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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black A10 Sanpete Messenger / Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition With nary a scratch Templars face difficult closing week, emerge on top of Region 12 Staff writer Associate editor (See “Templars” on A13) SEAN HALES / MESSENGER PHOTO Manti’s Josh Hugentobler (in white) gets fouled while driving the paint against Richfield last Wednesday. The Templars faced stiff Region 12 competition against Richfield and South Sevier last week and emerged undefeated, 65-60 and 67-50, respectively. City rec programs promote successful secondary athletes By Karmal Mandel Staff writer MANTI—How does North Sevier High School, drawing from the small city of Salina and a few even smaller surrounding towns, always seem to field top girls’ sports teams? Is it raw talent? Inspired coaching? Or does it reflect municipal recreation programs that enable kids to start developing sports skills in elementary school. Compared to cities such as Nephi, Mt. Pleasant, Salina and Richfield, all of whom have full-time youth recreation directors, Manti and even Ephraim appear to be Johnny-come-latelies in youth sports. Brady Edwards, recreation director at the North Sevier Recreation Center in Salina, which serves Salina, Aurora and Redmond, says, “We have all kinds of youth activities in which kids of all ages can participate.” The program, he says, has turned out high school state contenders year after year. In addition to Junior Jazz competition, the North Sevier program sponsors fun shoots, in which youth in third through eighth grades compete on free throws and three-point shots. Another event is a Turkey Shoot, a holiday competition where turkeys are given away as prizes. The Junior Jazz season at the North Sevier Recreation Center runs from November to February. This year there are five teams for fifth grade girls alone. In contrast, Manti and Ephraim (See “Youth” on A12) Lady Hawks’ season over with loss to Carbon Dinos By Scott Bagley Staff writer MT. PLEASANT—The North Sanpete Lady Hawks finished the season with a 45-60 home loss to the Delta Rabbits last Thursday. Templar girls in second place heading into region tourney By Karmal Mandel By Sean Hales MONROE—With wins last week over Richfield, 65-60 at home on Wednesday and over South Sevier, 67-50 away on Friday, the Manti Templars emerged victorious and in undisputed possession of first place in Region 12. Going into last week’s games, Manti held the top spot in the region, but in a tie for second and only one game away from first place, the Richfield and South Sevier teams had the motivation and potential to knock the Templars from their pinnacle. The potential of the situation wasn’t wasted on Richfield, which came out and opened up a sizeable lead early in the game. The Templars started the game impatiently, and tried to drive inside with few passes, while Richfield’s defense was still in position. The result for the Templars was poor shots and turnovers after the Wildcat defense collapsed to trap Manti under the basket. Richfield was also out-rebounding Manti, which led to second chances and an 11-4 lead with just over three minutes left in the first quarter. Richfield continued to dominate until they had produced a 17-point lead, 25-8. However, that was that. Templar Taylor Salanoa, who produced 24 of his game-high 28 points in the second and third quarters, started Manti’s comeback with a steal that he turned into two, and a 3-pointer on Manti’s subsequent possession. Manti’s defense pulled together to stop a Wildcat offense that had scored at will, and to force three consecutive turnovers for six points. Wednesday, February 16, 2005 The loss finished a dismal 316 season for the Lady Hawks. The Hawks went 0-8 in region play and will not be seeing any post-season action this year. Following a familiar pattern, the Lady Hawks played hard to stay alive in the first quarter. But as in The North Sanpete Wrestling Team would like to thank wrestling sponsors,coaches, and staff that help make their tournament a success. Jimmy & Annette Jacobson, Norms Repair, Mountain Land Supply, Fred & Audrey’s, Home Plate, Terrels Bakery, Farmer’s Country Floral,Beck’s Auto Service, Moroni Feed Company, Comstock Monogram, Sanpete Steel, Beck’s Appliance, Big Pine Sports, Jackson Electric, Pepsi Salina, Skyline Pharmacy, Mountainland Irrigation, C.J. Walker & Sons Inc., Utah’s Premier Roofing Authority, Clawson Excavating, Jake Simmons, Jim & Helen Thorton, Jim & Marliyn Bean, Walkers, Don Gocoletto, Fountain Green Lamb Day, Greg Stewart Wood Working, James Nielsen Construction, Birch Creek Gardens, Peckham Asphalt & Paving Inc., Action Transmission, Chad & Nicole Sunderland, Casey’s Cafe, Far West Bank, Cal & Dodie McNie, most of their season games, the opposing team had a strong second period and outscored North Sanpete 21-11 for a halftime deficit for the Hawks, 23-31. After the half it was all Delta. The Rabbits started with a strong lead and kept to it for a final score of 60-45. The Rabbits had three players in