Boys Basketball Falls to Oak Park, Wins Lane Tournament

By Paul Harris-Hertel

ETHS basketball players Nickcaro Golding (23), Sean Creogeart-Key (20) and Tim Williams (50) huddle during a timeout in the 4th quarter of the WildKits 62-59 loss to Oak Park on Saturday.

A 62-59 loss to Oak Park-River Forest on Saturday could not keep the Evanston Township High School boys basketball team from winning the Lane Tech Thanksgiving Tournament.

The Kits went 4-1 in the round-robin tournament and won the championship on point differential. Oak Park lost to Zion-Benton in double overtime, but the Wildkits beat the Zee-Bees by 17 points.

In the finale against Oak Park, Nickcaro Golding led Evanston with 14 points, including a monster dunk off a feed from Dvrce Brown, and Dipanjot Singh added 13. The Kits held a 55-50 lead late in the fourth quarter but could not hold off the hot shooting of the Huskies' Daniel Barnes. Barnes led all scorers with 22, and hit three consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter. His second long-distance shot of the quarter tied the score at 59 with 45 seconds left. After a costly Kits' turnover, Barnes hit what proved to be the game-winner with 3.2 seconds remaining. Evanston had one last chance, but Singh's attempt at the buzzer was blocked.

While Wildkit head coach Robert Locke was pleased with the tournament victory, he was disappointed that his team did not play up to its potential against Oak Park.

"The goal with this tournament is just to improve each game," said Locke. "We made some uncharacteristic mistakes tonight, but that's my fault. It's my job to prepare these guys."

Locke did point to good play on the part of several of his players.

"Nickcaro really had a breakout game," Locke said. "He missed a couple of easy shots, but he rebounded the ball well. Eric Hilbring (8 points) was solid in his first game [coming] off foot surgery. Dipanjot and Dvrce (9 points) were good. We'll be fine once we get more consistent play off the bench."

The Kits jumped on top early, thanks to several lay-ups by Singh and Sean Creogeart-Key, who was starting in place of Hilbring. But the Huskies took advantage of frequent trips to the free throw line during a 10-0 run spanning the late first and early second quarters to go ahead 31-25. Evanston answered with a mini-run of its own, as four points from Hilbring and a pair of free throws from Deon Thompson tied the score at 31 at halftime.

The game was still tied late in the third when Golding's jumper gave the Kits a two-point lead and ignited an 8-3 run that carried into the final quarter. But seven fourth-quarter turnovers, along with Barnes's hot shooting, did the Wildkits in.

After the game, Thompson, Brown and Singh were honored with spots on the All-Tournament Team.
Evanston will resume play on Friday at Highland Park.

Wrestling Team Starts Season With Big Wins

By Paul Harris-Hertel

Before the Evanston Township High School wrestling team's season began, Wildkit head coach Rudy Salinas predicted the season-opening three-team match against Lane Tech and Gordon Tech would be "a good early test." If that was the case, the team passed with flying colors.

The Kits beat Gordon Tech 72-6 and Lane Tech 52-15 last Wednesday evening in the Evanston fieldhouse. Salinas acknowledged coming in that Lane would probably be the favorite in the match, but added that his wrestlers had a lot of pride and he expected they would rise to the challenge. After his assessment proved correct, the coach was quick to praise his team and its effort.

"I think our kids executed well," said Salinas. "We got great opportunities at the end of matches and we capitalized."

Although Evanston wrestlers won nine of the individual matchups against Lane, Salinas pointed to two whose victories were particularly crucial in giving the Kits the win.

"Kyle Coulter did a great job wrestling up a weight class at 125 [pounds], and Alex Pitner at 145 got a fall against a sectional qualifier," Salinas said. "That was a huge momentum swing."

The Kits' margin of victory over Gordon Tech was due in large part to ten Rams forfeits. Evanston's Sehyun Chung beat his Rams counterpart at 160 pounds and Zach Burns was victorious at 171 pounds to add to the Kits' winning point total.

Evanston rode the momentum from its season-opening wins to a strong showing in the Maine East Dual Team Tournament this past weekend. The Kits went 7-2 and finished second out of 11 teams.

