The Daily Chronicle from De Kalb, Illinois • Page 9

DAILY CHRONIdf DaKalbSeomor hi, Thursday, January 9, 1 992 9 Huskies, Indians climbed llaliewheighfe during 199 a second straight 20-win season, made the National Invitational Tournament and were ranked as high as 17th by the Associated Press and USA Today. Lisa Foss become the program's career scoring leader. At Kishwaukee College this winter, Gregg Gierke's men's basketball team got off to its best start ever, 15-1, as 1991 ended. They're ranked seventh in the na- By Bill Wesselhoff Sports Editor Happy New Year! What, I'm over a week late? Well, now that you've read everybody else's review of 1991 here's ours. Kind of the final word.

Anyway, I'm beating the sun out nine days into 1991 Ids year 1991 saw Northern Illinois University's men's basketball team: A) definitely have its best season since since 1982, B) probably have its best season since 1972 and in many ways have its best season ever. Incredibly, there were only two home sellouts, a 70-61 victory over DePaul that ranks among the finest Huskie wins ever and a 61-53 loss to Wisconsin-Green Bay. The 1990-91 Huskies capped their season with a school-best 25-6 record and the program's second NCAA appearance. Dormell Thomas became Norther's all-time leading scorer. NIU ranked in the top five in four NCAA statistical categories and was ranked as high as 29th in the USA Today-CNN poll.

the first season of Mid-Continent Conference competition, Northern won the league's regular season title. The NCAA Tournament and a loss to St. John's in the Dayton Regional followed. The year also marked the end of a brief two-year reign by coach Jim Molinari and the start of former Southern Cal assistant Brian Hammel's era. The Huskies were under more new masters in 1991 than Buck in The Call of the Wild." Joe "Spanky" McFarland resurrected the baseball team, suffered through an 0-18 start and then went 1 1-7.

Charlie Saddler succeeded Jerry Pettibone on the football front and suffered through an injury-wracked 2-9 campaign. The Roy's Boys era drew to an end with veteran coach Willy guiding senior sons Karsten and Markus and the rest of the team to another winning season. Wedding bells and more rang for women's basketball coach Jane Albright-Dieterle. Her Huskies posted regional championship during 1991. Frank Laccone became the Barbs sixth state champion.

He started this season on course to become the second two-time champ. Sycamore's Chad Gautcher became the Spartans' first state wrestling place-winner in almost 10 seasons. Another Spartan, Dana Piazza, placed seventh at the state bowling tournament. Under coach Jerry Pohl, Leland High School's girls' basketball team made the Elite Eight in JHSA state tournament before bowing out in double overtime to Piasa. Kathy Abbott and Sarah Kidd were the top scorers for the 28-2 Panthers on the Assembly Hall floor.

Abbott, Kidd and Jeni Owen all went on from basketball to win medals in the state track meet. Track remained the force at Kaneland High School. The Lady Knights had state place-winning relays with Sarah Brubaker, Stephanie Halsey, Liz Brubaker and Shannon Barber (4th, 1600 meters). Barber, Laura McReynolds, Liz Brubaker and Sharon Cieslicki (6th, 3200) and Sarah Brubaker, Dana Lettow, Laurie Cieslicki and Halsey (6th, 400). Also bringing home sixths were the boys' 3200 team of Mark Eddington, Jack Wright, Mike Schramer and Chris Wolf, plus pole vaulter Chris Spencer and high jumper Roger Straus-berger.

Knight boys' cross country coach Larry Eddington was at it again as he guided Kaneland's boys' cross country team to a runner-up finish for the state title in 1991. Chris Wolf and James Leifheit won all-state honors leading Steve Frieders, Jeff Beetham, Chris Heibert, Tom Purvis and Mark Eddington to the place. All-state cross country honors also went to Kaneland's Shannon Barber and Sandwich's Jay Weiseman and Brook Stallings: In soccer, Ryan Goodman of Serena was All-State. DeKalb High School's football team lost junior Don Owens in a motor vehicle accident and retired his number, 32. Northern Illinois University and Sycamore High School sports lost a wonderful friend in Bill Johnson during 1991.

Bill was a great one for bringing lane violations or false starts to an official's attention. It's hard to step into Evans Field House without hearing Three echoing somewhere. Ditto lingering somewhere in the air above Engh Community Field. And then there's Gene Lamont and the White Sox. The 45-year-old Kirkland native, who played for the Detroit Tigers and had been coaching for the Pittsburgh Pirates, finally got his long-awaited and well-deserved break when he was named to manage the Sox Nov.

26. A week from Friday, he'll have his uniform numbers retired by Hiawatha High School. From there, it's on to spring training. Years of toil took Lamont from the playing fields of DeKalb County to the decision making seat of a team that may be capable of a World Championship in 1992. In some ways, it's a kind of re-affirmation of the dimming American Dream.

