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Show Thursday, December 20, 2007 AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 9 COMMUNITY SPORTS, PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FUN Amy Krommenhoeli American Fork High School Cavemen headed to tournament for the holidays Jared Lloyd NORTH COUNTY The December holidays often of-ten mean it's time to pack up the family car, load up the kids and head off on vacation. Or, if you're one of many Utah Valley high school boys and girls basketball coaches, it's time to gather the team, the equipment, the assistant coaches and some parents and journey to exotic locations like Florida, Hawaii, California, Arizona, Ar-izona, New Mexico, St. George and Logan. "This is 'about kids being together," said Spanish Fork head coach Mark Bailey, whose Dons are heading to Logan next week. "It builds team unity and they're not just goofing off. (The coaches) coach-es) are there and we're focused fo-cused on getting better. We also get to play good teams that maybe we haven't seen before." The biggest of the tournaments tourna-ments takes place in Phoenix, Ariz., as 96 girls basketball teams from around the country coun-try descend on a single resort re-sort for two weeks of nearly non-stop action at the Nike Tournament. "It's a great tournament," said Lone Peak head coach Keith Flood, whose Knights will be participating along with Mountain Moun-tain View, Timpanogos and others. oth-ers. "The top bracket is usually the teams ranked No. 1 through No. 8, so it's the premier girls basketball event in the country. It's a chance to play against very good competitioa" The level of competition is a big factor in deciding where teams are going to go during the week without many local games or school because of winter break. "I start looking into it after the season," said Pleasant Grove head coach Randy McAllister, who will taking his team to Palm Springs, Calif., for the Desert Heat Classic next week. "I talk to other coaches as well as looking at what I have coming back. This was a good year for us to play in the highest high-est level at this tourney." Also headed to this same tournament is the American Fork boys basketball team, which will play in the Desert Heat division. The Cavemen have also entered a team in the JV division. Another factor that always has to be taken into consideration consid-eration is cost, since going to these events particularly the out-of-state tournaments isn't cheap. "A lot goes into it," Flood explained. "It's a lot of stress to organize it and raise money, but it's a great experience ex-perience and a great time to bond, get to know each other better." For most of the coaches, the logistical aspect is the only real drawback and the positives far outweigh that possible negative. "We're going to play against the best teams possible, against Division 1-level kids," McAllis ter said. "It's a great chance to know what we re up against, to go out and see what we're made of." Teams also get the opportu nity to meet athletes from all over the country. "We're all together so the girls will hang out and get to know each other," said Flood. "It's a nice resort and we'll have a banquet on Wednes day night where they usually will have a top female athlete or a WNBA player. It s an ex perience they'll never forget. The Pleasant Grove and American Fork girls basket ball teams already participat ed in Wyoming tournaments earlier this month. i-JN n ri Bmm hi SJP! 3 Parents: Bob and Janice Krommenhoek Sport: Basketball Position: Guard Birthplace: Payson Favorite sports team: The University Uni-versity of Utah Utes Favorite food: Fruit Favorite restaurant: Cafe Rio Favorite movie: Alvin and the Chipmunks Favorite book: The Ulitimate Gift Hero: Derek Fisher Favorite class: Health Most memorable career moment: mo-ment: Going undefeated at a tournament in Green River, Wyo., this year. Future plans: To attend college after high school. American Fork girls basketball coach Corey Clayton said: "She doesn't get down. She's always happy. She plays well under pressure. Big-game situations don't bother her any. In both the second and third games of the Wyoming tournament, she shot three threes. She's also a great foul shooter." SCOREBOARD Results Boys basketball Result Opponent Loft 36-43 Prom Lost 65-79 Timpvlew Girls basketball Result Opponent Won 55-47 Gillette, Wyo. Won 68-59Casper Natrona. Wyo. Won 60-54Cheyenne Central Won 66-52 West Jordan Data 1212 1214 Date 1213 1214 1215 1218 Wrestling Date Result Opponent 1213 Lost 33-39 Lehl Upcoming games Boys basketball Date Opponent Time 1226-29 Desert Heat Classic TBA Data 103 Date t05 Date 1220 109 Girls basketball Opponent Time Skyline 7 p.m. Wrestling Opponent Time Cavemen Duals TBA Swimming Opponent Time fii Kearns 3:30 p m. Pleasant Grove 3:30 p.m. BEKY BEATONNorth County American Fork's Michael Hortman (top) works to control Lehi's Chad Sloan in the 145 weight class match on Dec. 13. Hortman pinned his opponent with 22 seconds left in the first period After a broken clavicle, Caveman team captain Michael Hortman hasn't given up Basketball Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT American Fork wrestler Michael Hortman was on a roll when he experienced a season-interrupting injury at last weekend'a Viewmont