The Mail-Journal, Volume 29, Number 19, Milford, Kosciusko County, 20 June 1990 — Page 8
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THE MAIL-JOURNAL — Wed., June 20,1990
Sports
Wawasee High School sports year in review
(By MITCHELL STINSON Sports Writer
Welcome to the Wawasee High School sports version of the Academy Awards. Although 1989-90 wasn’t a banner school year for blockbuster Warrior teams, there were enough sleepers and standout individual performances to make it a year to remember. Best Boys’ Performance The Warriors’ cross country team wins the award in this category because of its recordsetting performance last fall. With senior standout Jason Douglas leading the way, the Warriors went 12-0, en route to the first undefeated season in Wawasee harrier history. They ended up as co-champions of the Northern Lakes Conference with the Warsaw Tigers. The Tigers earned their share of the title by beating Wawasee in the seasonending NLC meet. The Warriors finished the season as the 20th-ranked team in Indiana and advanced all the way to the North Manchester Semistate before bowing out. Douglas established a school record time of 15 minutes, 56 seconds, en
--~«- mijfH “**-* ■•-•■••- ■ - ‘• —• JkJ I » ., :z-Z' zzz/Z-<. z, '" *' **-' ****"■*?«*■ ' 9 ,- - .L* ' ' •' > " . . z A' "' *“.'" "J. _ X **»••<« ■ -• * //wW •-,,.„ "4 ‘ jl L / * rUyL\-,, '. ! «-- A/. ate >s " ROLE MODEL RUNNER — Senior Jason Douglas was a quiet leader for the Warriors’ undefeated cross country team last fall. He led by example, pacing the Warriors to a 12-0 season and an NLC cochampionship. It was the first undefeated campaign in Wawasee cross country history. (Photo by Mitchell Stinson)
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route to a third-place finish at the semi-state. He qualified for the state cross country meet in Indianapolis, where he finished 61st in a field of about 135 runners. In addition to earning allNorthern Lakes Conference team honors, Douglas was also named to the first team of the Hoosier Harrier All-State Cross-Country for Double A schools. The A A category consists of Indiana high schools with 500-1.200 students. Fellow Warriors Eric Streby and Eric Mock were also named to the all-NLC team. Other key Wawasee performers included Chad Jones, Cuong Reed. Ryan Shoemaker and Matt Johnson. Best Girls’ Performance After winning its fifth consecutive sectional title in March, the Wawasee gymnastics team is an obvious choice for the award. The Lady Warriors finished the regular season with a 13-1 record and a No. 13 state ranking. Defending their Wawasee Gymnastics Sectional title was no easy task for the Lady Warriors. The sectional field was expanded to 12 teams this year as part of a state-wide movement to consolidate gymnastics sectionals. One of tho£e teams, the Southwood Lady Knights, came
within an eyelash of dethroning the defending champs. But when the final scores were tabulated, Wawasee’s girls emerged with a narrow 95-94.25 victory over the new pretenders to the throne. Senior Diane Karst led the winning effort, taking fifth in the allaround competition. She was complemented by the solid performances of teammates Karen Butt and Barb Signorelli. A week later, the Lady Warriors finished third in a field of four teams at the Valparaiso Regional. They placed behind top-ranked Merrillville and thirdranked Chesterton and finished ahead of Southwood. Signorelli was just two-tenths of a point away from grabbing the sixth and final state qualifying berth in the uneven bars. Injuries kept the team from reaching its true potential in 1990. Darcey Smith s senior campaign was ended prematurely thanks to a mid-season knee injury, and team Most Valuable Player Angela Kistler had to compete with a tender ankle during the last few weeks of the season. The Lady Warriors were able to compensate for their misfortunes. as Karst. Butt and Signorelli picked up the slack Nikki Marsh and Lisa Wright contributed to the sectional success too. Wawasee’s swim team ran a close second in the "balloting" for best girls’ team. First-year coach Roger Karns guided the Lady Warriors to their best season in school history. The Lady Warriors earned cochampion honors in the NLC, finishing 5-1 in the conference and 12-3 overall. Best Dramatic Performance It would take a fertile imagination to come up with a plotline as unlikely as the one the Wawasee golf team lived out in real