By Dave Krider
MaxPreps.com
University of Georgia-signee Michelle McKeehan must be wondering what she has to do to set a national swimming record – and keep it!
The super senior from Center Grove in Greenwood, Ind., set a national record on Saturday with a clocking of 1:56.87 in the 200-yard individual medley during the Hoosier state finals. That erased the record of 1:57.41 set last year by Mary Beck, now a junior at Westlake in Austin, Texas. Not much more than an hour later Beck upheld her ranking as Swimming World Magazine’s National Swimmer of the Year by re-claiming the record at 1:56.45 during a regional meet.
It definitely was déjà vu because last year, McKeehan set a national record at the Indiana finals, only to lose it one week later to Beck at her state meet. Still, McKeehan has plenty to cheer about because she also set a state record in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.12) to join Olympian Lindsay Benko (Elkhart Central) as the only Hoosier girls to win two events four consecutive years.
Tennessee-signee Jennifer Connolly (Lafayette Harrison) also got into the act during Indiana’s power-packed state meet. She won the 100-yard backstroke in 53.53 to lower the national public-school standard of 53.68 set by Misty Hyman of Shadow Mountain (Phoenix, Ariz.) in 1996. The overall prep record of 52.86 is held by Natalie Coughlin, who swam for a private school (Carondelet) in California…The Carmel team won its 22nd consecutive Indiana crown to tie the national record held by Punahou (Honolulu, Hawaii).
Not to be out-done by Beck, another Texan – Jimmy Feigen – also set a national record by winning the 100-yard freestyle in 43.41 at the state regional. The San Antonio Churchill senior bested the 16-year-old record of 43.43. Two weeks earlier the University of Texas signee had established a national record in the 50-yard freestyle with a 19.65 clocking… Feigen’s 57-year-old coach, Al Marks, is retiring this year. The Churchill legend has won eight state titles and tutored 16 individual state champs during his 31-year reign.
Another Texas signee, Kathleen Hersey, left her mark in Georgia. The Atlanta Marist senior, who starred in the 2007 Pan-American Games, set a national private-school record by winning the 100-yard butterfly in 52.44 at the state meet. The previous standard of 53.11 had stood since 2000. Hersey also set a state record in the 200-yard individual medley (1:57.41) and anchored two winning relays to give her eight state titles in her career.
Boys Basketball Notes
* All good things, apparently, must come to an end. However, Brad Redford made an incredible 102 consecutive free throws before misfiring to place him No. 2 in high school history. The record is safe for now at 126. The senior point guard from Frankenmuth, Mich., drilled 27 during two victories before misfiring on his first attempt in the third game of the week. He now has made 126 of 130 and is averaging 39 points for the 17-0 Eagles.
* Perhaps the greatest individual duels in the country are going on in south Florida and they will continue because both players are underclassmen. Sophomore guard Brandon Knight poured in 38 points to lead Fort Lauderdale Pine Crest (23-4) to a 74-70 victory over Plantation American Heritage for the Class 3A district championship. Junior guard Kenny Boynton paced the losers (18-9) with 33 points. Pine Crest also won an earlier meeting when American Heritage was missing two starters. They could meet for a third time if both teams win their regional quarterfinal games. The hottest ticket in the state ($5) reportedly was being scalped for $15 for the sold-out contest.
* Ruth Lovelace struck a big blow in favor of women coaching boys teams when she guided Brooklyn Boys & Girls to a 67-66 upset victory against defending state champion Brooklyn Lincoln…Turning to California, Westchester nipped Fairfax, 71-70, in two overtimes during a match-up of Los Angeles powers. Junior guard Dominique O’Connor led the winners with 26 points, while 6-foot-10 junior Renardo Sidney paced the losers with 25 points and 11 rebounds.
* Former National Player of the Year Delray Brooks slowly is building a powerhouse at La Lumiere, a small private school in LaPorte, Ind. This year’s team has two outstanding prospects in unsigned seniors Luka Mirkovic and De’Andre Haskins. Mirkovic is a 6-11, 230-pound center from Serbia. He is averaging 28 points, 14.5 rebounds and 6.0 blocks and has attracted interest from the likes of Louisville, Michigan State, Northwestern, Iowa and Purdue. Haskins is a 6-3 leaper from California who is being looked at by Santa Clara, Long Beach and Ball State. He is averaging 25 points after averaging 31 as a junior.
