Providence coach Mike Polz dedicated his team`s Class AA dual team title at Leyden to Celtic standout Mike Stonitsch. Stonitsch, who suffered a broken foot earlier this month, dressed Saturday but did not wrestle. If Stonitsch had been healthy, Polz had intended to move him down to 145 and put state champion Sean Bormet at 152 in the semifinals against Marist state champion Paul Andreotti.
– Class AA dual runner-up De Kalb suprised a lot of people in what was thought to be a rebuilding year for the Barbs. ”When you wrestle in the state tournament and don`t win, you feel a little bit bad,” said De Kalb coach Dan Cliffe. ”Providence is an outstanding team, and we knew it. We feel pretty good about our kids. Last year, we lost 17 seniors.”
– Providence`s Bormet won`t be able to relax even though the wrestling season is over. Bormet, who finished the season at 53-0 with 48 pins at 145 pounds, is one of the hottest college prospects in the country. He`ll spend the next couple of weeks trimming a list of 11 schools, including Michigan and Iowa, down to five that he`ll visit. Teammate Mike McClarence, whose stock has risen since he won the Class AA 189-pound title, is in much the same boat.
– Don`t tell Bormet that the dual meet championship isn`t important. The Celtic senior didn`t have any trouble getting ready for his matches, pinning every opponent. ”It`s just as important for me,” he said, comparing the two championships. ”It`s important because of my teammates and my coaches. It was more of a relief for me to have us beat Marist in the semifinals than it was getting into the individual finals.” Mike Walt, his victim in the finals, was sixth in the Class AA individual meet.
– Marist`s Andreotti finished with a 50-0 record and two state champions. Andreotti is looking at several schools, including Northwestern, Notre Dame, Lehigh and Oklahoma. Teammate Kevin Nolan, who won the Class AA heavyweight title, has been getting rushed by Oklahoma and Iowa State.
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– Proviso East finished the season with a 13-14 record but a fourth place in the dual meet tournament. The Pirates lost five of those matches to state finalists and eight others to teams that were regional qualifiers, four of which became sectional qualifiers. The Pirates were 11-3 in their last 14 matches when coach Bill Cartwright brought up several sophomores to the varsity. He`ll return 13 of his 20 state tournament team members.
– Conant coach Jim Cartwright will have a veteran team next year, just like his older brother Bill at Proviso East. The Cougars return nine regulars, including state individual placers Chris Hruska (130), Courtney Pitter (160)
and John Medigovich (189).
SWIMMING
Although Erik Maurer and Brian Gunn ended their high school careers by competing against each other in Saturday`s Illinois High School Association state finals, the two may cross paths in the fall. Loyola Academy`s Maurer, who defeated Hinsdale Central`s Gunn in the 200-yard freestyle, is considering Michigan, Southern Cal, Stanford, California and Northwestern as he hones in on college choices. Gunn lists Michigan, Stanford and UCLA as his choices.
Maurer is thinking not only of college, but also a possible Olympic team berth. ”I`d like to be an NCAA standout before I retire from swimming,” he said. ”And, of course, anybody would like to make the Olympic team. Right now, the Olympic team is more of a dream than reality.”
Maurer received a standing ovation from the packed house as he stood on the blocks after accepting the 200 freestyle gold medal after breaking the record he set Friday. His time Saturday was 1:37.34; Friday it was 1:37.60.
”It`s great when the crowd recognizes that what you`ve done is special,” Maurer said. ”It`s nice to see people enjoy what I`m doing.”
While Maurer enjoyed his 200 freestyle performance, he wasn`t crazy about his 100 freestyle time of :45.11, third best in state history. Brian Kurza of Hinsdale South set the record (:44.47) last year. Collinsville`s Tom Jager swam the event in :44.57 in 1981. Maurer`s prelim time was :44.84.
”I really wanted the record,” said the 6-foot-8-inch Maurer, who played basketball until the 7th grade. ”It (his performance) was a little slow for me.”
