Winter Roundup: Jan. 9-16

Park Hill Girls Basketball
…after a failed attempt at a come from behind victory to start the week against St. Joe Central, the Lady Trojans stepped up and got a road win against Lee’s Summit West to improve their record to 5-6 on the year. The 44-34 win was solidified in a fourth quarter in which the Trojans outscored the Titans 13-4. Kyleesha Weston led Park Hill in scoring with 20 points. Aiding the effort were contributions from Shelby Blanchard (6 points), K.K. Rettinger (5 points), and Davon Thomas (5 points).

“It was a great team win, everyone contributed,” Coach Aaron Neeser said. “We made some buckets when we needed to and that made the difference.”

The Lady Trojans found 11 to be their lucky number in the first round of the Basehor-Linwood Tournament Monday by scoring 11 points in all four quarters on their way to a 44-32 victory over Pembroke Hill. Dominique Broadus led the Trojans in scoring with 12 points The win brings Park Hill to 6-6 on the year and sets up a second round matchup on Thursday against the winner of Tuesday's Holton vs. Platte County.

Park Hill Boys Basketball
It has been a rough past week for the Park Hill Trojans as they suffered two bruising losses to conference opponents Lee’s Summit West and Truman. An undefeated Lee’s Summit West took a 12 point lead out of the first quarter earlier last week and never took their foot off the gas as they defeated Park Hill 75-53. Marcus Cross led the Trojans with 12 points while Garrett Wooldridge was close behind with 11 points. It didn’t get any better Friday night as Truman did the same thing dealing the Trojans a 72-44 lose. Cross led in scoring again with 10 points.

Park Hill is now 4-8 on the year and playing in the Basehor-Linwood Tournament this week, a tournament they were runners-up in last year after losing in the championship game to host school Basehor-Linwood.

Park Hill South Boys Basketball
Raytown South’s 7-5 record is deceiving as the Cardinals are probably one of the area’s top, which Park Hill South found out early last week in their 55-35 lose on the road. Held to single digit scoring in the first three quarters, the Panthers only featured one double digit scoring with Robert Lane who led with 12 points. Anthony Woods added eight points. Park Hill South is now 10-5 overall, with last week’s conference lose being their first of the season.

Park Hill South Girls Swimming
For the second weekend in a row the Park Hill South girls swim team placed second in a top metro area swimming invite. This past weekend it was the KC Classic where they racked up 326.5 team points, second only to Blue Springs. They were led by the 200 free relay team of Mariah Bryant, Olivia McLain, Rachael Norfleet, and Shannon Brouk’s first place finish. The Panthers took second in the 200 medley relay with the same swimmers as well as Helen Yeater in the 100 fly. Third place finishers included Brouk in the 200 and 500 freestyle, Miranda Henderson in the 50 yard freestyle, and Bryant in the 100 backstroke.

Park Hill Girls Swimming
…placed fifth in the KC Classic with 167.4 team points. Brynn Guardado powered the Trojans with dominant first place finishes in the 200 and 500 freestyle events.

Park Hill Wrestling
Eight. That’s how many years in a row the Trojan wrestling squad had traveled to Jefferson City to participate in the Capitol City Classic and returned with a first place finish prior to this year. It would be no different in 2012 as Park Hill took its ninth straight first place finish, besting the host school Jefferson City in the finals. The Trojans and Jays both placed seven wrestlers in individual weight class finals. Leading after the first day with 60.5 team points.

11 Park Hill wrestlers finished in the top four of their respective weight classes. Champions included top-ranked freshman Ke-Shawn Hayes at 106 and Russ Coleman at 132. Runners-up included John Erneste at 113, Paxton DiBlasi at 126, Derek Rens at 138, Malik Colding at 160, and Nolan Anderson at 170. Hunter Roberts at 120, Conner Shene at 145, and heavyweight Nolan Smith finished in third place while Nick Harper placed fourth at 152. They'll try to make it two tournament titles in a row as they compete in the Winnetonka Tournament this weekend.