OCR Text |
Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 7 COMMUNITY SPORTS, PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FUN Thursday, December 6, 2007 n n n ri n F Hard work boys basketball coach Doug Dean Von Memmott SPORTS CORRESPONDENT Yes, American Fork basketball bas-ketball player Greg Meacham is coach Doug Meacham's little brother. However, that wasn't the reason Greg got his starting point guard position for the Cavemen's endowment game against Wasatch Nov. 30. Doug said, "I'm glad Greg proved himself in practice that he had earned the privilege to start tonight. He worked on his shots in practice prac-tice and did a lot of lifting in the weight room to make himself strong enough for the physical play involved in basketball." bas-ketball." Greg said he knew Doug wasn't going to put him on the starting team because of their blood ties. The senior said, "Through practice, I had to prove that I could outplay other guys. It's been really a growing experience for me." Greg said the competition for starting positions has been really tough this year. The senior se-nior added, "We have a really strong team this year. We have a deep bench. This year I will play point guard, forward and shooting guard. The position I play depends on which team we go up against on a given night. Against Wasatch tonight, I'm going to be a point guard." Despite never having started in a varsity game until this year, Greg demonstrated that he could perform well as a Caveman commander on the floor. During the Wasatch . game, he scored his first 12 points through sinking four straight treys. He went on to become the night's top scorer with 25 points. The Wasatch contest did prove he has much potential poten-tial to become a prep player to Cavemen girls hoops rolls past Highland Ethan Thomas SPORTS CORRESPONDENT Not many high school basketball bas-ketball games are decided within the first quarter of Play-But Play-But when the American Fork girls team jumped out on Highland in the opening moments of Tuesday night's contest, it was only a sign of things to come as the Cavemen Cave-men ran the Rams out of the gym by winning 86-28. "It's hard to get a lot out of a game like that other than confidence," American Fork head coach Corey Clayton said. American Fork appeared to be plenty confident as they dominated from the get-go. Several steals led to easy fast-break opportunities and before the Rams could settle down, the Cavemen led 13-0. Chanel Roe got Highland on the board when she tossed in a putback layup. But just moments after that, American Fork guard Amy Krommen-hoek Krommen-hoek hit a deep three from the left elbow to get the Cavemen rolling again. American Fork led 22-7 at the end of the first quarter, and while it was only a 15point lead, it was apparent that the Cavemen Cave-men were on a different level than the visitors. "When we are hitting shots, playing defense and working as a team, I think we are as good as anybody," Clayton said. In the second quarter, Caveman Cave-man forward Kaycee Mansfield Mans-field took over as she scored five points in a row to extend the lead to 32-12. From there, Highland struggled to hit anything and American Fork went on a 15-3 15-3 run to close out the half at 47-15. The third quarter didn't get any easier for the road team. American Fork held the Rams scoreless throughout the entire third quarter, while the Cavemen got several easy baskets off of turnovers. The most exciting moment rwnifflj in vmctice helvs Greg Meacham. vouneer brother ofAF MARK JOHNSTONNorth County American Fork's Greg Meacham, center, the younger brother of coach Greg Meacham, earned his first start in a varsity game this season and has become a leader for the Cavemen. watch this winter. "The point guard is the general gen-eral on the floor," Greg said. "He has to know what right plays to call out at the right times." Basketball is not the only rewin came midway through the third quarter when American Fork guard Cydne Mason completed a rare four-point play by getting fouled on a breakaway layup that she made, and was then awarded an intentional foul and two free throws. By the end of the third quarter the score was 72-15 and all of the Cavemen starters start-ers were done for the night. "We got a lot of minutes for people that probably won't get many minutes in some of the other games, so that