GIRLS GYMNASTICS STATE FINALS ON TAP THIS SATURDAY

Chesterton ran up the highest points total at the four sites of girls gymnastics competition last Saturday as the Trojans scored 111.800 points to emerge victorious in the Valparaiso Regional to earn the right to advance to the state finals at Perry Meridian High School in Indianapolis next Saturday afternoon. They will be joined by complete teams from Merrillville, New Castle, Bloomington South, Carmel, McCutcheon, Ft. Wayne Bishop Dwenger and Ft. Wayne Northrop.

Outstanding individual performances were turned in by Bloomington South sophomore, Kaci Abel, in the Columbus East Regional, with top qualifying marks in the vault, beam and floor exercise, while finishing first in the all-around. Last year, Abel finished 17^th in the vault, 16^th in the uneven bars, 5^th in the balance beam and 2^nd in the floor exercise at the state championships.

Another strong performance was turned in by yet another impressive sophomore at Muncie Central, as Niccole Van Hoey of Fort Wayne Dwenger finished first among the qualifiers in the vault, bar, floor and all-around, along with a second in the beam. This will be her first trip to the state finals.

At Valparaiso, junior Lauren West of Chesterton finished at the head of the field in vault, bar and all-around competition, while finishing number-two in the beam action and fourth in the floor exercise.

At Harrison (West Lafayette), Jenna Tarkington, a junior from Northwestern, took home all-around honors, while grabbing the top spot in bar competition, to go along with fourth place finishes in the vault and floor, and a second place position in the beam

Returning champions include Lauren West of Chesterton in the uneven parallel bars, and sophomore Nicole Howe of Columbus East in the balance beam and all-around.

For a complete list of regional scores, check out 2002 Girls Gymnastics Regional Scores

For a list of previous team and individual state champions, log on IHSAA Girls Gymnastics

State Finals

Date: Saturday, March 16, 2002, Perry Meridian High School, Indianapolis.

Opening Ceremonies at 12:30 p.m., Team Competition at 1 p.m.

Admission: $6.00

Media Credentials: Your 2001-02 IHSAA State Finals Media Pass will be accepted

BOYS BASKETBALL SWINGS TO SEMI-STATE

A field which began with 384 teams has been whittled down to the “Sweet-16” in preparation for this Saturday’s semi-state play in the 92^nd annual Boys State Basketball Tournament at four sites across the state.

Two of the defending state champs are still standing tall. In class 4A, Pike (23-3) will meet Castle (22-3) in the 1:00 game at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis on Saturday. Harding (22-4), last year’s winner in 2A, moves up to 3A and advances to the Lafayette Jeff Semi-State for a date with Benton Central (22-3).

Last year’s 3A titleist, Muncie Southside, moved up to 4A and fell by the wayside in sectional play. The Class A champion, Attica, also failed to get out of its sectional.

Of the top-ten in all of the four classes, only eight have kept their title hopes alive, two in each classification. None of the number-one ranked teams in the final AP Poll made it to the semi-state level. The highest rated squads in their respective division still playing are Pike, number-two in Class 4A, and Rossville, number-two in Class A.

SEMI-STATE

Saturday, March 16 1:00 p.m. and 3:30 p.m.

Ticket Information: Season Ticket: $7.00

HUNTINGTON NORTH

CLASS 2A 1:00 Bluffton (23-3) vs Jimtown (18-7)

CLASS A 3:30 Bethany Christian (16-9) vs Rossville (21-4)

INDIANAPOLIS

CLASS 4A 1:00 Pike (23-3) vs Castle (22-3)

CLASS 2A 3:30 Speedway (20-4) vs Austin (20-4)

LAFAYETTE JEFF

CLASS 4A 1:00 DeKalb (23-1) vs Gary West (21-4)

CLASS 3A 3:30 Harding (22-4) vs Benton Central (22-3)

SEYMOUR

CLASS 3A 1:00 Delta (20-6) vs Jasper (18-7)

CLASS A 3:30 White River Valley (16-9) vs Barr-Reeve (23-4)

AP BOYS BASKETBALL POLL ------ FINAL REGULAR SEASON

CLASS 4A

	School	Record	Semi-State	Opponent
1	New Albany	23-2	Out	Castle
2	Indpls Pike	23-3	Lawrence Central (Hinkle)	Castle
3	Indpls Ben Davis	21-3	Out
4	Bloomington North	23-3	Out
5	DeKalb	23-1	Lafayette Jeff	Gary West
6	Indpls North Central	18-4	Out
7	Warsaw	21-3	Out
8	Elkhart Memorial	20-3	Out
9	S.B.Washington	22-4	Out
10	Columbia City	19-3	Out

CLASS 3A

	School	Record	Semi-State	Opponent
1	Bellmont	22-2	Out
2	Indpls Brebeuf	19-4	Out
3	Benton Central	22-3	Lafayette Jeff	Harding
4	Fort Wayne Harding	22-4	NorthWood	Leo
5	Lebanon	21-4	Out
6	Gary Roosevelt	18-7	Out
7	Gibson Southern	22-4	Out
8	Hammond Noll	21-5	Out
9	Boonville	15-6	Out
10	Tippecanoe Valley	17-4	Out

CLASS 2A

	School	Record	Semi-State	Opponent
1	Cass	20-1	Out
2	Eastern (Bloomfield)	19-4	Out
3	Speedway	20-4	Lawrence Central (Hinkle)	Austin
4	North Knox	19-5	Out
5	Winchester	17-4	Out
6	Muncie Burris	20-4	Out
7	Southmont	16-5	Out
8	Bluffton	23-3	Huntington North	Jimtown
9	Paoli	20-6	*Out*
10	Crawford County	19-5	Out

