Neighbor Sports

Basketball

Spring league: Carmel Catholic High School will offer a 2008 Boys Spring Basketball League at the school located at One Carmel Parkway, Mundelein. The league is designed to give sixth- to eighth-grade boys an opportunity to prepare for the upcoming season by playing competitive basketball. The teams will have their own coach and play nine to 12 games over a five-day period. Grade levels will be mixed and teams will be selected after evaluation night on April 13. The tentative schedule is:

• April 13 -- 5 to 6 p.m., evaluation drill work; 6 to 7 p.m., evaluation games

• April 20, 27 and May 4 -- 5 to 7 p.m., league games

• May 18 -- 5 to 7 p.m. league tournament and awards.

For information, call Jon Baffico, Carmel men's basketball coach at (847) 388-3402.

Gymnastics

Itasca meet: Level 4 and Level 6 teams from North Shore Gymnastics in Lake Forest participated in the Itasca Gymnastics Invitational. 8-year-old Laken Ritzert of Lake Forest walked away with top honors in the Level 4 division. She placed first in all four events making her the all-around champion as well. In the 10-year-old division, Madeleine Collins of Lake Forest won vault and placed second all around. The Level 4 girls swept uneven bars as Laken Ritzert placed first, Chapin Grumhaus of Lake Forest placed second and Rachel Weis of Libertyville placed third in the 8 and under age group.

Three of the four specialty awards were won by North Shore Level 6 girls. Isabella Armstrong of Wilmette won best form on beam, Laura Blake of Lake Forest won best swing on uneven bars and Devin Shannon won best leaps on floor. Isabella Armstrong also won the all around and Devin Shannon placed first on beam.

Hockey

Patriots vs. Willowbrook: In the first-round game in the Illinois State Championship, Blackhawk Cup junior varsity hockey tournament, the Stevenson Patriots squeaked by the Willowbrook (AWF Combined) Warriors by a 4-3 score.

Willowbrook got off to a fast start, but Stevenson goalie Mitch Levinson kept the Warriors from scoring. Stevenson managed to score a goal early in the period to take a 1-0 lead. Ricky Razdolsky passed the puck to Jake Gould, and the sophomore made the goal. Willowbrook tied the score 1-1 at the end of the first period.

A minute into the second period the Warriors scored again to take a 2-1 lead which they maintained until three minutes remained. Defensemen Nick Fasano, Justin Krupp and Max Mora kept Willowbrook bottled up and Mora passed to Wayne Glickstern who passed to Myles Lobus, who scored to tie up the game.

Early in the third period, Krupp sent a long pass to Marc Weiner and Weiner scored to give Stevenson the 3-2 lead. The Warriors tied the game at 3-3. A pass by Fasano found Razdolsky open just inside Willowbrook's blue line. Razdolsky passed to Gould who scored to put the Patriots back in front with 8 minutes to play. Stevenson advanced to the round of 16.