Brooks, who also serves as athletic director, has greatly upgraded the Lakers’ schedule by adding such teams as defending Indiana Class 4A state champion East Chicago Central and Illinois power Chicago Marshall to his schedule. “I’m taking it one step at a time,” he told MaxPreps. “We’re trying to be competitive at the highest level we can be.”
* Maranatha Christian, a small school in San Diego, Calif., has a budding star from China. He is Chen Cai, a 6-7, 250-pound freshman from Guangzhou who is living with an American family. He is averaging 23 points and the team is 8-1 since he became eligible on Jan. 14. UCLA already has shown some interest…Scott Wood, a 6-5 junior from Marion, Ind., has made a commitment to North Carolina State. The Hoosier sharpshooter was recruited by assistant coach Monte Towe, who grew up in nearby Oak Hill.
* Sophomore guard Ray McCallum Jr. pumped in 38 points, but his Bloomington North team lost a 93-91 overtime heartbreaker to Indianapolis Broad Ripple in an Indiana thriller. Robert Goff amassed 23 points and 18 rebounds for Broad Ripple…Camden Catholic (N.J.) coach Jim Crawford recently picked up his 600th victory against 200 defeats.
* Legendary Jack Curran of Archbishop Molloy (Queens, N.Y.) was honored in a packed gym which bears his name last week for 50 years in high school coaching. The 77-year-old marvel has compiled a remarkable record of 2,491-826 as a basketball and baseball coach and has been named National Coach of the Year in both sports. He belongs to nine halls of fame. His greatest legacy: over 500 of his players have received college scholarships and over 40 have become coaches.
* The coaching staffs for the annual McDonald’s All-American Games (March 26 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee) will have a distinct Wisconsin flavor. On the boys side, Milwaukee’s Jim Gosz (King) and Tom Diener (Vincent) will be co-coaches of the West team, while Woodie Jackson of Francis Marion (Marion, Ala.) will head the East team. On the girls side, former major league baseball pitcher Tom Klawitter of Janesville Parker will lead the West, while Sherri Retif of Germantown Academy (Fort Washington, Pa.) will guide the East.
Girls Basketball Notes
* Jim Smiddy has been named recipient of the second annual Morgan Wootten Award: For Lifetime Achievement in Coaching High School Basketball. The award is given each year to a boys and girls coach by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Smiddy, who died in 1995, will be represented by his widow, Gloria, when the award is presented on March 26 at the McDonald’s All-American Games in Milwaukee.
In 44 years of coaching girls basketball at Tennessee schools Charleston and Cleveland Bradley Central, he compiled a spectacular 1,217-206 record, which is No. 2 in USA history. He won five state championships, 90 consecutive games, two national championships and is a member of the National High School Hall of Fame.
* Elena Delle Donne continues to play catch-up after missing 10 games due to mononucleosis. And she’s doing a spectacular job of it! Last week she poured in a career-best 51 points – including 8-of-10 from three-point range – as Ursuline Academy (Wilmington, Del.) defeated Caravel Academy (Bear, Del.), 76-51. The 6-5 senior superstar played only three quarters. Later the University of Connecticut signee had 30 points (13-of-18 from the field) in a 57-36 victory over Manchester, Conn. Week after week, Elena proves she is one of the purest shooters – boy or girl – ever to play the game.
* Freshman Brielle Jones set an Illinois state record for most blocked shots in a season with 234. The record of 224 had stood since 2001. The 5-11 standout, who also set a state record with 21 blocks in a single game, averaged 10.7 blocks – along with 12.8 rebounds and 8.8 points – this year for DeLand-Weldon (DeLand)…Louisville signee Monique Reid exploded for a career-high 55 points and 19 rebounds in a Kentucky headliner as Louisville Fern Creek defeated Bowling Green Warren East, 95-67.
* When Michelle Miller asked if she could help coach the girls basketball team at Washington-Lee in Arlington, Va., last year, she had no idea she soon would be piling up frequent-flyer miles. Not long afterward the head coach resigned and she took over. Since then, however, she has taken an executive position with a firm in Denver, Colo. Out of loyalty, she has made the 3,000-mile round trip about 20 times since last summer. It’s a good thing she’s 29 and single!
Hockey Notes
* The U.S. National Under-18 team edged Finland, 5-3, to win the Five Nations Tournament in Varkaus, Finland. Kyle Palmieri (Montvale, N.J.) set the pace with a hat trick as the Americans finished with a 4-0 record. The Americans also won in 1999, 2005 and 2007. Earlier the U.S. had beaten Russia, 3-2; Sweden, 4-3, in overtime; and the Czech Republic, 7-2. Jordan Schroeder (Prior Lake, Minn.) was high scorer for the champs with seven points on three goals and four assists.