Three wrestlers collected some individual hardware at the tournament as well. Angel Sierra won a medal as one of the top two wrestlers in his weight class (112), as did Coulter at 119 and Gerard Harris at 130.

The Kit wrestlers continue their season on Friday at New Trier, a match-up Salinas believes will show just how good his team is.

"They're the two-time defending conference champs," Salinas said of the Trevians, "so we'd better show up."

Girls Swimming 14th in State

By Paul Harris-Hertel

It was not quite the finish they wanted, but the Evanston Township High School girls swim team racked up 35 points, good for 14th place at the State Championship on Nov. 17 and 18 at the high school.

After Friday's preliminary round, the Kits were in 11th place, but they got off to a rough start on Saturday. The 200-yard medley relay team was disqualified when one swimmer left the blocks before her teammate had reached the wall. Even though it did not count, the Kits came in third in that race in 1:48.12.

"With that relay we're in eighth place, and probably would have finished the day around where we started it," said head coach Kevin Auger. "But you can't overcome a DQ [disqualification]. But that happens when you've got kids who are real pumped up. That's not the first time it happened and it won't be the last.

"After the medley relay it was a little disheartening, and we were a little deflated," Auger continued. "But the girls got together behind the blocks before the 200 free relay and pumped each other up, and we won the consolation finals. That carried over into the backstroke with Jane [Munro] and Grace [Borchers]."

Borchers placed seventh in the 100-backstroke with a time of 57.94 seconds, and Munro's time of 58.98 was good for ninth. The 200 freestyle relay team of Anne Frigo, McKenna Kulman, Becca Thompson and Jenny Kruse finished seventh in 1:38.10.

Evanston scored points in several other events as well. Kruse finished ninth in the 50 freestyle (24.48), Sophie Borchers was 11th in the 100 butterfly (58.49), and Kristina Walsh placed 11th in the 100 breaststroke (1:07.13). The Kits also earned 12th-place finishes from Grace Borchers in the 200 individual medley (2:09.91) and from Thompson in the 200 freestyle (1:56.25).

Despite a little blemish at the State meet, the season was filled with positive moments, including the team's first win over New Trier in 17 years and a first-place finish at sectionals. But perhaps best of all, this year's team will return virtually intact next fall. Kruse is the only senior among the swimmers who scored points at State. Auger is looking forward to next season, and he believes the returning swimmers will have a little extra motivation while getting ready for the 2007 State meet.

"We have to make the next leap," Auger said. "Last year we were sitting here with a bunch of qualifiers but no one in the top 12. This year we got them in the top 12. Next year we've got to put them all in the top six. [The DQ] might be just the adversity we needed to go through to [improve] for next year."
Rosary High School of Aurora won the State Championship going away. The Beads tallied 163 points, 40 more than second-place Barrington.

ETHS Grad Returns As College Player

Ariel Rogers, a three-sport athlete at Evanston Township High School, will be returning to Evanston next week with her Princeton University basketball team to play Northwestern University at Welsh Ryan Arena on Dec. 1. Ariel is a junior at Princeton University majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering. She is the starting center for Princeton, last year's Ivy League champion. Her season began last week with a win over Wagner University. Ariel led her team with 16 points, 11 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals. She was named the Player of the Game.

YWCA Staff Makes Virtual Swim to Outer Space

YWCA Flying Fish coach and former Evanston Township High School and University of Minnesota swimming standout Terry Silkaitis swam 840 lengths (21,000 yards, or about 12 miles) over the course of 5-1/2 hours, and altogether the swim staff swam a total of 68 miles (more than the distance to outer space).

The swim was part of the YWCA Evanston/North Shore aquatic staff swim marathon which raised $30,000 from sponsors and enabled the YWCA to surpass their fundraising goal of $850,000 to build a second pool. The grand opening of the new pool is scheduled for Dec. 20.

Team Evanston Soccer

U-12 Boys Blue Final
Team Evanston Blue 3
Wilmette Wings 2

Goals: Corydon (2), Fowler
Assists: Fowler, Kleschen
Goalies: Collins, Miller

Final Standings: 8 wins, 2 losses, no ties, 2nd place in division Blue-4