Faces In The Crowd

FRANCIS TIAFOE

COLLEGE PARK, MD. > TENNIS

Francis, who studies and trains at his hometown's Junior Tennis Champions Center, where he is in eighth grade, won the boys' singles at Les Petits As in Tarbes, France, 6--0, 6--2 over William Blumberg (Greenwich, Conn.). Francis dropped just one set as the No. 4 seed. The nation's top-ranked boy under 14, he also took the boys' singles title as the No. 15 seed at the AEGON Junior International tournament in Bolton, England a week earlier, defeating Michael Mmoh (Bradenton, Fla.), 6--3, 6--3.

MINA ANDERBERG

LOUISVILLE, COLO. > CYCLING

Mina, an eighth-grader at Louisville Middle School, won her third cyclo-cross national championship title with a victory in the 13-to-14-year-old girls' division at junior nationals in Madison, Wis. Racing for the Fuji team in muddy conditions on the 2.1-mile outdoor course, she defeated Skylar Schneider (West Allis, Wis.) by seven seconds in the two-lap race, with split times of 11:07 and 11:33. Her overall mark of 22:40 was the fastest time for the first two laps by any female under 18 at the event.

TOMOKI HIWATASHI

HOFFMAN ESTATES, ILL. > FIGURE SKATING

Tomoki, a Thomas Jefferson Elementary sixth-grader who trains at the DuPage Figure Skating Club near Chicago, won the intermediate men's gold at the U.S. junior championships in East Lansing, Mich., for his second straight national title. He was first in the short program and the free skate, where he scored 66.56 points in a routine that included two triple Salchows (102.34 points overall). A two-time Upper Great Lakes regional champion, Tomoki won the juvenile boys' gold last year.

ASHLEY SHIN