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Show Thursday, February 1, 2007 Page 8 0 R E M TIMES COMMUNITY SPORTS. PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FUN Orem's Hall sterling example of a student-athlete Jared Lloyd If a novelist attempted to create a character that would tx- described as the pencil male high school student -athlete, here are a few of the criteria cri-teria that he would probably consider: I He must excel and Ik- a leader in multiple sports, a hard worker who the coaches could count on I He would need to do well in school and be esteemed by his teachers. I I )e should U- admired and liked bv his peers, w ho he would treat respectfully. He would treat his family with love and maturity. I He would be tall, handsome hand-some and attractive to the ladies. I He must have a flair for the dramatic, but not be cocky alxut his abilities. I He would be a fine role model for younger student-athletes. student-athletes. After listing these qualities, most authors would probably throw it away, figuring that such a persona would be unrealistic unre-alistic and impossible for the readers to relate to. Hut not at Orem High. It has Tiger senior forward Mike Hall. "(Hall) exemplifies what a student -athlete should be," said Orem head basketball coach Mike Conner. "In 25 years of coaching, I've never coached a better human being." All of the above traits describe de-scribe the talented senior, t hough he would be quick to shrug off the praise. "He's a great kid," said ()rem senior guard Timo Valimaki. "He's very on top of things. He does great in school. He has his priorities straight." Hall was pushed into the v. :. ,. tkt, 'd , spotlight against Timpview on Jan. 12 when he hit an 85-foot 85-foot desperation heave to beat the Thunderbirds. That video has been watched more than 31,000 times on the Web site YouTube.com since it was made available to the public almost two weeks ago. "I've probably seen it as many times as it has been watched on YouTube," Hall joked. "I just laugh because I know it was completely lucky. Every time I see it go in, jeremy HARMONNorth county though, it's cool to think that it Orem's Mike Hall recently hit a last-second 3-pointer, seen on the happened." screen behind him, to give his team a victory over Timpview. The video, which can be seen on YouTube.com, has been See HALL, Page 10 viewed more than 30,000 times. Orem girls basketball downs Lions Jeff Mathewson Overcoming an injury to one of your star players and winning win-ning a basketball game is never an easy thing to do. Unless you're the Orem Tigers Ti-gers 1 )espite losing senior Natasha Martin in the first minute of the game, the T igers continued to roll, blowing past Payson 64-37 on "I uesday night in Region 7. ( )n her team's third possession posses-sion of the game. Martin aggressively aggres-sively attacked the basket and was sent hard to the floor. Slie didn't get back up. but stayed on the floor clutching her ankle in pain. "She thought her foot snapped," said Orem coach Ross Reid. "It was a big blow to our team, no doubt about it ." Inspired by their fallen teammate, team-mate, the Tigers ( 13-4 overall, (-0 region) went to work. Ix-d by the dominant play of senior Jamie Sagers, the home team jumiied out to a commanding com-manding 21-K lead after the first quarter. Sagers worked her magic in tlx- first frame, dropping 10 of her IK points on fourof-5 shooting. shoot-ing. "She hits good hands and a nice touch," Reid said. "When she wants to play well, she plays well and we obviously saw it." The rest of the Tigers found their touch as well, shooting an impressive (13 percent from the field on 10-of-lf) shooting. ( )rem continued to flex its offensive of-fensive muscle, looking to junior Bnanne Ljirsen to make up for the loss of Martin. Larsen tormented the Lions, sinking multiple outside shots to score 1 1 of her 15 points in the first half. "firianne stepped up and filled in to make up for Natasha's points." Reid said. "She hit some big shots in the first half for as and had a great game." Pay-son ( H-9, 24) tried to chip away at )rem's big halftime lead, applying a full-court press to stall the second half. The press paid off for the Lions, as they forced eight turnovers turn-overs in the third quarter alone. Unfortunately for the silver and green, it couldn't convert at the other end, making just 24 percent of its shots from the field ( 13-of-55). and having only one player, Keera Crouch (11 points) score in double figures. Orem's persist ent offease capitalized cap-italized on Pay son's misfortunes, riding the huge second half of Jessica Saliby (20 points), to roll to the convincing victory. Despite the win. all thoughts were turned towards the health status of Martin. "We don't know what it is yet." Reid said. "She has a history his-tory of having a bad foot but we're still not sure if it's her ankle or not." mm we LD (CHAMP ml ARN0 BALZARINIAssociated Press Gold-medal winner Noelle Pikus-Pace, an Orem native, reacts with tears of