– Gunn, who won the 500 freestyle in 4:26.68, set a record in the event Friday with a 4:25.54. He wasn`t upset about not eclipsing that mark. ”It (the record) was in the back of my mind,” said Gunn. ”I just wanted to come back Saturday and swim my best.”
Gunn was also concerned about helping his team capture its state record 17th title. They did, besting Loyola 130-85. ”Team was the most important thing today (Saturday),” said Gunn. ”Winning our third straight championship was outstanding.”
– Gunn didn`t swim what could be his best event in the state finals, the butterfly. He finished sixth in the 200-meter butterfly at last summer`s U.S. Olympic trials. He was 1.3 seconds away from landing a trip to Seoul. ”He`s a team player,” said Devil coach Tom Schweer. ”He`s willing to give up his best event for the team.” Gunn said: ”It`s always for the team. We aren`t going to put the team title in jeopardy.”
– Rockford Jefferson junior Steve Kitzman was a hit Saturday, winning the 50 freestyle and 100 butterfly. He, too, was looking for record times. Tom Cole of Prospect set the butterfly record (:49.99) in 1978. Kitzman swam :50.47 Saturday. The 50 freestyle mark (:20.26) belongs to Hinsdale South`s Kurza. Kitzman`s time was :20.98.
– Benet Academy`s Tim Shanley also knows that double-good feeling. Besides successfully defending his 100 backstroke title (:52.19), Shanley won the 200 individual medley (1:55.13).
”I`m even happier than last year,” Shanley said. ”Winning two medals was kind of a dream. After last year, I started thinking about double gold. Not many people get two. The only ones besides me this year were Maurer and Kitzman. I`m in good company.”
Shanley says after being down with the flu three weeks ago, the IM title wasn`t on his mind. That all changed with his prelim-leading 1:55.84. Shanley shaved .71 off that mark Saturday.
”I would have been satisfied with top three,” he said. ”After Friday, I thought, `Hey, double gold is there. Go out and get it.` After being sick, I wondered if I could finish the last 100. I knew I had to take it out fast. I was able to, and no one could catch me.”
– In his last title shot, Waubonsie Valley`s Chris Hagenbaumer struck gold in the 100 breaststroke with a time of :57.29. The title came after a false start.
”The false start shook me up a lot,” Hagenbaumer said. ”Friday, I was sort of leaning on the starting block and I thought it might be me. Once we got back, I felt real good. I was happy to go as fast as I did.
”At the start of the season, I had a feeling in the back of my mind that I could do it (win a gold medal). I just wanted to place in the top three and break all of (Schaumburg`s) Brock Harr`s times. I did (Harr won the event at
:57.54 last year) that. I worked hard all year, and as we got to the finals, I felt that nothing was going to stop me from being champion.”
– Sophomore Tom Wright of Rockford Guilford not only won the diving title, but also helped his team share the third-place trophy with St. Charles. Wright scored 458.30 points to the 419.60 of Hinsdale Central`s Marty Turek. Last year, Turek was No. 1, and Wright second.
”I felt I had a legitimate chance at winning,” Wright said. ”I was really trying not to think about beating Marty or anybody else. I just wanted to put on a good show for the judges. It worked.”
Turek, who was hampered with a late-season back injury, gave Wright credit. ”Tom`s just a great diver,” said Turek, who will probably attend Arizona State. ”He just outdove me. There are no excuses.”
– Packed houses of 1,000-plus helped both sessions of the 58th swimming and diving finals. Saturday`s finals will be aired on SportsVision at 3 p.m. March 12.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
If girls basketball is becoming such a high-profile sport, where were all the fans during last weekend`s state tournament in Champaign?
The hottest topic Downstate was whether the tournament should be moved out of spacious Assembly Hall in the future.
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Declining attendance figures (27,010 for eight sessions, only 10,833 for Class AA games, compared to 28,640 last year and an all-time high of 32,071 in 1980) may force the Illinois High School Association`s basketball advisory committee to look at some possible alternatives. Some coaches seem to prefer moving the tournament into Illinois State`s new 9,500-seat Redbird Arena. Others, especially coaches from the Chicago area, would like to see it moved to Northwestern`s Welsh-Ryan Arena or some other site near Chicago.
