Hinsdale South`s runner-up finish to St. Charles, bringing the school its first trophy from a state swim meet, had the Hornets throwing everyone in the pool–coaches, swimmers, managers, students and parents. ”You can see we`re going bananas,” said Hinsdale South coach Rick Townsend, whose Hornets scored 108 points to edge Hinsdale Central (103) for second. St. Charles won the meet with 174 points. ”I`m ecstatic,” said Townsend, who concluded his seventh and best season as coach at the school. ”I have to say this is the greatest thing to happen to Hinsdale South swimming. We never reached this plateau before. These kids, I can`t say enough about them.” . . . Double winners David Fix and Andy Edmondson led the Saints to their fifth consecutive state title, but St. Charles coach Dave Bart still keeps the team concept up front. ”The first priority is to win state,” Bart said. ”That`s what it`s all about. Individuals are performing because they`re representing the school. They take a lot of pride in the program. They make the coach look good. They swim with the desire and the intensity.” Edmondson and Fix are graduating, but St. Charles will build next year around Fred Westhoff, Chris Szabo, Bob Foster, Steve Pala and diver Mark Wainwright. Westhoff, a junior, could be the leader. He was second in the 200 freestyle and third in the 100 free Saturday. Pala, a freshman, finished fourth in the 500 free. Wainwright took fourth in diving. . . . Fremd diver Paul Braswell, who won the state championship Saturday at Hinsdale South with a 405.95 point total, had a special incentive working for him. He was academically ineligible at the time of last year`s state meet. ”This was my ultimate goal,” Braswell said. ”I felt I was going to do well last year, and I didn`t go. It gave me an initiative to do well.” Braswell, who had placed seventh in the state meet as a sophomore, won Saturday over St. Joseph`s Ed Veome (365.20). New Trier`s Peter Taylor
(365.05) finished third.
GYMNASTICS
Records may indeed be made to be broken, but Saturday night`s state finals were too much. Stagg senior Lisa Peterson, who won the all-around title Friday night, started the assault with a 9.80 in vaulting, beating the mark of 9.60 set in 1983 by Glenbard North`s Beth Benevente. Peterson did a handspring front somersault. ”I just went out there to go for everything,” Peterson said. ”There was nothing to lose. The pressure of the all-around was gone, so I figured I`d have some fun.” On balance beam, Saturday night`s third event, Michele Hernandez of Fremd tied the mark established by Janne Klepek of Lyons Townshiop last year with a 9.60. Two competitors later, De Kalb senior Sonya Brandon scored an astounding 9.70 on beam–what has to be the most difficult event of all. She did back-to-back aerial cartwheels and followed with back-to-back flips. ”Friday, I was conservative and held back,” said Brandon.
”My goal was just making it to the finals. I never thought about winning or breaking a record.” Brandon`s 9.70 was the highest score in finals`
history, until Hernandez`s floor exercise routine. Hernandez brought a capacity crowd to its feet with a dazzling set. She earned a 9.90. ”I just wanted to go out and not hold anything back,” said Hernandez. ”What can I do for an encore? Wait till next year.” . . . Resurrection coach Susan Fosco was brought to tears. All season, she had said her team could win a trophy. With it in hand, Fosco found reality hard to grasp. ”We fought with Deerfield,”
said Fosco, whose team edged Deerfield by .05 for third place. ”We went into floor Friday knowing that we had to hit. We prayed hard and we did it.”
Deerfield`s only hope of overtaking Resurrection was freshman Laurie Gold, who had to better her 9.40 on bars by at least 1 point. Gold scored 9.20 in Saturday`s finals. . . . Forest View sophomore Chris Hrbacek, whose 9.50 took the uneven parallel bars title, will have surgery in April for damaged cartilage in her left knee. The problem didn`t come up Saturday. ”I didn`t even think about my knee,” Hrbacek said. ”Last year, I watched everybody else before it was my turn. This year, I concentrated on my own routine.”
BASKETBALL
Juarez may finish the season with an 87-game losing streak, allegedly the longest in the nation. ”But we`re not giving up,” says coach Joe Kail.
”We`ll do some better scheduling next year, so we can play teams more on our own level.” The state record is 96 straight losses by Urbana`s University High. . . . Chicago Christian coach Will Slager, whose Knights meet St. Anne Tuesday night in the Momence Class A sectional, needs just three victories to reach 700. . . . When Cregier lost to Manley 127-125 last week, the Tigers tied the national high school record for most points in a loss, set by Manhattan Vocational of New York in a 153-125 loss to Chelsea Vocational in 1971. The 252 points scored by both teams was the second-highest total in Illinois history, three points shy of the 255 points scored in Cregier`s 138-117 victory over Near North in 1982.