life. The team was third in the conference with a 3-3 record when it headed into the NLC meet on May 19. It looked like the Warriors would need a minor miracle to have any shot of winning the conference title. minor miracle is just what they got. The Warriors took first at the meet, and the previously undefeated Goshen Redskins choked their way to a sixth-place finish. When the final figures were calculated. Wawasee had come away with the conference title. W'arrior mentor Gary Goshert won NLC Coach-of-the-Year honors after guiding his team to the stunning upset. The Warrior linksters were led by all-conference selections Randy Cesco and Joel Hadley. Other key Wawasee contributors included Mike Tuttle and David Schmahl, who made the all-NLC second team. The Warriors took third place at the Warsaw Sectional on June 4 and advanced to the Homestead Regional in Huntington, where they finished seventh in a field of 13 teams. Best Male Athlete In a battle between two standout seniors, Tim Lilly gets the nod over Chris Conkling for best athlete. Both were star performers in football, basketball and baseball, but Lilly’s exceptional! gridiron performance put him over the top. Lilly shattered the old school record for receiving and was named to the Associated Press iAP) All-State football team. The 6-foot, 185-pound workhorse racked up 731 yards on 67 receptions, as the traditionally conservative Wawasee offense went to the airways in 1989 Lilly was also a starting center fielder on the baseball team, and a forward for the school's basketball squad. Conkling was on the throwing end of Lilly's record-setting football campaign. The 6-foot-3 signal-caller completed 147 of 283 pass attempts for 1,584 yards. The team total of 1,618 passing yards was a new single season record for Wawasee High School. Conkling made the AP all-state team as an honorable mention,
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along with teammate Chad Cotton. Conkling was an all-NLC selection for basketball and split time between pitcher and third base on the baseball diamond. Best Female Athlete Kriss Eisenhour set the pace for all other lady athletes to shoot for in 1989-90. Track and field was her specialty but she also dabbled in volleyball and basketball, where she earned all-NLC honors. Eisenhour was the top points scorer for a fine girls’ track team that went 10-2-1 in the 1990 season. .There didn’t seem to be any event that she couldn’t master, but it was the hurdles that gave state-wide recognition to Eisenhour. She took seventh place in the 300-meter hurdles at state competition and was named to an allstate. track team that competed against squads from Michigan, Ohio and Illinois on June 9. Eisenhour was the NLC champion in both the 100- and 300-meter hurdles and won a Warsaw Sectional Championship in the 100-meter hurdles. She also set a new school record of 46.03 in the 300-meter hurdles. At 5-foot-8, 130 pounds, Eisenhour had a versatile athletic frame that mixed quickness and power. That versatility allowed her to excel in other sports too. Eisenhour was one of the tallest players on a Lady Warrior basketball team that was starved for height. She muscled her way to an all-NLC honorable mention selection, while the team went 4-16 for the year. It was a similar story for Eisenhour in volleyball, as she earned a spot on the all-NLC team, while playing for a losing program. Other Top Individuals Eisenhour and Lilly weren't the only Wawasee athletes who merited individual accolades during the 1989-90 sports season. Wawasee’s boys’ track team had a mediocre season in 1990 but
re "niw v k. IBhmHB 4 fIH I'WMrwHi STATE BOUND DIVERS — Dawn Firestone and Julie Gunn qualified for the IHSAA State Swimming and Diving Finals in November. Gunn took 13th place in the one-meter diving event, while Firestone earned a 14-place finish in the same event. Shown after the sectional finals, from left, are: Firestone, coach Roger Karns and Gunn. (Photo by Scott Davidson)
IM 1 - ■*& — *WSo’.i® wMI 4mLwßßßw*/i >y~\ > V . < Jht J i itA B .L jr> > A 11 aViB jbmM' # "4t BB %A W . * L w >' s - ! BBlw -a v- ' i - r Wv jßj? ■• Jr v ww ’• ''%t r ;1 ty O?-\ • *"•' • -C v -B" ’!_ MARCH MADNESS — Wawasee guard Matt Haab handles some tough defense as he passes the ball during Triton Sectional hoop action against Tippecanoe Valley on March 2. Haab scored four points in the Warriors’ 64>-«. r > upset victory over the Vikings.