was nice," Clayton said. "We have just got to continue to execute our stuff no matter what the score is and who is in there. You feel bad about a game like that, but I can't tell kids to go in there and not do what we do." Reserves for both teams got minutes in the fourth quarter, as both teams tried to get their players some in-game experience. experi-ence. Mason led all scorers with 16 but Mansfield had 13 of her own to help lead the talented group of underclassmen underclass-men at American Fork. Fifteen Fif-teen American Fork players scored in the contest. Haley Holmstead and Makenzie Moea'i had nine apiece and Krommenhoek finished with eight. With a large group of juniors and a few talented sophomores on their roster, the Cavemen appear ap-pear to be in good hands for the next couple of years. "We are real young still," Clayton said. "But we are ready to be good now. Even though the girls are young they still have experience from playing varsity last year, so we try not to think about being young anymore." I Nov. 29 - American Fork 56, Davis 50: At American Fork, Kaycee Mansfield scored Meacham, earn a starting spot this season X asar? n&7 f ;... - it I .. f -:i Ufa J' .! -.ja f .,- fi) If sport Greg has participated in. When he was in grade school, he played baseball in American Fork's National League and on a traveling league team. During his last season with the National League, he American Fork's Kyle Sumsion, left, during a match on Tuesday. 25 points to lead the Cavemen past the Darts, who eliminated them from the 5A tournament last season. American Fork coach Corey Co-rey Clayton said, "In the state playoff game last season, we did well in the first half, but in the third and fourth quarters, we were struggling for looks. "Tonight, we had one of the best first halves in recent girls basketball history. We had great plays on both ends of the court. We handled their pressure really well. At the state tournament last year, we had 30 turnovers. We didn't have that many tonight. "Kaycee Mansfield was our top rebounder and scorer tonight," the coach continued. "She likes playing against Davis. Her performance was good news for us. Davis held Haley Holmstead to five points tonight. Tonight was the first time this season that Kaycee hit in double figures." The game opened with Da-. vis' Kelsy Campbell hitting an inside shot. Holmstead then sank a foul shot and a field goal to put American Fork ahead 3-2. A Campbell trey put the Darts ahead 5-3. Davis soon built up a 13-5 lead through Campbell and McKenzie Garrett's Gar-rett's shooting. A Nikki. Ybarra trey sparked a 9-4 scoring run 'a . ' played on an all-star team that won the Western Boys Baseball Association's Little League World Series. In the years that have passed since then, that squad has been the only one from the National CRAIG DILGERNorth County and Provo's Mick Ellis wrestle which positioned American Fork within 18-14. A Dani Hosking foul shot left Davis with a 19-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. Though the second quarter started with Hosking hitting another foul shot, Mansfield hit an inside shot to spark another an-other American Forker rally. Holmstead soon got the ball and passed it to Mansfield for another field goal. An Ybarra bucket tied the game at 20. Before American Fork could pull out in front, a Taylor Ryan foul shot put the Darts back ahead, and a Campbell trey improved the new Davis lead at 24-20. While Mansfield guided a Caveman comeback, Amy Krommenhoek juiced it up by sinking a trey which tied the game at 24. Mansfield broke the 24-24 draw, and the game turned into a seesaw fight. Ybarra nil two foul shots that kept American Fork ahead through the rest of the first half. At the end of it, though, Davis' Alii Blake stole the ball and passed to Hosk-ings Hosk-ings for a layup, shortening American Fork's lead to 30-29. While Maasfield remained too hot for Davis to cool down during the second half, Ybarra, Cydne Mason, Krommenhoek and Makenzie Moea'i contributed with re- Last year, I wasn't able to score. This year, I've been able to score and be a leader." Greg Meacham AMERICAN FORK GUARD League to have won that tournament. tour-nament. "I don't play baseball anymore," any-more," Greg said. "Playing it did create chemistry between me and the other guys on this year's team. A lot of the guys who played