double-digits, but once again, no player could stay up with Hawk Aagard’s game-high 22 points. Holly Christensen ended the game with 13 points. Lacey Collard had four, Laney Jacobsen had three, Toni Garlick had two and Skylar Dunn ended with one point. The loss against Delta was the girls’ second game last week. They played against the Carbon Dinos on Tuesday and suffered a 45-68 loss. Aagard ended her senior season with 334 points, averaging 18 points per game, Which makes her the second leading scorer in 3A girls’ basketball. Senior Holly Christensen finished her season with 90 points, averaging about five points per game. The four juniors for the Lady (See “Lady Hawks” on A13) MANTI—The Templar girls’ basketball team won two key games last week against South Sevier at home on Thursday, 47-33, and then at Richfield on Tuesday, 43-24. After the wins, Manti was tied with South Sevier for second place in the region. Manti won the coin toss that decided region tournament seeding, and will enter the tournament in second place. Thursday, the Templars hosted South Sevier for their last home game of the season. Seniors Lori Johnson, Holli Harman and Karen Johnson were recognized, along with the senior cheerleaders and coaches. The Rams held the Templars close in the first half of 16-17 going into intermission. But the Templars pulled ahead during the third and fourth quarters of the game despite the Rams’ strong center, Kascee Jacobs, who had a total of 15 points and eight rebounds. Templar Kelsie Johnson had a game high four assists, along with four steals, three rebounds and three points. Sili Hafoka pulled down eight rebounds, four of them offensive, and had 14 points and several blocked shots. Despite her size, Kassi Tucker had an impressive five rebounds and led the Templars with 15 points. Other scores for the Templars were McKenzie Whipple with seven, Candalyn Kjar with two and Andrea Litteral with six. On Tuesday, the Templars traveled to Richfield, for an easy win over the Wildcats. Kelsie Johnson had her best game of the season and led the Templars with 13 points. Litteral followed with eight points, Tucker with seven, Whipple with six, Hafoka with five and Lori Jonson with 2. The Lady Templars now head to region, which will be held at Snow College Feb. 18. They will play against fourth-ranked Juab at 1:30 p.m. at the Activity Center. Hawks heading to playoffs after 60-35 thrashing of Carbon By Doug Johnson Staff writer MT. PLEASANT—The North Sanpete Hawks took care of business in a big way Wednesday evening, swamping the Carbon Dinos 60-35. Combined with Carbon’s loss to Lehi on Friday night, the win put North Sanpete into the 3-A playoffs and ended Carbon’s season. The Hawks could have tied Delta for third place on Friday night, but a 41-39 win by the Rabbits gave them sole possession of third and put North Sanpete into fourth place. Delta will travel to Pine View this week in the opening round of the playoffs while North Sanpete will face Region 9 champion Snow Canyon. The Hawks stormed to a 14-3 lead after the first quarter Wednesday, as Carbon was able to connect on only one field goal. Tight defense by the Hawks kept Carbon stumbling through the whole game. “That’s as good as I’ve seen us stay in front of guys on man-to-man defense,” Hawk Coach Derek Farr said. Eric Watson drained a couple of 16-foot jumpers to start the game and John Anderson nailed a threepointer as the first quarter ended, taking the Hawks to an 11-point lead. Kyle Poulson pulled down five of his game-high 12 rebounds in the period to keep Carbon from getting second chances. North Sanpete went cold in the second quarter, however, and a pair of late Dino field goals brought Carbon to within 10 at halftime, 2111. Anderson scored five points and Casey Cox followed that with back-to-back driving layups to stretch the Hawk lead to 19 just two minutes into the second half, and Carbon never got close again. The BRUCE VAN DER RIET / MESSENGER PHOTO North Sanpete’s John Anderson (number one, in white) blocks the shot of a Carbon player on the way to a 60-35 win, and a berth in the 3-A Region 8 playoffs. Dinos committed 20 turnovers in the game, which kept them from mounting any kind of serious comeback. Senior players John Anderson, Casey Cox, Eric Watson, Brian Lindow, Kyle Poulson and Tyler Anderson, along with their parents, were honored prior to their final home game as Hawks. Although it was a midweek game, a huge contingent of North Sanpete students was on hand to honor the seniors and kept the gym lively throughout the contest. “It was neat to see that many students at the game,” Farr said. John Anderson led all scorers with 16 points. Watson scored 10, Cox had nine and Poulson and Austin Jorgensen each added seven. All five scored more than any Carbon player: three Dinos, including Schyler Nammany, made six points. Nammany killed the Hawks in the first meeting between the teams when he canned five 3-pointers, including four-for-four in the first half. This time around, North Sanpete’s Tyler Anderson played tight man defense on Nammany and the Dino sharpshooter man(See “Hawks” on A13) |
