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Show AMERICAN FORK CITIZEN Page 7 pre COMMUNITY SPORTS, PEOPLE AND OUTDOOR FU N Josh Reynolds Amercan Fork High School Thursday, January 31, 2008 rn n Jared Lloyd and Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY The American Fork swim team finished second in the girls division and third in the boys events at the Region 4 swimming meet, which concluded con-cluded at the Lehi Legacy Center Cen-ter on Saturday. The Lone Peak girls were in control most of the way and ended up with 522 points, followed fol-lowed by American Fork (401). Lehi (,'57), Pleasant Grove (228) and Spanish Fork (203). On the boys side, Lone Peak ended up at 4f)l, 74 points in front of the Pioneers (417), while the Cavemen (347.5) came in third. Pleasant Grove (237) and Spanish Fork (235.5) rounded out the team standings. stand-ings. Coach Kathy King didn't expect her team to beat Lone Peak's manpower, but she still had plenty to smile about. "Nearly all of our kids swam their season-best times at this meet," she explained. "A few may even have snuck into the .,. See SWIM, Page 8 A never quit' Beky Beaton NORTH COUNTY He's still just 16, but don't let his age, laid-back conversation or surfer-boy looks fool you. American Fork swimmer McKay King transforms into something else entirely as soon as he hits the water. "1 le's a fierce competitor," ' said Nikki Xanthos, one of his club coaches with the Hilltop Aquatic Swim Team. "He's definitely the type of guy that every coach dreams of having on a team. "He makes comebacks that other people think are impossible," impos-sible," she went on. "After watching him do it time and time again, I've learned to expect ex-pect it. He puts people in awe when he swims. BEKY BEATONNorth County Nikki Ybarra of American Fork gets ready to throw the bull into the paint on Tuesday. (f : j V J I c 'J i f Local schools look at Jared Lloyd NORTH COUNTY Many a school teacher has perused the first draft of a student's stu-dent's paper and noted a number num-ber of grammatical, factual andor organizational issues. The instructor knows the student's main goal was just getting the assignment done, but will still give plenty of feedback feed-back on ways the document could be improved. In a similar fashion, the Utah High School Activities Association Associa-tion Board of Trustees has put together the first draft for the realignment of member institu it J! ' Matt otelberry of American Fork on Saturday. effort powers "He has a lot of the same qualities shared by all great swimmers," Xanthos added. "He has determination and a great work ethic, and he has some definite goals in mind." That's no surprise, really. McKay is the son of David and Kathy King and comes from an impressive line of swimmers. swim-mers. His mother is also his high school coach, and she and his older sister Melynne were responsible for getting him started in the sport. "I was in the summer recreation recre-ation league when I was nine," he said. "I joined HAST that fall, and I've been in it ever , since." Swimming doesn't have the macho image of some bigger-name bigger-name sports, but the things that King said motivate him 4 Sf Am. Fork girls basketball remains Eric May SPORTS CORRESPONDENT Comparatively undersized, the American Fork girls basketball bas-ketball team had no problem frustrating the towering inside game of the Vikings as the Cavemen rolled to another dominating road win 6842 on Friday. Pleasant Grove came into the game armed with 6-foot -6 sophomore Jennifer Hamson and 6-3 senior Sarah Clement. But height doesn't trump speed, offensive execution and defensive defen-sive pressure, as the Vikings quickly discovered. American Fork junior guard Haley Holmstead helped keep the game tempo high in the second sec-ond quarter after a slow start for both teams. Scoring the majority of her 21 points off of turnovers and steals, the quickness of Holmstead Hol-mstead and her teammates to get up and down the court and score points off fast breaks ne tions that will take effect in 2009. Three schools would stay in the 5A ranks American Fork, Lone Peak and Pleasant Grove and would be moved into a region with a trio of south Salt Lake powers in Alta, Brighton and Jordan. The remaining Utah Valley high schools are estimated to be in the 4A ranks, including the three new schools opening in the next two years. The five southern schools would be in one region, with Timpview, Provo, Orem, Mountain View, Timpanogos, Lehi and the new Saratoga Springs in another. it " ? r t j ' swims the first leg of the boys 200 King as a leader in the water are no different than what other athletes would claim. "I like the rush of adrenaline when you're racing people," he said. "The thrill of competition competi-tion is why I come to practice. When I think about my goals and look towards championship champion-ship meets, that pushes me to work harder than I ever have before." He's also had great help from his older brother and role model Michael who also helps coach him. "I have great respect for him," McKay said. "He tells me what I need to do and I go do it because he knows best. He helps me to keep my focus on swimming for athletics, but I try to be well-rounded in everything ev-erything I do." King dreams of one day gated the height advantage of Pleasant Grove and alleviated the Cavemen's need to run a half -court offense early. There was nothing fancy about their game plan, but American Fork coach Corey Clayton was happy with its execution. ex-ecution. "Keep them off the glass, make them shoot from the outside out-side and limit the put backs," Clayton said. "That's what we do and that's what we did tonight. We had spots where we