It sort of makes you wonder how many future-Gene Laments were out there during last year's sports seasons. Ti ne will tell. Lamont 's story is one of the great lcau-in stories to this year. Now, if we can only get that sun to conic out. tion.

Kougar baseball continued its status as a national program under Tom Barnard. Rick Helling, the year's prize pupil, went on to pitch for Team USA and is the number one projected starter for Stanford this spring. In the prep ranks, an JHSA Class A State Wrestling Championship for Sandwich made 1991 the Year of the Indians. Led by a pair of state champions in 43-1 Trevor Elliott and 44-0 Rob Felstead, the Tribe beat Harvard 35-27, Hillsboro 44-17 and, in a thrilling finale to the state series, Rockridge 25-24. Jeremy Shafer, Chris Foss and Dan Knoebel also played key roles in the winning the state title.

Indian coach Lon Gerrish was elevated to athletic director at Sandwich in 1991. Also becoming an AD was long-time Softball wizard Lenny Peterson at Genoa-Kingston. DeKalb wrestlers won their 26th consecutive It'1 1,1 5 fP lllini tipoff Big Ten campaign with win li vu'Sli anSiier win was helped off the court, but to the delight of the crowd and the Bulls, be returned to the game before play resumed. I hit my shin bone on the bottom of a chair," be said. didn't hear anything pop, thought so I thought it was aU right." Jordan has been seriously hurt just once In bis eight-year pro career.

any teammate goes down, we get scared, Bulls forward Horace Grant said. "But with Michael being Michael, you know he's going to get up and play." The NBA's leading scorer hit 17 of 27 shots against Miami, and the Bulls unproved to 3-3 when be reached 40 points. Is the best player ever, to play in the game," Beat Continued on page 1L MIAMI (AP) The Cfclc Bulls survived two Close as against the Miami IIer.t, end CuJt left EuEs coach Ptll Jackson la a joking mood. Mkfcae! Jordan scored 40 pohfs and escaped Injury on -frfciieifcg out-of-bounds spill Wertesiay nit as the Bolts edjed MrnL ICS-ICS. Chasfjig a loose baS with four minutes left, Jordan went flying over a row of cheerleaders seated under the Bulls' basket.

lie landed awkwardly and lay sl for about a minute as teammates huddled around him. "I was expecting to find blood," Jackson said Instead we saw this beautiful blonde In the front That's why we stayed out there so long." Jordan avoided putting any weight on his right kg as he have also downed the Boilermakers in four straight encounters. The victory improved Illinois' season record to 7-4 overall and 1 -0 in the Big Ten. Purdue fell to 8-5 and 0-1. "We came out slow again, as we've done in previous big games, and we dug ourselves a hole early," Boilermaker coach Gene Keady said.

"It seems like once you catch up you lose your momentum and you can't get any hold on what you're supposed to do." "My biggest concern is our inside scoring," Keady said. "We took too many perimeter shots. You shoot 67 times and it's way too many to win in this league, especially when you don't have any good rebounders and we just don't have any." "They shoot 29 free throws and we shoot 9, so we're not going inside enough," the Purdue coach added. Continued on page 11. CHAMPAIGN, 111.

(AP) Illinois coach Lou Henson said the Big Ten opener against Purdue was the kind of win he likes. "It was a hard-fought ballgame. It's always nice to win those, Hen-son said after Wednesday's 74-72 overtime victory. "A break here or a break there and you have a chance to win it." "We didn't have a lot of turnovers 1 and we played unbelievable defense, Henson said. "Offensively, we played pretty well.

Any time we shoot 49 percent, that's pretty good for us." Illinois sophomore forward Tom Michael said the victory "wasn't pretty, but we got the job done. "We weren't supposed to win many this year, but we're going to prove them wrong," said Michael, who led the lllini with a career-high 20 points. Dlinois is now 10-7 in Big Ten openers under Henson. The Dlini -pis I ZZZmZ.l.'S.. i Horace Grant fses Rami's Sony Siekaly, during, first quarter Li Ca's IZS-IZS wfo asaiast the Heat Wedoes College hoops: Pittsburgh remains thorn in Orangemen's side won its first ACC road game of the season.

Mackey made his first seven shots and finished 10-for-13. Tech (12-2) forced 1 1 turnovers in the first half and led 42-28 at the break. Tom Gugliotta scored 21 points for North Carolina State (6-5). Virginia 58, No. 19 Wake Forest 53 Bryant Stith scored 24 points, including seven of Virginia's last nine.

souri. No. 16 Alabama 65, No. 13 Arkansas 63 Latrell Sprewell made two key defensive plays in the last seven seconds and Alabama held on. Alabama (13-1) led 64-63 when Todd Day, who led all scorers with 21 points, made a layup that apparently put Arkansas ahead with seven seconds left But Day was called for charging into Sprewell and the basket was disallowed.

