Top 10 sports stories from 2008

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1. After 74 years of futility, the LaMoille Lions captured their first regional title in school history with a 46-45 win over Polo at the Polo 1A Regional on Feb. 22.  Matt Monroe’s basket with 7 seconds left in regulation capped off an improbable regional run for the Lions, who started the year with 10 straight losses.

With expectations already running high for the Lions in the 08-09 campaign, things got even brighter when a co-op with neighboring Ohio, a long-running rival, fell into place over the offseason.

2. World Serious.  Two Spring Valley natives, J.A. Happ and Chad Durbin took part in the Philadelphia Phillies run to the  World Series title, defeating the Tampa Bay Rays in five games to give Philadelphia its second World Series trophy in franchise history.

 Happ, a St. Bede alumnus, notched his first big league win on Sept. 17, pitching six scoreless innings in a 6-1 win over the Atlanta Braves at Turner field.

3. State in ’08. After defeating Peoria Christian at the Bureau Valley sectional finals, the Tigresses were sent home. However, it wasn’t an end to their season, but rather the Supersectional that awaited Princeton.

In the friendly confines of Prouty Gymnasium, the Tigresses rallied from a first set 16-25 loss, and 11-6 deficit to defeat Wilmington 25-21, 25-20, to claim the victory at their home site supersectional, and earn a trip to play at state.

Princeton fell to Tolono Unity and Elgin St. Edward at the state finals, ending the season with a fourth-place trophy, which was the first state hardware for the Tigresses since the 1990 state championship.

4. Mickow vs. PHS. Princeton High School senior Colin Mic-kow received a court injunction of the suspensions handed down on him for a violation of athletic code shortly before the start of the sectional track meet. Cleared to run, he qualified for the state track meet. PHS officials, however, went to court to overturn the injunction. That motion was denied but the judge informed PHS officials it didn’t need the court enforce its school’s policies. PHS upheld the suspension which came about from information gained from Internet postings and did not allow Mickow to run in Charleston.

5. It takes two tracksters to tango. Bureau County had two state track champions, Bureau Valley’s Alisa Baron and Hall’s Matt Hassler. Baron had a run on the record books in Charleston, breaking a 27-year-old Class A record in the 400 with a time of 55.6 to claim the state championship. Baron also captured two other medals at the state meet, as she placed sixth in the triple jump at 36-10 1/4, and  was part of the fourth-place Bureau Valley 4 x 100 relay. With her win in the 400, Baron became the third female state champ from Bureau County, following Tiskilwa’s Lane Suarez (1984) and Princeton’s Rebekah Faber (2003).

Hassler found himself standing on the top of the podium at Charleston as well, as the Red Devil senior captured the state title in the high jump with a 6-7 jump. Hassler joins Western’s Lonnie Hewitt, who won three state titles (1977-79), and former Hall standout D.J. Glynn, as the only Bureau County athletes to win at high jump.

6. Heading to the sidelines. Four area head coaches saw their coaching careers come to a close in 2008. Gary Vicini retired after his 25th year as head football coach at Hall. He led the Red Devils to state titles in football in 1995 and 2001, as well as a second-place finish in 1996. Vicini’s squads made the playoffs 20 out of the 25 years he coached the Red Devils, and took home five NCIC championships. Vicini finished with a 195-80 record.

Longtime Princeton High School wrestling coach Randy Swinford called it quits after the 2007-08 season. Swinford coached for more than 30 years, leading Princeton to four regional titles, coaching 18 individual state medals, six individual state champions and is a member of the Illinois Wrestling coaches hall of fame.

Demi Salazar retired as head coach of the Hall volleyball program after seven seasons. Salazar led the Lady Red Devils to a fourth-place finish at state in 2005.

DePue native Alan Bosnich retired after 24 years as basketball  coach at DePue Grade School.

7. Red flag at Speedway. On June 18, membership of the Bureau County Speedway elected to call a halt to racing operations for the 2008 season. A struggling economy and high gas prices were blamed for the lack of attendance and decline in racers, which forced the speedway to wave a red flag on the summer schedule. In September, Speedway officials elected to liquidate all assets.

8. Sixth at state. The Storm boys’ cross-country squad captured sixth place as a team at the state cross country meet, capping off an impressive season for Bureau Valley. The finish was the second best in school history for the Storm harriers, surpassed only by its 2001 second-place finish.

To earn the way to the state race, the Storm captured their fifth regional title, placing four runners in the top 10 to take home the team gold at the Rock Falls regional, and also earned a third-place team finish at the Aurora sectional.

9. Runner-up repeat. Princeton’s Ty Taylor earned a second-place finish at State in wrestling at 140 pounds, his second straight silver medal at state. Taylor, who holds the PHS records for wins (166) and pins (89), was a four-time NCIC champ and also a winner of the Princeton Invitational, a distinction his father and two of his brothers share.

10. A year for champions. Princeton captured its first ever regional title in boys’ soccer, defeating DePue 3-2 on junior Justin Jenkins’ goal in overtime, led by BCR player of the year Matt McClure, who set Tiger’s all-time lead in goals and assists.

Following a 3-6 campaign in 2007, the Bureau Valley Storm captured the  Big Rivers conference championship and returned to the state quarterfinals in football. Lineman Nate Swanson and running back Josiah Johnston were named BCR co-players of the year.

Hall cross country runner Scott Janusick won the Seneca regional with a time of 16:38 and finished fourth 24th at state.

The Princeton girls golf team captured their second regional title in three years, led by senior Gwen Holmes, who earned a 12th-place finish at state.

The Hall boys captured the NCIC Lincoln golf title.

The Bureau Valley girls’ track team took home its fourth-straight sectional title at Erie and captured the TRAC-8 title for the fourth-straight time as well.

The Hall girls captured its fourth-straight regional title in basketball, winning 56-42 over St. Bede at the Princeton regional.

The Kittens are the first sophomore boys’ basketball team at Princeton to finish the season undefeated since 1983, finishing with a 22-0 record. Coach Paul Robinson was a member of the 1983 squad that went 20-0.