Wrap: Buzzard's finish highlights West Aurora's meet

Naperville North is set at three of the four freestyle relay positions with H, H and H, but the big question is who will join them at the end of the season.

Conor Handley, Will Heidler and Jackson Hill were among the bright spots for the Huskies at the West Aurora triangular meet Tuesday at IMSA, winning the free relays to top Wheaton co-op in team points 143-129.

The host Blackhawks, who were at a disadvantage both in experience and in numbers, finished a distant third with 48 points.

"Those three are clearly the top guys we have," said Naperville North coach Kurt Johns. "But we need someone to step up for that fourth spot in the relays and we don't know who it is yet."

The big three led the Huskies to victory in a meet that produced few impressive times, in part because many athletes on all three teams did not swim in their primary events.

West Aurora's major bright spot was again diver Corey Buzzard, who racked up another victory with 225.65 points to 197.55 for Eric Novitsky of Wheaton.

"Corey is on-target for making state," said West Aurora coach Joe Neukirch.

"He's getting better and better every meet as he prepares for sectionals and state. You could see today that he was pumped up and enthusiastic for each upcoming dive. He's a meticulous worker."

Boys basketball

Prospect 45, South Elgin 31:ŒWhen your outside shots aren't falling, it sure helps to have a couple of big guys who can dominate inside.

Enter 6-foot-6 Prospect front court players Kevin Reed and Alex Toth.

With the Knights and visiting South Elgin both colder than the temperature outside, Reed, Toth and 6-foot junior Jason Leblebijian helped Prospect hold off the Storm to score a 45-31 non-conference boys basketball victory in Mount Prospect Tuesday night.

Leblebijian and Toth both scored 11 points, and Reed's (10 points) surge early in the fourth quarter stonewalled a South Elgin rally.

"I was worried about this game," said Prospect coach John Camardella. "I wondered what our energy level would be after a disappointing weekend. Buffalo Grove and Glenbrook North really took it to us, but I'm proud of our guys to come out and play the way they did tonight."

Senior forward Stephen Carter led the Storm with 8 points, while 6-9 center Daniel Lopez contributed 5 points and 9 rebounds.

"Shooting," said South Elgin coach Chaz Taft when asked about the big reason for the loss.

"We just had a bad shooting night. We missed layups, point blank shots, a lot of bunnies. It just wasn't there for us tonight."

The Storm hit only 1 of 13 from 3 point range.

"It was an awful shooting night by both teams," agreed Camardella.

Toth scored 7 points and recorded 4 of his 6 boards in the third quarter as Prospect opened a double-digit lead but when the senior went to the bench with 4 fouls, South Elgin (5-5) closed the gap.

Three-point plays from Jeffrey Lewis and Erik Stade brought South Elgin to within 31-27 after three quarters.

Then Reed took over in early the fourth. The junior grabbed a rebound that led to Prospect basket, swatted away a South Elgin attempt and hit a layup at the other end, then made a sweet feed to Pat Ziegenfuss for a layup that brought the lead back to 10.

"(After their run) we talked about getting back to what was working for us," said Toth. "We worked hard and got some open shots."

Free throws from Leblebijian and Jeff Heiden (7 points) helped close out the game for the Knights (5-5).

"We got close," said Taft, "but close doesn't cut it for us any more.

"We executed our sets and got open shots, but you've got to hit those open shots. We talk about holding our opponents to under 50 and we did that, but it doesn't do much good when we can't score 50."

-- Bill Esbrook

Mooseheart 65, Kirkland-Hiawatha 31:ŒJeff Perales felt the need to tweak just a few things at the end of the first quarter of Tuesday's Mooseheart-Kirkland-Hiawatha boys basketball contest.

Perales watched his Mooseheart team outscore the visiting Hawks 27-10 in the second quarter. That burst opened a 43-20 halftime edge and set the Ramblers well on their way to a 65-31 victory.

The win, Mooseheart's seventh straight after a pair of season-opening losses sets the Ramblers into their Christmas Break with a 7-2 record.

"We played really poorly the first couple of games," Perales said. "We played some pretty tough competition those first couple of games too. But it's nice to end on a 7-0 run going into the break. Hopefully we'll come back and continue that streak."

Mooseheart senior Mike Tovar scored a season-high 22 points, but did other things that helped key the victory.

"We had (Tovar) bring the ball up, which he normally doesn't do," Perales said. "Floyd (Mays) got out on the wing and started running. No one could catch him."

Benefiting from some solid Tovar passes, Mays scored 11 second quarter points, which were all the points the senior scored in the contest.

"That just opened up the game from there," Perales said.

The Ramblers dressed eight players for the game. All played and all scored, though there was balance throughout the lineup. After Tovar and Mays, Brandon Moreno's eight-point effort was Mooseheart's best.

-- Darryl Mellema

Hockey

Saints Best North Stars: St. Charles East knocked off the North Stars 5-3 in IHSL action last Saturday night.

Josh Lorusso scored the first three goals of the game, and the Saints took control of the game 3-0. Matthew Sorengel got St. Charles North on the board with a power play goal in the second. Then in the third, Lorusso converted a rebound for his fourth goal of the game. Robbie Wendt then extended the Saints lead to 5-1. Goals by Derek Quinn and Christian Esposito got the Stars to within two, but it was too late.

Through December 16, the Saints stand at 5-6-0 for fourth place in the IHSL West, but only two poins from second place. Meanwhile, the North Stars are 2-8-1 and in fifth place, five points behind the Saints.

Baseball

Aurora Hitting Camp: Aurora University will host a four-day camp from December 26-29 designed to improve players' hitting skills.

The camp, hosted by AU's Director of Athletics and former head baseball coach, Mark Walsh, offers three daily sessions.

Session 1 is from 8:15 am to 9:45 am for players ages 8-10. Session 2 is from 10 am to 11:30 am for players ages 11-13. Session 3 is from 1 pm to 230 pm for players ages 14-18.

The deadline to register is Dec. 21 and the cost is $80 for the first camper and $70 for each additional child in the family. For more information, call (630) 844-6181 or (630)844-5111 or e-mail ndano@aurora.edu.

Basketball

St. Charles North Holiday Camp: St. Charles North will be hosting basketball camps for kids between grades through eight from January 3-5, 2008. The gender-specific camps run at the same time in different gyms.

Students in grades three through five attend from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and students in grades six through eight attend from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. North Stars head coaches Tom Poulin and Katie Sauber will run the camps and current North Star players will be instructing.

The skill curriculum will include shooting, passing, dribbling, games and more. The cost is $25 per day, $75 for the full length.

Wrestling

Batavia's 50th Anniversary: The 2007-2008 season marks the 50th anniversary of wrestling at Batavia High School. Several events during the season will commemorate this mark.

The anniversary celebration will culminate at a quadrangular meet on Saturday, Jan. 5 at 9 a.m. at Batavia. There will be a reception at Riverview Banquets from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. all past wrestlers, coaches, cheerleaders, parents, and supporters of the program are invited.

For more info, contact coach Tom Arlis at (630) 879-9001 or visit www.bataviawrestling.com.