After Sprewell made one foul shot he stole the ball from Lee Mayberry at midcourt in the closing moments. James Robinson scored 20 points for the Crimson Tide. Arkansas (12-3) lost in its first SEC road game since joining the league this season. No. 14 Georgia Tech 80, North Carolina State 63 Malcolm Mackey had 24 points and 12 rebounds as Georgia Tech fast break for a 48-30 lead at halftime and added the first 10 points of the second half Wichita State (2-7) made only 19 of 53 shots.

Memphis State 89, No. 12 Missouri 78 Missouri's streak of 17 straight regular-season victories ended when Anfernee Hardaway scored 26 points. Missouri (11-1) was within 69-66 with 7:50 left But in the battle of teams named the Tigers, the hosts scored the next nine points to break it open. Hardaway shot 8 of 15 from the field and was 9 of 11 from the foul line. Kelvin Allen added 14 points for Memphis State (7-3).

Anthony Peeler scored 25 points for Mis straight victories. David Johnson scored 24 points and made four of Syracuse's eight 3-pointers. No. 1 Duke 83, Maryland 66 Thomas Hill scored 25 points and Duke pulled away to beat Maryland. The Blue Devils (9-0, 3-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) led by 13 points at half time and scored the first 10 points of the second half.

Maryland (7-5, 0-2) never got closer than 14 points after that Christain Laettner had 13 points for the Blue Devils, while Walt Williams had 25 for Maryland. No. 4 Kansas 81, Wichita State 51 Adonis Jordan had 20 points as Kansas won easily. The Jayhawks (11-0) used their PITTSBURGH (AP) For four straight seasons, Syracuse has started out with at least 10 straight victories. And for the second time, the streak has been stopped by Pittsburgh.

Sean Miller scored all 11 of his points in the last 4:08 and the Panthers stung the No. 20 Orangemen 83-74 Wednesday night Syracuse (10-1, 2-1 Big East) led by seven points in the second half before Pitt (10-4, 2-0) came back to win at home. Darren Morningstar added 21 points for the Panthers. "Pitt is very strong inside with steady leadership," Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. Pitt also got in the way in the 1988-89 season, when it saddled Syracuse with its first loss after 13 Prep preview DeKalb 8-3-1 at East Aurora 2-13 Jenkins new NIU ticket manager FaeaoH: Four levels of wratMng begin at 6 p.m., Friday, Jan.

10, 1992 at Eatt Aurora High School. Probable ttneupa: 103 Chri Pool 13-4-1 v. Javier Parrat EA. 112 Benji Appl 14-3 vs. Leon Ramsey EA.

119 Rick Cllffe 13-4 receives forfeit 125 Tom Such 107 receives torMi 130 Frank Laccone 18-0 vs. Ruben SakJana EA. 135 Mke Cllffe 104 receives forfeit 140 Tim Stach 10-7-1 receives forfeit 145 Jason But 1-1 receives forfeit 152 Berie Sell 8-5 receives forfeit 160 Matt Mckityre 0-7 receives forfeit. 171 Keith Hedand 134 vs. Jason Thurmond EA.

180 Mark Nakonechny 0 14-4-1 receives forfeit 275 Charts Wal 8-1 1 vs. EfraJn Dekjado EA. Tomcats: The once-proud Tomcats have fallen on hard limes. The wrestling world Is wel aware of state qualifier Oswaldo Ouintanilla's and his brother and varsity starter Qerardo'S transfer to Waubonsie Valley. They also look a third, up-and-coming brother with them.

Closer examination of the Tomcat program finds one-llme East dub prospects wrestling heavyweight at Cewego and at 180 and 140 pounds for Yorkvtle. Plus another prospect left for Waubonsie and one returning lettermsn ust didn't go out Coach Steve Kenyon, a former Tomcat, Is digging In with his unravelling program. frs the lowest IV ever seen tie program in 17 years coaching," Kenyon said. Td say Irs a tow a Irs been since it's been in existence. We dont have tie numbers we used to." With absenteeism, morale and failure rates hitting all-lime high at East more than wrestling has been affected.

"Our community's changing. When you've got a community like ours with a recession on top of it it doesn't help," the coach said. Trte junior highs were lost In 83 In and we haven't recovered. They told then It would never return. I dkfnt believe but It hasn't returned Still, Kenyon says his team has bravely banned together this season.