Invitational. Invi-tational. A move-in from Texas who is also a team captain, the senior said, "I was wrestling in the semifinals against Matt Brown of Cyprus when I broke my clavicle in the second period. pe-riod. "I felt some pain, but I was so filled with adrenaline that I wrestled clear to the end of the "I felt some pain, but I was so filled with adrenaline that I wrestled clear to the end of the match. I escaped twice from Brown. He beat me 7-2. This is the first time I've broken a bone in my life. I was pretty bummed about it after my loss." American Fork wrestler Michael Hortman On the match in which he broke his clavicle match. I escaped twice from Brown. He beat me 7-2. This is the first time I've broken a bone in my life. I was pretty bummed about.it after my loss." That was his first defeat since his family's move from Azle, Texas, earlier this year. He had notched 13 victories to that point in the 145 weight class. "I'll not be wrestling until the Rocky Mountain Rumble next month," Hortman said. American Fork coach Stan Kitchen said, "Up until his injury, he was unbeaten. He works hard. He came with a lot of experience to add to the program. "He's one of our captains. We'll miss him, but it's better to have the injury occur now than in January," the coach said. Hortman has been wrestling for most of his life. He recalled, "I started wrestling when I was four years old. Our wrestling wres-tling club was called the Azle Hornets. I wrestled with them until I finished eighth grade. "I joined my high school's wrestling program when I was in ninth grade. Our high school didn't have a wrestling program until I was in seventh grade." See HORTMAN, Page 10 AF girls turn up defense against W. Jordan Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY The American Fork girls basketball basket-ball team allowed scrappy West Jordan to play with them for a while on Tuesday night, but the Cavemen turned up the defense in the second half and kept up their torrid scoring to earn a 66-52 home victory over the Jaguars. After American Fork built a 12-7 lead halfway through the first quarter, quar-ter, West Jordan fought back and hit a trey at the buzzer to tie the score at 17 to end the period. The Cavemen started the second quarter on a 9-0 run fueled by a . Haley Holmstead trey and including baskets from three other players. The Jaguars responded once again with six unanswered points, but a couple of nice inside shots -from Makenzie Moea'l off feeds from Kaycee Mansfield and Amy Krommenhoek sent American Fork to the locker room up 32-28. The Cavemen opened the third with a 12-2 spurt aided by defensive rebounding and steals. West Jordan only managed to get four shot opportunities op-portunities during that stretch and converted just one of them. The Jaguars narrowed the gap to 44-37 by the end of the period, but they were never able to get any closer as American Fork kept the pressure up until the final whistle, even with subs on the floor. Nikki Ybarra held Gabriela Rodriguez, Rodri-guez, one of the Jaguars' leading scorers, to only six points in the game and American Fork proved to have more firepower. Holmstead led the Cavemen with 23 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and six steals on the night. Mansfield added 15, Moea'i nine, Ybarra eight and Krommenhoek seven for the home team. "We did a little better job of defending de-fending in the second half," said coach Corey Clayton. "We still have lots of things we need to work on that way. "It helps, though, that we're hard to guard," he added. "We won that game because we outscored them, not because we stopped them." The coach added that it was good ywA - - p" ; I f M t 4r . "v- ' standings Games through 1218 Boys Region 4 School Region record Overall record Pleasant Grove 0-0 6-0 Lone Peak 0 0 5-1 Spanish Fork 0-0 5-2 American Fork 0-0 1-3 Timpanogos 0-0 1-5 Lefil o-O t-5 Reaiofi 7 School Region record Overall record Mountain View 0-0 6-2 Timpvlew 0-0 5-1 Orem o-O 3-2 Provo o-O 3-2 Spnngvllle 0-0 4-3 Tooele 0-0 2-4 Payson o-O t-5 Girls Realon 4 School Region record Overall record American Fork 0-0 9-0 Lone Peak 0 0 8-0 Pleasant Grove 0 0 5-5 Timpanogos 0 0 4-3 Lehl o-O 3-4 Spanish Fork 0 0 1-7 Reoion 7 School Region record Overall record Provo 0-0 6-1 Mountain View 0-0 4-1 Springvllle o-O 4-1 Tooele o-O s-2 Orem 0-0 4-3 Timpvlew 0-0 2-2 Payson 0-0 2-4 to have Makenzie Moea'i back in the lineup after she missed the tournament last week. "She did some nice things on the floor for us tonight," he said. Flaming Gorge Tournament Even though the weather was less than hospitable and the opponents oppo-nents were shooting the lights out, the undefeated Cavemen remained unscathed in one of the largest high school basketball tournaments west of the Mississippi last week. The Flaming Gorge Classic in Green River, Wyo,, featured more than 70 boys and girls varsity and JV squads from 20 different high schools, representing Wyoming, Utah and Colorado. These teams competed in 104 games in three days using three schools and six different gyms. uur girls represented our beky BEATONNorth county school, community and state very American Fork's Taylor Jones takes a shot while o r, ,n Prov'CJ. Thornton attempts to draw a charge See REWIND, Page 10 onDec.12. 6 Stats. Players. Stories. -fv? L |