joy shortly after crossing the finishing line to win the women's skeleton world championship at the Olympia Bobrun in St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Friday. Pikus-Pace takes gold at skeleton world championship Tim Reynolds THf AVtUC lATf D f'f'l V, A year later than she wanted. Noelle Pikus-Pace Pikus-Pace has her gold medal. Pikus-Pace, who missed the 2006 Turin Olympics after breaking her right leg in a training accident, took the women's skeleton world championship champion-ship at St. Moritz, Switzerland, on Friday Fri-day in dominating fashion. She beat Olympic gold medalist Maya Pedersen, who was racing on her home track, by 1.56 seconds the biggest victory margin in the event's history. "I had tears in my eyes even before my last run and all I was thinking about was Feb. 16, 2006," Pikus-Pace told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, inter-view, referring to last year's Olympic skeleton race. "That big margin is strictly because of the motivation I had in me, my desire, my mindset." She was fastest in all four heats of the two-day event, finishing with a combined time of 4 minutes, 44. 13 seconds sec-onds and capping the performance with a track-record run of 1:10.34 which works out to doing 83 mph headfirst down the icy track. And then the tears really started flowing. "I couldn't keep it in any more, so I just broke down and started crying," Pikus-Pace said. "People thought it was because I was so excited about winning win-ning and overcome with joy. But it was more than that for me. It was about this journey." Pikus-Pace, of Orem became the first American women's skeleton racer to win the gold at either an Olympics or world championships since Tristan Gale prevailed at the Salt Lake Games in 2002. She was one of two U.S. medalists; med-alists; current World Cup leader Katie Uhlaender was third, 0.16 seconds behind be-hind Pedersen. "It's been awesome sliding with Noelle," No-elle," Uhlaender said. "We definitely push each other to be better." The overall World Cup champion in 2005, Pikus-Pace saw her Olympic Olym-pic plans derailed when she was See PACE, Page 10 "I couldn't keep it in any more, so I just broke down and started crying. cry-ing. People thought it was because I was so excited about winning and overcome with joy. But it was more than that for me. It was about this journey." Noelle Pikus-Pace ON WINNING THE WOMEN'S WORLD SKELETON RACE LAST WEEK Bruins, T'Wolves looking for strong individual Derformances at Region 4 meet Russ Lyman NORTH COUNTY In a region that's dominated domi-nated by powerhouses Pleasant Grove, Lone Peak and Spanish Fork, schools like Mountain View and Timpanogos have to fight for everything they get. Although it's highly unlikely that either school will bring home a team title in today's Region 4 wrestling tournament at Timpanogos, each school has several individual wrestlers wres-tlers with a chance to be region champs. The Bruins have fought through injuries and inexperience inexperi-ence all season, but still look to finish the season on a positive note. "We've had some great individual in-dividual performances, but it's been a little frustrating that we've had to deal with all of the injuries," said Mountain View coach Robert Stoddard. "Generally the Mountain View kids have wrestled well at region and really well at state, so we're looking to finish this season on a strong point." Leading the way for Mountain Moun-tain View will be sophomore Jake Frederickson. Frederick-son Frederick-son was a relative unknown until he burst onto the scene with an impressive second-place second-place finish at the Rocky Mountain Rumble. His performance perfor-mance at the Rumble, together with several strong showings in the region dual meets, have helped establish Frederickson as the favorite to win the 103-pound 103-pound title. "He's just a good kid and a really hard worker," said Mountain View coach Robert Stoddard. "He's the only kid that has not missed one practice prac-tice or one match due to injury. He really wants to do well in wrestling." Other region contenders for the Bruins include Clay Frost in the tough 135-pound division, divi-sion, 119-pounder Bryce Flo-rea, Flo-rea, Gabe Raeder at 140, Chris Ferguson at 152, and if healthy, Corbin Frost at 160 pounds. Frost injured his shoulder at the Rocky Mountain Rumble and whether or not he will compete remains a question. Winning region will be an especially tough task for Fk rea, who is in the same weight as defending state champion Paul Johnson from Lone Peak. "This is my third year coaching coach-ing him and he's wrestling as well as he ever has," Stoddard said. "He had a close match with Johnson earlier this year. If he keeps wrestling well he could place at state." Although Timpanogos is the host of the event, it's unlikely that the T'Wolves will be well ?!? ('fr,ii2nr, is? I- .v j 1 See WRESTLING, Page 10 Looking For a Great Richard K. Sharp, M.D. DryCreek Family Practice 766-4214 We Accept Most A Insurance Plans lT! -.. IPO |