didn't play with much passion pas-sion and they took advantage, but we stiffened defensively. That's what we do too." The start of the second half found the score and momentum momen-tum in the Cavemen's favor at 30-16. The Vikings came out of the locker room demanding the half -court tempo, and quickly scored eight straight points off of consecutive plays from Clement on the inside. Clement Clem-ent finished the game with 19 points and nine rebounds. UHSAA first draft realignment It's far from final, but Utah Valley administrators and coaches already have some thoughts about ways it could be better. One concern voiced at all the schools was competitive competi-tive balance. Under the current proposal, the two northern 5A regions would have one or two dominant domi-nant teams playing a weak schedule, with some teams getting playoff berths ahead of stronger teams in the other regions. Ultra-competitive Region 4 is going to face this issue next See UHSAA, Page 9 - yard freestyle relay at the Region 4 swimming championship H t reaching the Olympic trials, but he knows some other things must come first. "This year or before I'm out of high school, I hope to qualify for junior or senior nationals," he explained. "In the meantime, the one thing in my mind is the state meet. I want to be champion in at least one of my events." King swims the 100 and 200 freestyles, and also participates partici-pates on the 200 medley and 400 free relay teams. "To achieve that will be really tough, but I like a challenge," chal-lenge," King said. His top competition com-petition will be Josh Tanner of Skyline and Jordan Fletcher of West Jordan. King has beaten other rivals this season but has See KING, Page 8 That run to start the half would be the last look at the lead that Pleasant Grove had. The Cavemen returned to their fast -break play and went on to finish the quarter on a 20-2 run. American Fork junior Kay-cee Kay-cee Mansfield had 16 points, 14 of them scored in the second half, which helped keep the Vikings Vi-kings from mounting a comeback. come-back. Mansfield also finished with 13 rebounds. The defensive play from the 5-10 junior also earned praise from the coach. "We have a 5-10 player guarding a 6-6 player in there and she (Mansfield) just came out, played hard and caused turnovers. And we, as a team, took advantage," Clayton said. The Cavemen finished 2 1-for-31 from the line to help their cause as the Vikings only attempted nine free throws. Cydne Mason, Kylie Allen and Lindie Spencer all sank treys in the contest. I Jan. 29 - American Fork 69, 5 1 A " ... i'A mario RuizNonh County American Fork's Taylor Judd tees off at the lllh hole during the first day of the state 5A High School Golf championships at Soldier Hollow on Oct. 1, 2007. CRAIG DILGERNorth County i " I BEKY BEATONNorth County American Fork's McKay King is one of the captains of the boys swim team even though he's still a sophomore. unbeaten Spanish Fork 46: At American Fork, the Cavemen kept their perfect season alive, using 17 points from Haley Holmstead and 14 points from Kaycee Mansfield to blow past the Dons in Region 4 action. "When you score 69 points, you're going to win most of the time," said coach Corey Clayton. "I was really worried about this game; they're a good team, long and strong." Not strong enough, however, howev-er, to get past American Fork's smooth, breathless offense and seamless defense. The Cavemen took the Dons out mentally right from the start as they sprinted out to a 25-10 lead in just the first quarter quar-ter behind 11 points from Amy Krommenhoek, who sank three triples in the period. "We started well offensively, but then we gave up 20 points in the second quarter," Clayton said. "We haven't done that See REWIND, Page 8 Year: Junior Age: 16 Sport: Basketball Position: Point guard Favorite food: Crab Favorite restaurant: Legal Seafood Sea-food Favorite movie: Anchorman Favorite magazine: Sports Illustrated Il-lustrated Favorite sports team: Boston Red Sox Hero: Matt Ramierez Favorite class: English Most memorable career moment: mo-ment: Winning at a Christmastime Christmas-time tournament in California. Future plans: To hit the weight room after this basketball season. sea-son. Coach Doug Meacham said: "Josh has great point-guard skills. He understands how to push the ball up ahead of him and he has great court vision. He's become an excellent 3-point 3-point shooter as well. He's made a lot of progress this year and we're looking forward to having him help run our offense next year." i eye AF TRACK Caveman Track Club shows well at Weber State Invitational Members of the Caveman Track Club placed high in several events at the Weber State University Indoor Track and Field Invitational held in Ogden last weekend. The top placer for American Ameri-can Fork was Ben Felix, who took second in the 3200m run with a time of 10:01.18. The girls 4x800m relay team of Danielle West Mc-Call Mc-Call Harward, Shay Baugh and Erminia Martinez placed third in 11:06.22. Daniel Litchford placed seventh sev-enth in the shot put, throwing throw-ing 43-feet-3.5-inches. Ben Christensen and Alan Smith came in eighth and 14th, respectively, re-spectively, in the 55m hurdles with times of 8.55 and 8.84 seconds. West and Alexis Laws placed seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 1600m run with times of 5:40.86 and 5:41.60. They were followed by McCall Harward, 18th in 6:00.60, Shay Baugh, 21st in 6:06.62, and Erminia Martinez, Marti-nez, 2th in 6:22.65. Kristi Wallen placed 20th in the 55m Hurdles with a time of 10.16 seconds. The Cavemen have the Utah High School Coaches Association Championships this Friday and Saturday at BYU. Stats. Players. Stories. I ( |