* The U.S. National Under-17 team placed second at the Vlad Dzurilla Tournament in Piestany, Slovakia. The Americans defeated Germany, 3-2, and Switzerland, 4-2, before losing to Slovakia, 7-3…Roseau, Minn., junior defenseman Aaron Ness, who is projected to be a first-round pick in this year’s NHL draft, definitely is on the fast track. He is taking eight classes during the day and three and one-half at night so he can graduate early. The 5-10, 170-pounder has made a commitment to attend the University of Minnesota.
* The North American Hockey League Wichita Falls Wildcats held a Children’s Miracle Network “Jersey Off Our Back” fundraiser last week. The Wildcats won a pair of games against the Kenai River Brown Bears and raised an outstanding $80,000 for charity by auctioning off special jerseys worn by team members. The biggest bid was $23,000 for the jersey worn by mascot Craze E Cat.
Football Notes
* Even though senior recruiting isn’t completely over yet, college football teams already are receiving commitments from premier underclassmen. The University of Texas bagged a big one in Austin Lake Travis junior quarterback Garrett Gilbert, the son of former NFL player Gale Gilbert. The 6-3, 186-pounder broke single-season Texas passing records last fall in completions (359), attempts (555) and yards (4,826). He also tied for sixth with 52 touchdown passes as Lake Travis won the Class 4A-Division II state championship, upsetting the No. 1 and 2-ranked teams along the way.
Chad Morris must be one of the happiest coaches in Texas right now because he inherits Gilbert as the new head coach at Lake Travis. Morris replaces Jeff Dicus, who took the head job at Duncanville. In five years at Stephenville, Morris compiled a 49-10 record, including a 13-1 mark in 2005.
* Madison County (Madison, Fla.) defensive tackle Jacobbi McDaniel has made a commitment to Florida State. The 6-0, 267-pound junior made 30 tackles for losses and 56 pancake blocks last fall for the Class 2A state champs…Sumter, S.C., junior running back Roderick McDowell has chosen Clemson. The 5-10, 175-pounder ran for 1,389 yards and 21 touchdowns last fall. He also had 293 yards and five touchdowns receiving and scored twice on kick-off returns.
Track Notes
* Mansfield, Texas, junior pole vault star Shade Weygandt cleared 13-8 – No. 4 all-time – to place first at the Trojan Indoor Games in Enid, Okla…Young Morristown, N.J., shot put star Nick Vena added almost 18 inches to his national freshman record with a 63-2 ¾ effort in the Varsity Classic at the Armory in New York City…Doug Smith of Gill St. Bernard’s (Gladstone) ran a national 2008 best 3200 (9:06.05) to place first at the New Jersey state indoor meet in Lawrenceville.
* Rebuilt Eleanor Roosevelt (Greenbelt, Md.) won the girls 4 by 800-meter relay in a sizzling 8:59.37 (tied for No. 2 all-time) during the eighth annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the Armory in New York City. At the same meet, Chanelle Price of Easton, Pa., won the 1,000-meter run in 2:45.76, which is No. 3 all-time. Price currently has 2008 national-bests in four events.
Golf Notes
* Andrew Yun, a junior from Hamilton in Chandler, Ariz., defeated another junior, Julian Suri, of Bartram Trail (Jacksonville, Fla.) on the second sudden-death playoff hole to win the Verizon Junior Heritage Tournament at Hilton Head Island, S.C. Both shot 68-74-142 for 36 holes. Seventh grader Pearl Jin of San Gabriel, Calif., was runner-up in the girls division, losing by two strokes to Marta Silva Zamora of Spain, who shot 67-75-142.
* The American Junior Golf Association has new leaders in both divisions of its national Polo Rankings. Cory Whitsett, a sophomore from Memorial in Houston, Texas, leads the boys division, while Kimberly Kim, a junior from Queen Creek, Ariz., sits atop the girls division. Kim currently is taking only on-line courses…The previous girls leader, Vicky Hurst of Melbourne, Fla., officially will become a professional in March when she plays at the Bright House Networks Open in Lakeland, Fla.
Potpourri
* Legendary Harry Breland has retired as head baseball coach at Oak Grove in Hattiesburg, Miss. The 64-year-old coach compiled an 823-224 record with nine state championships in 37 years. He was enshrined in the Mississippi Coaching Hall of Fame in 1997.