GIRLS` BASKETBALL
Who`s the best player in Illinois? Some of the leading candidates are Marshall forward Sheryl Porter, Maria guard Nancy Niego, Lake Zurich`s high-scoring Lisa Foss and Peoria Manual center Carla McGee. . . . South Division champion Elk Grove plays host to North champion Buffalo Grove Thursday in the Mid-Suburban League championship game. Game time is 7:30 p.m. . . . Top-ranked Maine South can clinch the Central Suburban League South Division championship in its regular-season finale Friday at New Trier. The Hawks handed the Trevians their only league loss, a 59-54 decision in January. Lockport can clinch its second straight South Inter-Conference Association West Division championship Thursday when the Porters play host to second-place Lincoln-Way. WRESTLING
Julian won the Public League individual championship with five state qualifiers and 122 points to 71 for second-place Orr, the league`s
representative in the state dual meet tournament. The Jaguars, who lost to Orr 41-13 in the city dual meet tournament, got championships from Vernon Harvey
(98 pounds), Donald Webster (105), Antoine Terrell (112), Sam Cohen (126)
and Alex Knighten (145). Stanley Baxter was second at 167. . . . Enter Collins` Mark Scott into the heavyweight sweepstakes. Scott (38-0) defeated Fenger`s Andre Anderson (37-2) 10-5. . . . Schurz`s Brian Hayes improved his record to 23-0 by winning the Public League title at 167 with an 8-0 victory over Julian`s Baxter. . . . The winner of the Leyden sectional heavyweight title was supposed to be in for a reward–being placed in the opposite bracket as Anderson. Leyden`s Eric Wenckowski defeated Conant`s Carl Presley 11-3. Presley will now meet Scott in the first round if he wins his preliminary while Wenckowski could meet Anderson in the semifinals. . . . The bottom bracket of the Class AA duals has a Chuck Farina factor. The Leyden coach and his team will face Libertyville at 2:30 p.m. Friday while two of his former pupils will meet in the other lower bracket quarterfinal. Bill Cartwright`s top-ranked Proviso East team takes on Mark Gervais` No. 3-ranked Marist squad. Farina loves to win, but if he has to lose to someone, a former Leyden wrestler is his preference. ”If we get beat by one of those two guys, I`d be proud of them,” said Farina, who is a fan of the dual tournament. ”I don`t think the old individual sectional could compare with what we had Tuesday night for excitement,” he said of the Eagles` victory over Lake Park. ”It was like a basketball supersectional. It was really exciting.” . . . Hoffman Estates coach Angelo Testone is a strong opponent of the state dual meet system. ”I`d like to see us got back to the old system,” he said. ”I don`t like this at all. It takes a lot of fun out of the sectionals. Before, if you had four or five wrestlers, you still had a chance. After this (regionals)
there are only four teams that have a chance in the sectional. After the sectionals, there are only eight teams that have a chance. It`s too much wrestling, too. We`re trying to imitate football and basketball (with a team tournament) and we`re not like them. These are not bionic wrestlers, they are kids.” . . . The Sandburg individual semifinals were exciting, too. St. Laurence`s Mike Urwin, Class AA state champion at 98 pounds two years ago, needed a third-period escape for a 5-4 decision over Shepard`s Angel Perez. Urwin fell to defending state champion Jack Griffin in the final 18-12. Stagg`s George Ihnat was an 8-6 winner over Thornwood sophomore Maurice Mance at 138 and then lost a 5-4 decision to Marist`s Mike Lamonica in the final. Marist`s Pete Androetti handed Tinley Park`s Tom Blaha his second loss in 29 matches, 7-5, with a late takedown and two back points as the buzzer sounded. Androetti then lost to Rich Central`s Adam Caldwell 7-4. St. Laurence`s Brian Lynch was a 2-0 overtime winner over Marist`s Pete Pasternak in one semifnal at 167, while Oak Lawn`s Jon Popp got revenge for an earlier loss to Stagg`s Dan O`Connell with a 10-4 victory. Popp won the final 11-2. . . . Tinley Park junior Charles Schultz lost his first match of the season in 36 when he defaulted to Marist`s Charlie Mitchell at 155. Schultz, who sprained an ankle Friday night, almost defaulted in the semis. After much discussion with coach Dave Foss, he took the mat against Bloom`s Charles Stevens and won 5-2.
”You`ve got to do what you`ve got to do,” said Schultz. ”Once I decided to start the match, I wanted to finish it. I wanted to go out and win. When I first got out there, I kind of pampered it. Then I decided if I wanted to win, I had to wrestle.”
HOCKEY
Lake Forest finished sixth in the Metro League North Division with a 6-9-1 record, but the Scouts can boast about Mike Karnicki. The senior left wing was the leading scorer in the division with 26 goals and 27 assists for 53 points. . . . Playoff dates to remember: One Metro League quarterfinal game is March 1, the other three are March 2. The semifinals are March 5, one at the Oakton Ice Rink in Park Ridge, the other at the Winnetka Ice Arena. The title game is March 9 at the Robert Crown Ice Center in Evanston. The state championship game is March 23 at the Franklin Park Ice Arena. The state quarterfinals are March 20-21 and the semifinals March 22 at Franklin Park. . . . Mt. Carmel and St. Rita play the second game of their best-of-three Catholic League Kennedy Cup semifinal series at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Saints Spectrum in Bridgeview. Mt. Carmel leads the series 1-0 after Saturday`s 4-0 victory. The second game of the other semifinal series between St. Laurence and Marist is 7:40 p.m. Thursday at the Southwest Ice Arena in Crestwood. . . . Sater, a bantam team from northern Sweden, will play Brother Rice at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Southwest. Tuesday, Sater plays the Oak Lawn Hawks at 7:30 p.m. at the Oak Lawn Park District rink.