senior sprinter Andy Eberly kept things interesting with his assault on the school’s single-season scoring record. He ended up as the No. 2 scorer in Wawasee history, five points shy of breaking Dave Wollman’s 15-year-old record of 187 points. Eberly still put his name in the record books, however. He tied the school 100-meter dash record of 11.1 seconds and set a new mark of 50.6 in the 400-meter dash. Julie Gunn made it to the state diving finals in the fall and was a key figure on the track and field team in the spring. She placed 13th in the one-meter diving event at state and was an allconference selection in the high jump during track season. Gunn misfired at the Warsaw Girls Sectional Track and Field Meet, as an injured side prevented her from advancing to the regional level. Dawn Firestone was another Wawasee competitor who had an impact on the sport of diving. She finished one spot behind Gunn at state, with a 14th place finish in the one-meter diving event. Top Sectional Upsets Choosing the biggest Warrior sectional upset is like watching “Three Stooges” videos. You can’t stop with just one. Long before the boys’ golf stunner, some other Wawasee teams were playing above their heads at "crunch time”. The boys’ basketball team recorded what may have been the most monumental upset, when it knocked off the Tippecaone Valley Vikings, 66-65, in the opening round of the Triton Sectional last winter. Heading into the matchup, the Warriors’ regular season record of 6-14 seemed to pale in comparison to the fine 18-3 mark of the Vikings. Tippecanoe Valley's squad appeared to have a lot going for it. Included on its roster of talented players were two quick, sharpshooting guards, a strong forward and a 6-foot-8 bruiser at the center position. But the Warriors showed poise
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SWINGING CESCO — All-conference linkster Randy Cesco was one of the key figures in the resurgence of the Warriors’ golf team in 1990. The team won the NLC title by taking first place at the season-ending conference meet. (Photo by Mark Huffman)
and patience against the Vikings. Matt Haab was saddled with most of the ball-handling responsibility, while forward Jason Mickley knocked in 15 points with his pinpoint shooting. In the battle for the boards, Chris Conkling and Dennis Garland used their 6-foot-3 inch frames to keep the Vikings from dominating in the paint. At 6-foot, 220 pounds. Randy Cesco provided muscle under the basket, with help from enforcer Tim Lilly. Wawasee controlled the tempo in the first half, but the Vikings began to assert themselves in the game’s later stages and built a seven-point lead in the fourth quarter. Wawasee edged its way back into the contest, however, and Garland took over down the stretch, scoring the Warriors' final five points. The junior center knocked in a free throw with 14 seconds left to give the Warriors their final margin of victory. The Vikings missed a longrange jumper in the game's final seconds, and the buzzer expired during the scramble for the rebound. As the improbable victory was completed, Wawasee fans poured onto the court to embrace their conquering heroes. The Warriors would lose convincingly to the Warsaw Tigers in the sectional title game a day later. But that loss couldn’t erase the memories of one memorable afternoon when the Warriors were “King fora Day." It was a similar story for the girls’ basketball team during Warsaw Sectional action. In the opening round of the sectional, the Lady Warriors faced a tough
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TOP GUNN — Senior trackster Julie Gunn is pictured as she competes in long jump competition. In addition to winning the conference high jumping title. Gunn was valuable to the team in the leadership departmeiiJJ Photo by Mitchell Stinson)
Triton Lady Trojans team that went 9-9 during the regular season. The Lady Warriors sported a 3- mark but their record was deceiving. Unlike the previous season, the Lady Warriors were a competitive team in 1989-90. They showed that competitive fire when they knocked off Triton, 47-40. The Lady Trojans sported three space eaters to pound the boards and a hotshot freshman guard with quickness to spare. To make matters worse, Wawasee lost most of its quickness when guard Lisa Mikel went down with an ankle injury early in the contest. Senior Sara Wilkinson helped pick up the offensive slack, knocking in two three-pointers while scoring a game-high 12 points. Wawasee coach Jim Hite knew that his girls wouldn't be able to outmuscle their opponents, so he emphasized that they would have to “beat them to the spot.” The strategy worked to near perfection, as Triton's titans couldn’t establish the kind of position they wanted. And the Lady Warriors boxed out well enough to keep the Lady Trojans from getting many second shots. Warsaw’s top-ranked Lady Tigers put an end to Wawasee’s Cinderella story the following night with a 81-31 sectional championship victory. But for at least one night, the Lady Warriors’ coaching staff was all smiles. The 4-4 Wawasee football team had some serious problems to deal with when it hosted the Fort Wayne South Side Archers in opening round sectional action. The Archers sported an identical 4- mark but their record was deceiving because they played in one of the toughest conferences in the state (Summit Athletic Conference). Wawasee’s inconsistent defense was prone to giving up the big play and South Side had explosive offensive weapons who
were accustomed to making the big plays. But the Warriors controlled the pace of the game and emerged with a 20-14 victory. Wawasee’s defense negated the Archers’ speed advantage for most of the game, and even scored a touchdown of its own. Quarterback Juan Gorman led the Archers' offense with his passing and running abilities. Gorman was a highly-touted signal caller who was being recruited by several college football programs. Wawasee’s coaching braintrust decided to counter Gorman's abilities with a controlled pass rush that would force him to stay in the pocket. If Gorman was going to beat the Warriors he would have to do it with the pass. Gorman's blockers gave him plenty of time to throw all night long. But the Warrior rushers negated Gorman’s running ability by encircling him, and slowly constricting the circle. The weather also helped negate South Side’s quick-strike offense, as snowy conditions made for treacherous footing. Wawasee exploded to a 20-0 lead by the third quarter. The defense set up the first score when a bobbled Archers’ punt attempt gave Wawasee possession at the South Side 22-yard line. Five plays later, Scott Carlin scored the game’s first touchdown on a short plunge into the end zone. Tim Lilly scored the next two Warrior touchdowns. The first 1 came on a 19-yard interception return, and the second came on a 16-yard pass play from quarterback Chris Conkling. The Archers finally found their offense in the final quarter and closed the gap to 20-14. They were in position to tie the score in the game’s final moments but a fourth-down pass into the end zone was batted down by Lilly at the last second. (Continued on page 9)