”I`d like to see them rotate the tournament, and move it up north,”
said Marshall coach Dorothy Gaters, who has brought a team to Champaign for 12 straight years. ”You have so many teams from the Chicago area (five of the eight this year in Class AA, with Belvidere being even farther north) each year, that with their problems with attendance I think that might be something that could give it a boost.
”The attendance Maine West had throughout its (state-record 65-game winning) streak proved there is a lot of interest there.”
More people attended the two games Maine West and New Trier played this year than any of the four Class AA sessions last weekend. The AA finals attracted only a crowd of 3,050.
”I`d like them to try it (moving the tournament to Chicago) for at least a year like they did with football,” said York coach Don Hudgens.
But Jim Flynn, assistant executive secretary of the IHSA, noted that the reason the Class 5A and 6A football championships aren`t played at
Northwestern anymore was the tremendous cost. It cost more to play two state football finals there than it does to play six in Normal now.
– This was the first year the Class AA tournament was spread over three days. Next year it will go back to two days (quarterfinals on Friday and semifinals and final Saturday), and the Class A tourney will stretch three days. It will alternate every year.
– Marshall had rival Young to thank for its Class AA championship. Coach Dorothy Gaters said the turning point in the Commandos` season occurred when Young beat them 52-47 in January. ”It pointed out that we had a lot of deficiences against the man-to-man, so then we focused our attention on playing a lot of man-to-man and trying to work out the kinks on that,” said Gaters.
– Immaculate Heart of Mary guard Kris Maskala leads the early balloting for Ms. Basketball of Illinois. She has 184 points (5 points for a first-place vote, 3 for second and 1 for third), Marshall`s Toni Foster has 170, New Trier`s Trish Andrew has 167 and Bridgeport Red Hill`s Mandy Cunningham, the leading scorer in the state, has 163.
– Maine West placed three players on the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association`s top three all-state teams. Guard Mary Spielman was on the first team, which included Foster, Maskala, Andrew and Young junior guard E.C. Hill; Warrior junior Moira Kennelly was on the second team that had Thornton`s Arlene Miller, York`s Amy Stock, Tinley Park`s Keri Lorenzen and Young`s Cindy Conner; and Tasia Georganas was on the six-player third team, which included Naperville North`s Jenny Sovacool, Warren`s Crystal Cobb, Moline`s Tasha Brown, Romeoville`s Terri Vasquez and Niles West`s Heather Donlon. Shiloh`s Courtney Porter and Teutopolis` Connie Ruholl, who met in the Class A final, headed the Class A first team. They were joined by Cunningham, Springfield Lutheran`s Kelli Firth and Bloomington Central Catholic`s Carolyn Hagerty. Seneca`s Kelly Yeck was on the second team, Montini`s Tammy Kocher was on the third team with Harvard`s Karla Kruse, and St. Edward`s Meg Hasenmiller, Luther South`s Charsa Palamore and Evergreen Park`s Marcy Mustafa and Donna Walsh were on the fourth team.
– Shiloh has a unique program in which the school offers a scholarship to every student who attends a four-year public college in Illinois. The program is funded by a trust established in the will of Muriel Dawson, who once worked as a secretary at the school in Hume. There are only 110 students at the tiny school 45 minutes southeast of Champaign.
– If this season was a great one for girls basketball, next season might be even better with the likes of juniors E.C. Hill (Young), Moira Kennelly (Maine West), Cristy Nelson (Maine West), Courtney Porter (Shiloh), Kenya Pittman
(Marshall), Vicki Klingler (Teutopolis), Melinda Spearman (West Aurora) and Mandy Cunningham (Bridgeport Red Hill) coming back. And keep an eye on sophomores Leslie Pottinger (Belvidere), Jacqui White (Evanston) and Erin Ingwersen (Hoffman Estates).