the challenges of high-poverty schools and the benefits of socioeconomically diverse schools. The message presented was that community schools would be the wrong step for Wake to take.

"It's very important that Wake County stay the course on their programs," said Richard Kahlenberg, senior fellow at the Century Foundation, which he called a 'progressive think tank.' "The plans to dismantle the socioeconomic diversity policy would have disastrous effects.”

Summer is winding down and the start of the traditional school year is
approaching, so recreational athletes around the Triangle are taking
advantage of their final summer sports camp opportunities.

Among the camps are the annual Bouncing Bulldogs Jump Rope Camps
conducted by the Chapel Hill-based organization that has won numerous
national and international championships. The Bulldogs recently
returned from a 17-day tour of England, Denmark and Sweden.

The quick-footed Bulldogs' final camps of the summer run Aug. 10-14 and
Aug. 17-21. Would-be rope-skippers can participate for a day ($40) or
for a full week ($200). Call 919-493-7992 or go to
www.bouncingbulldogs.org.