GIRLS BASKETBALL
Glenbrook South girls basketball team routs Glenbrook North
NORTHRBOOK — Nine of the Glenbrook South girls basketball team’s first 10 baskets were layups as the Titans had little trouble in their 81-33 win over Glenbrook North on Friday.
Four Titans scored in double figures, and all 12 players on the team got in the scorebook for Glenbrook South (7-0).
Senior forward Caroline Caspers scored a team-best 15, and senior forward Ashley Oldshue added 13 points. Junior forward Caitlin Morrison contributed 11 points, and junior guard Sarah McDonagh finished with 10 points.
– Matt Harness
Deerfield uses team defense to down Maine East for first win
DEERFIELD — Team defense replaced individual defense Friday and the Deerfield girls basketball team moved into the victory column for the first time this season.
The Warriors stifled Maine East’s attack each time the Demons got within striking distance to win their first game of the year, 46-34, in the Central Suburban League North opener for both teams.
“We were all playing as individuals on defense,” Deerfield guard Margot Sylvan said. “When someone got by us [tonight], someone else was there to pick them up. We helped each other and boxed out.”
Deerfield coach Mike Muldrow has been stressing defense in practice and the effort showed results against Maine East (2-6, 0-1).
“We’ve been working on fundamental defense,” Muldrow said. “It fell into place tonight.”
– Steve Sadin
Alondra Chavarria, Leyden sink Taft from foul line
NORTHLAKE — For most of Friday evening, Leyden senior guard Alondra Chavarria was having a hard time scoring from the field against Taft.
She was 0-for-14 from the floor going into the fourth quarter and could not convert, no matter how close she was to the basket.
In fact, the entire Eagles’ lineup was having a hard time scoring. They had a total of six field goals heading into the final quarter, which would spell disaster for just about any team.
Chavarria and Leyden, however, had plenty of rhythm at the free-throw line in their 50-45 nonconference home win over Taft.
“We started out slow in the first half,” first-year Leyden coach Stephanie Kuzmanic said. “We really played our best basketball Tuesday in our [47-43] loss to Downers Grove South, and tonight we came out flat and we weren’t executing on the floor.”
– Chris Vavra
BOYS SWIMMING
Naperville Central’s Scott Piper has the right genes to excel in the pool
Scott Piper is adept at following in his elders’ footsteps.
The Naperville Central junior emerged as one of the best swimmers in the state last season when he won four medals at the state meet, including a sixth-place showing in the 100-yard backstroke and a seventh place in the 200 individual medley.
While hard work and a lanky 6-4 frame make Piper a good swimmer, it is no coincidence he excels in those particular races.
Piper’s father, Pat, and older brother, Keith, were backstrokers. Keith finished 11th in the backstroke and swam on two state championship relays as a senior in 2010, when the Redhawks won their last state title, and recently completed a collegiate career at Connecticut.
Piper’s role model in the IM was 2014 graduate and current Michigan State swimmer Connor Lamb. Lamb was a two-time medalist in the event, finishing fifth last year.
“Connor was a big role model last year,” Piper said. “He was really good, especially with how he trained.”
– Matt Le Cren
WRESTLING
Iowa-bound Joey Gunther leads Libertyville wrestling
The Iowa wrestling program is one of those pie-in-the-sky dream destinations for many top high school wrestlers, and Libertyville senior Joey Gunther just cut himself a piece of that pie.
One season after winning 39 matches and placing sixth at 152 pounds at the Class 3A individual state finals in Champaign, Gunther has committed to wrestle for the Hawkeyes.
“I decided about a month ago,” Gunther said. “To me it’s always been the biggest thing to wrestle for the University of Iowa and once they came up with an offer, I couldn’t resist.”
Gunther finished first at 160 pounds at Barrington’s 25-team Moore/Prettyman Invitational on Saturday, and he did so in dominant fashion.
The top-seeded senior used a major decision, a pin, and a tech fall to reach the title mat, where he dispatched Yorkville’s Bryce Shewan by 16-5 major decision. The difference between Gunther now and the Gunther of old is a difference of strength and aggression.
– Gary Larsen
Stevenson’s Tyler Harrington caps wild weekend with wrestling title
On the same day Stevenson’s football team won a state title, the school’s wrestling team just about drove itself into the ground with exhaustion.
Wrestling coach Shane Cook’s boys capped two days of wrestling at Barrington’s 25-team Moore/Prettyman Invitational by placing ninth on Saturday. The Patriots then quickly boarded a bus for a three-hour drive to Champaign to watch the football team win 31-25 over Homewood-Flossmoor in the Class 8A state title game.
“We got to the football game about five minutes after kickoff,” Stevenson senior Tyler Harrington said. “We left after the game and we got back home about 3:30 in the morning.
“It was cool to watch them win the state title. We know a lot of those guys and it was a great experience to see them accomplish that.”
Harrington had another reason to celebrate after winning an individual title at 182 pounds at Barrington. The senior posted a pair of pins and an 8-1 decision before winning 6-2 on the title mat against Lincoln-Way Central’s Jake Dudeck.
– Gary Larsen
Huskies’ coach Mike Powell will receive National Wrestling’s Medal of Courage
STILLWATER, Okla. – Oak Park-River Forest coach Mike Powell has been selected by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame & Museum to receive its Medal of Courage.
The Medal of Courage is presented annually to a wrestler or former wrestler who has overcome what appear to be insurmountable challenges, which may be physical, mental or other disabilities that make their achievements all the more uplifting.
The presentation will be part of the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies on June 5-6, 2015, in Stillwater, Okla.
A 1994 Illinois state wrestling champion and All-American at Indiana, Powell was diagnosed with polymyositis in 2009. This chronic inflammation of the muscles is a progressive autoimmune disease that has affected the physical aspects of his coaching duties.
– Staff report