CLASS A

	School	Record	Semi-State	Opponent
1	Lafayette Catholic	21-6	Out
2	Rossville	21-4	Huntington North	Bethany Christian
3	Barr-Reeve	23-4	Seymour	White River Valley
4	So. Central (Elizabeth)	22-5	Out
5	Loogootee	15-7	Out
6	Caston	18-5	Out
7	Blue River Valley	18-5	Out
8	Argos	17-5	Out
9	Bloomfield	15-8	Out
10	Tecumseh	18-7	Out

All-Time Semi-State Leaders	No.	Last
Lafayette Jeff	13	1996
Marion	13	2000
Anderson	11	1990
Muncie Central	11	1988
New Albany	8	1996
East Chicago Washington	7	1985
Kokomo	7	1997
Gary Roosevelt	6	1991
Jeffersonville	6	1995

FIRST PITCH FOR GIRLS SOFTBALL SEASON ON MARCH 18

The first contest date for the 2002 IHSAA girls softball season is Monday, March 18. Forest Park will look to defend its first-ever Class A state title after no-hitting Indianapolis Lutheran, 3-0. In 2A, Roncalli is back to go for its third state title after pounding Gibson Southern 13-1 last year. Castle hopes to pick up where it left off in 2001 as it begins defense of the 3A crown it earned with a 4-1 victory over Pendleton Heights.

The 2002 Girls State Softball Tournament begins with sectional play on May 20^th, with the regional action on June 1^st and the state finals on June 7^th and 8^th.

MILESTONES

Jr. Drew Conner of Taylor moved past the 1000-point career mark in the Titans’ 56-30 win over Delphi in the Taylor Sectional.

Speedway’s J.D. Clampitt reached the 1,000-point career scoring mark in the Sparkplugs victory over North Putnam in the championship game of the regional on March 9.

Anthony Winchester of Austin and Seth Colclasure of Bellmont have moved up the Indiana career scoring ladder. With his efforts during the regional, Winchester’s total is now 2,221, which places him number-eleven all-time, only five points behind Dave Shepherd of Carmel, as the Eagles fly into the Indianapolis semi-state this Saturday for a game with Speedway.. Colclasure closes out his career in the number-twelve spot all-time with 2,207 points.

Castle’s wins over New Albany and Martinsville in the Seymour Regional provided the Knights with their first-ever regional title. In addition, the afternoon victory over the Bulldogs was the school’s initial triumph over a number-one ranked boys basketball team.

Jasper senior, Neil Giesler, has moved up to number three on the school’s all-time career scoring list. Heading into this weekend’s semi-state at Seymour, his total is 1,347 points. He is 84 points behind second place Mike Ballanger. Michael Lewis is the Wildcats all-time leading scorer with 2,138 points.

IHSAA OVERTIME

At the first-ever Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame Banquet for women held Friday, March 1, IHSAA Assistant Commissioner, Theresia Wynns, was presented with the Marian Archer Memorial Award, given to that person who has been or is actively and positively involved in the promotion of girls athletics. Rebecca Freeman was winner of the 2002 Service Award, which honors current ICGSA members who have served girls’ athletics for several years.

The National Federation Coaches Association has selected its nominees for the 2001 NFCA State Awards with the state of Indiana represented in three sports: Sharon Rosenburgh, girls tennis coach at Carmel High School; Richard Wachs, girls swimming and diving coach at West Lafayette High School; Michael Hoke, boys golf coach at LaPorte High School. That trio is now eligible to be selected as National Coach of the Year in their respective sport at the NFHS Leadership Conference July 19-20 in Montgomery, Alabama.

Mike Danforth has resigned as boys head basketball coach at Mississinewa.

Former Castle pitcher Paul Quinzer has been inducted into the Indiana State University Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a member of the Sycamores’ 1986 team that earned its way into the College World Series.

Jared Jeffries, who led Bloomington North to the Class 4A state runner-up spot in 2000 and was named Mr. Basketball, has been named Big Ten Conference Player of the Year as a member of the Indiana University basketball squad.

Sharika Webb of Indianapolis Cathedral captured her third consecutive City Player of the Year Award as selected by the Indianapolis Star. Linda Bamrick, head coach of the Irish, was chosen as City Coach of the Year.

Indianapolis Cathedral head football coach, Rick Streiff, has resigned that position to assume head coaching responsibilities at North Central (Indpls). Streiff won four state championships with the Irish. He replaces Al Harants who resigned after ten seasons with the Panthers and a 70-41 record. Jim O’Hara, for the past seven seasons an assistant at Indianapolis Cathedral, has been promoted to the head coaching slot there.

Notre Dame’s Chris Thomas, a member of a pair of class 4A boys state basketball championships at Pike High School, has been named Big East Conference Rookie of the Year.

Kent Benson, Indiana’s 1973 Mr. Basketball from New Castle, has been selected for the silver anniversary All-America Team chosen by the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

Lisa Miller of Carroll (Fort Wayne) has been chosen Northeast Hoosier Conference Girls Basketball Coach of the Year for 2001-02. Chris Benedict of Columbia City garnered conference honors in boys basketball.

Heather Cusick, formerly of Kokomo High, has been named Mid-American Conference Women’s Basketball Player of the Year as a member of the Miami University