on that National League all-star team are now on this year's basketball team." Before Greg became involved in-volved in the Caveman basketball bas-ketball program, he played for the American Fork Junior High's ninth-grade boys team. The senior recalled, "That year, we won the county tournament at Canyon View. When we played at that tournament, tour-nament, we personally didn't like any of our opponents. In the years that followed, though, they all became my friends." Greg said that when he sets foot on a basketball court, I "block out what fans are saying, say-ing, and I focus only on what I'm doing and what the coach is telling me. "I was born when Doug was playing basketball for See MEACHAM, Page 8 bounds that kept the Cavemen ahead all through the third and fourth quarters. American Fork led by as far as 52-39 in the fourth quarter. quar-ter. The smallest margin that the Darts could shrink the point spread to was three in the second half. They received a serious blow when they lost Hosking midway through the fourth quarter. Clayton said, "We kept Dani Hosking to eight points tonight. She usually hits in double figures. Nikki Ybarra was the one we had guard her. Allie Blake hurt us with her boarding. Kekv Campbell hurt us with hn shooting." American hork's firm hold of the lead didn't discourage the Darts from staging a rally in the last 2 12 minutes. With the score reading 5240 for American Fork, Davis went on an 8-2 scoring run led by Campbell, Blake, and Courtney Court-ney Jarrell. After a Campbell inside shot had clipped the lead to 54-50, Krommenhoek hit two foul shots to seal the game for the Cavemen. Krommenhoek had 12 points, including a pair of treys, and Ybarra added eight points for American Fork Dean Von Memmott filed this report. Boys basketball I Nov. 30 - American Fork 67, Wasatch 45: The Cavemen opened their boys basketball season with a big win over the Wasps in an endowment game played at American Fork. While his little brother Greg Meacham led American Fork with 25 points, American Fork coach Doug Meacham said, "Ten points should go to the scheduler of this game. Wasatch had already played a couple of games coming into tonight. We came into this game fresh. We caught them on a night they were tired. See REWIND, Page 8 Liam Reading American Fork High School Parents: Bill and Renate Reading Year: Junior Age: 17 Birthplace: Switzerland Sport: Swimming Events: Freestyle races and 200-yard relays Favorite sports team: Boston Red Sox Favorite food: Pancakes Favorite restaurant: Taco Bell Favorite movie: The Lord of the Rings trilogy Favorite book: 77ie Wheel of Time series Hero: Spiderman Favorite class: Physics Grade Point Average: 4.0 Most memorable career moment: "Posting my best time in the 50 free at 26.69 seconds during the Utah County Invitational." Future plans: To attend college. American Fork head swimming coach Kathy King said: "Liam's strong. He's new to competitive swimming and he's learning what he needs to do to race well. He's willing to do whatever events I assign him to do. He's gone to great lengths to prove he can be a great freestyler." CROSSCOUNTRY Nine Cavemen earn medals at Footlocker regional championships Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY Nine members of the Ameri can Fork cross country program medaled at the Footlocker West Regional Cross-Country Champi onships Saturday in Walnut, Calif. The Cavemen were represented by 33 American Fork athletes in the 3.2 mile races, according to coach Timo Mostert. Although not earning a medal, Ben Felix placed 77th in the seeded boys race with a time of 16:11 and a 3-mile split of 15:08, one of the fastest 3-mile times in American Fork history, the coach said. He was the eighth-fastest boy from Utah. Audrey Lewis placed 44th in the girls 12th grade race in 20:53, while Evan Melville placed 26th in the senior boys race in 17:02. McCall Harward placed 28th in the girls 11th grade race in 20:07, and Ryan Bradshaw placed 17th in the boys 11th grade race in 16:52. Alexis Laws and Danielle West took fifth (19:10) and eighth place (19:23), respectively, in the 10th grade girls race, while Shawn Crane placed 14th in the boys 10th grade race in 17:21. Kaovae Belt placed 39th in the girls 9th grade race in 21:02. MacKenzie Morrison placed fifth in the eighth grade race (1.5 miles) in 8:01. Players. Stories. COPV |