The kids we have have nice attitude and they'rs good kidi. -That makes it easier to tolerate. And our kids who came through trie dub are wresting well at other schools. We still want to see them succeed at other places he said. The Tomcat coach expects 22-0-1 Ruben Saldana's match with Frank Laccone to highlight Friday's meet That'll be a good one.

Laocone's really tough. I lost don't know If a tough freshmen can compete with a tough Kenyon said. Other coaches have said DeKalb Is not the powerhouse of the past But Laccone la one of the best and I'd say rheyl have a good wrestler at each weight at each level. In the past they've had great ones at several weights. They're still a superior wrestling force, they've proved k.

Barbs: DeKalb coach Dan Ckffe is also looking toward to the Lac-cone-SakJana match, "till be a great one. rm eager to find out how much Frank has improved. This is the first state quality wrestler he's come across this season, should be exciting," the coach said. Ckffe also expressed his sympathy with Kenyon's situation. Kenny's a good guy.

He works hard with his dub. It's Just a difficult situation to coach at East Aurora right now, he said. DeKatVt bigger day this weekend wil be Saturday when the Bartit, Dixon and Moline al travel to Sterling for a 10 am. varsity and Level quadrangular. Competition there wil preview the state series.

"Dixon's ranked seventh, but toy lost to Storting in a tournament High School, he won varsity letters in football (1) as a defensive back and in basketball (2) at guard. Jenkins lettered two seasons in baseball as an infielder at Kishwaukee and played on the Kougars' Arrowhead Conference co-champion team as a sophomore. Prior to his two-year tenure with the Peoria Chiefs, Jenkins served as an intern in the NIU Marketing and Promotions Office under the direction of Mary Mihelich during 1989. His duties included promoting the Huskie Radio Network and group football ticket sales. From December 1989 until October 1990, Jenkins managed the Peoria Chiefs' ticket operation and the franchise's merchandising efforts.

In November 1990, he was promoted to director of operations and handled all stadium and game-day promotional activities. He was also involved in off-season sales and marketing campaigns. Jenkins also worked for more than three years (1986-89) at Caron International in Rochelle as the independent retail sales manager in the Marketing Department He is married to the former Dawn Herrmann of Steward, 111. The couple have a daughter, Jennifer, 16 months. Uilu Korctk That one-man whirlwind in the Northern Illinois University Athletic Ticket Office is actually the Intercollegiate Athletics Department's new ticket manager, Norm Jenkins.

The 30-year-old Jenkins returned to hu alma mater in late November after spending two years with the Peoria Chiefs, the Chicago Cubs' Class-A baseball affiliate in the Midwest League. Jenkins served as director of ticket sales and merchandising and, later, as the director of operations. "It's really great Coming back to my alma mater is something very exciting," Jenkins said. "We really look forward to serving our customers in the most efficient manner possible. The ticket office has come a long way in recent years.

We just hope to continue that expansion and our customer-oriented services." Currently, Jenkins and his staff are selling tickets for the Huskie men's and women's basketball programs, going over final plans for the 1992 North Star Conference Post-Season Tournament hosted by NIU March 5-7, developing ticket strategies for Northern Illinois football next fall, and learning the new Padolan System! He succeeds Tom FreideL who left NIU last spring to become ticket manager at Marshall University. DeKalb's Benji Appl takes a 14-3 mark against four Barb opponents this weekend. (Chronicle photo). NORM JENKINS "Basically, we're aiming to streamline our ticket operation," added Jenkins. "Eventually, our long-range goal is to make this one of the top Division I ticket offices in the country." Jenkins received a bachelor of science degree in journalism and public relations from Northern Illinois in December 1986, and an associate of arts degree in journalism from Kishwaukee College in 1981.

A 1979 graduate of Rochelle They're very strong. And Moline is right up there too, so we're looking at a high quality wrestling day," Cliffe said. This should give us a good idea where we stand in the regional. Sterling and Moline are balanced, and Dixon's lower weights are pretty strong." Cliffe is happy with how his team is developing this season. "We're Just working away and seeing how much we can improve," he said.

This should give us a good indication of that. This will be a good indication of our mental toughness. Well see if we've improved on that" Other meets: Tonight Sandwich hosts Piano. Friday, Sycamore is at Morris while Kaneland travels to York villa with Minooka. Kaneland is at the Geneva Tournament (930 a.m.) Saturday.

Friday's boys' basketball: East Aurora at DeKalb, Morris at Sycamore, Illinois Math and Science Academy at anvil le, Paw Paw at Los tarn, Rockford Lutheran at Kirkland Hiawatha, Sandwich at Coal City, YorkvHIe at Kaneland. Saturday's boys' basketball: Sycamore at Plainlield, Putnam Co. at Newark, Ashton at Shabbona, Waterman at Malta, Kaneland at Batavia..