Coach Sean O'Toole's varsity basketball Wildcats remained in the third spot in The Plain Dealer's weekly Top 25 seven-county basketball poll and went from seventh to eighth place in this week's Associated Press Division I state poll.
Having both of its games postponed last weekend because of weather probably played at least a small role in Saint Ignatius' one-spot drop in the state poll. Mentor and Saint Ignatius were the only area schools ranked in Division I this week, as the Cardinals held on to sixth place in the vote by a statewide panel of sports writers and broadcasters. Columbus Northland, unbeaten through 19 games, continues to show the way among the big schools with 22 first-place votes.
As for the rest of The PD's top five, Mentor and St. Edward remain 1-2, and Villa Angela-St. Joseph and Shaker Heights flip-flopped this week with VASJ taking over the fourth spot and Shaker Heights now fifth.
*Just a note of information, Coach O'Toole is trying to schedule a game for this coming Saturday. There was talk of last weekend's postponed game at Perrysburg being rescheduled for Saturday night, but the Yellow Jackets have had to cancel on that.
Of course the highlight of the basketball weekend is Friday night, when the 12-3 Wildcats travel to St. Edward to face the 15-4 Eagles. The varsity game will succeed a 6 bells JV tip off. Saint Ignatius turned St. Edward away, 58-56, in Sullivan Gym on Jan. 19, but the Wildcats realize they have to improve on that performance.
*AS ALWAYS, THE CORNER WILL PREVIEW ROUND 2 OF THE ANNUAL HOME-AND-HOME SERIES BETWEEN THE WILDCATS AND THE EAGLES ON TUESDAY NIGHT.
HERE IS OUR WEEKLY LOOK AT THE ONE AND ONLY ALLEY CATS, WHO HAD SCRATCH FEVER AT CLOVERLEAF LANES ON SATURDAY.
The Alley Cats complete a marvelous regular season by capturing both the Handicap and Scratch Divisions of the Greater Cleveland Interscholastic Bowling League.
Presented by Saint Ignatius head bowling coach John Kastanis and posted by Eddie Dwyer.
Here are the bowling results versus St. Peter Chanel High School in the final week of the regular season.
There are four categories.
1) Scratch: Wildcats win 7-0 (7 point total). The Wildcats total pin fall for this category
-2951 (987; 971; 993) versus St. Peter Chanel - 2404 (797; 820; 787).
2) Handicap: Wildcats lose for the first time this season in this category 2-5 (7 point total). *The Wildcats had to spot 213 pins for each game. This is very difficult to overcome when the opponent bowls average or close to average.
3) OHSAA: Wildcats win this 1-0 (1 point total). This win is based on the grand total of pin fall of scratch pins, plus total of two baker games. Wildcats total pin fall - 3304 /St. Peter Chanel total pin fall - 2763.
4) Baker Games - 210,143. Series total 353.
****Our star bowlers for the week: Freshman Ralph Deadwyler Jr. - 194; 194; 259 = 647 Series (Awesome), Junior Anthony Giancola - 201; 209; 187 = 597 Series and Senior Andy Maykut - 234; 179; 178 = 591 Series.
****Junior Billy Farr 226 game (567) series and Junior Phil Criswell 205 game (549) series
contributed to the Wildcats’ win and a clinch of the Scratch Division.
****This past Saturday our Wildcats clinched first place in two of the league's three divisions, winning the Scratch Division with a record of 67-10 and the Handicap
Division with a record of 65 -12. Our OHSAA record was 9-1 and good for second place.
St. Edward won the OHSAA Division by beating Holy Name by only 22 pins, keeping Saint Ignatius from sweeping the league.
“I am so proud of our team on the improvement and consistency of their talent throughout this season,” said Coach Kastanis. “We will continue this path as we prepare for the upcoming Sectional, District and State Tournaments.
“These young men worked extremely hard as they realized the improvement in their talent and in themselves,” Coach Kastainis continued. “They know what they are capable of accomplishing.”