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On the J Sideline McHenry nips Central in two overtimes By Mike Lamb Christmas may have been five days away, but Ken Ludwig and his McHenty Warriors celebrated the holiday early last Tuesday. To his amazement, Ludwig found several presents under his tree, including a big one, gift wrapped and a bow on top.- The big present happened to be a 70-68 double overtime win over Crystal Lake Central for McHenry's first Fox Valley Conference win of the season. It was Ludwig's 299th career win. 'I'm happy with this present," said Ludwig after a Warrior fan wished him a Merry Christmas. There were several presents that led to that one big one. Each one dug the McHenry Warriors out of a hole.lt all began late in the third quarter. • With two seconds left on the clock in the third quarter and McHenry holding a slim 42-41 lead, Craig Hill inbounded a pass to Corey Scott at half court. Immediately the 6-foot-3 senior shot it towards the basket. It "We had a lot of opportunities to die. It seemed lifo^Mi^were down to defeat a couple of times and both times they pulled it out." Ken Ludw|g went in as the buzzer sounded. •With 14 seconds left in regulation time and the Warriors down 59-55, Scott scores from underneath the basket and is fouled in the act. Given one free throw attempt, Scott misses, but Peterson comes out of no where and grabs the rebound. He puts it right back up and scores as time runs out. The game is tied. • Central holds a 66-64 lead with 13 seconds left in the first overtime. Scott and Central's Todd Howell both come down with a rebound at the Central basket. A jump ball is called by the referee. Howell Scott, but he knocks it towards McHenry's Dave Toussaint. Toussaint hurries the ball towards the McHenry basket, but is surrounded by Tiger defenders. Somehow he finds Peterson all alone under the basket. He passes it to the 6-foot- 6 center and Peterson lays it in as time runs out. Game runs into a second overtime. •With three seconds left on the clock in the second overtime, McHenry's Scott Freund hits a jump shot from five feet out to give McHenry a 70-68 lead. •With two seconds left on the clock, Central's Howell throws ball the out umps STAFF PHOTOMIKi IAMB Mark Peterson blocks out Crystal Lake Central's post-man, Mike Williams, so temmate Corey Scott can take the open shot. Corky Card (45) watches. Peterson scored 24 points, while Scott scored eight. on the other end on the inbound. The ball hits the backboard with several players underneath from both sides waiting for it. Peters. » gets the first hand on it, dapping it away from the basket. The game is over. "We just have a hard time winning," said Central's coach, Arnie Kay. He watched his team lose its second straight FVC game. "Nobody wanted to lose this one, but McHenry just happened to win. It just wasn't meant to be." "We were lucky, but the kids hung in there and gut it out," said Ludwig. "I felt we never were out of the game. I always felt we had a chance to win. We had a lot of opportunties to die. It seemed like we were down to defeat a couple of times and both times they pulled it out." The win raised the Warrior's FVC record to 1-2 and 2-5 overall. \ It looked like the Tigers would run away with the contest in the first quarter. Central scored the first two baskets of the game Continued on p«|* 20 Johnsburg splits double dual After splitting a double dual at Hampshire on Tuesday, the Johnsburg Skyhawk wrestling team defeated Richmond Thursday to earn a 3-1 record for the week. Two Skyhawk wrestlers were double winners as Johnsurg defeated Marengo 45-15, but lost to Hampshire 45-35. Mike Cahill at 132-pounds and Scott Lehman at 112 were the double winners. "I was extremely disap­ pointed in getting beat by Hampshire," said Johnsburg coach Mike Roberts. "We wrestled very poor against Hampshire. We'll never wrestle like that all season." In a 57-10 win over Richmond, six Skyfeawks^won their mat­ ches, with several earning forfeits. At 98-pounds, Ed Klein won 9-3, while Mark O'Brien (112), David Thoren (126), Ken Hansen (155), Johnn Bitterman (167) and Terry Eifler (132) all earn pins. "Richmond doesn't have the kids out this season. They're young," said Roberts. Shawn Kee had the difficult challenge of wrestling Rich­ mond's Paul Vogel at 119. Vogel is one of the top wrestlers in the area. "Shawn Kee got two take against him, but ended up getting pinned. Our sophomore wrestled real well against him," Roberts said. "We used a combination of JV's and varsity to beat them (Richmond). There coming. They are a very young team." The Skyhawk squad raised its record to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the Northwest Suburban Con­ ference. R .I r i \ I \ IU: \ I I :N minw,IIKI KIMIIKH 2 .1 . IIWA Lady Hurricanes fall to Mundelein By Brian Spears Shaw-Free Press Service CARY - Mudelein held off a late rally by Marian Central Catholic to edge the Hurricanes, 46-42. The 'Canes trailed by 10 points after three quarters of play, and fell further behind in the fourth, 40-26. But in the final five and one- half minutes of the game, Marian held Mundelein to four points while scoring 16 itself. But there simply wasn't enough time, and Mundelein escaped with a victory. Nancy Walsh droped in six points in the attempted comeback and Beth Penza added four in the period. "Until the last two minutes we seemed a little late in reacting," Marian coach Don Penza said. "I think they shot better and played a little more agressive hall than we did. We didn't play agressive until the last four minutes." In the last quarter, the Hurricanes put on full-court pressure and forced some crucial turnovers. "It was a good experience. I think the kids know they've got to press and they did pretty well considering it was the first time we pressed," Penza com­ mented. Mundelein coach John Graham wasn't enthused with his team's fourth quarter per­ formance. "That's the second game we've built up a 12 or 14 point lead and just-seemed to fall asleep," he said. "We just got kind of flat. We quit moving, we made a couple of bad passes, and didn't hit the free throws. That's what hurt us -- we only made four of 18 free throws," Graham added. Peggy Koehler powered Mundelein with 25 points in the contest. Koehler led her county in scoring as a junior last season with a 20.5 point per game average, so her scoring was not suprising. "That's her best game from outside," Graham said. "She had a great game against An- tioch with 28 points, but wasn't hitting from outside." Marian had trailed by just two after the opening quarter, but Continued on pogo 20 oports Ken Ludwig wins number 299 in career The Fighting Warriors lived up to their name on Tuesday night, when they defeated the Crystal Lake Central Tigers 70-68 in double overtime. It was the first conference wifl for the iludwig crew this season and tne 299th^yin for Coach Ludwig in his career. It doesn't seem that long ago when the veteran coach won his 100th victory over Dundee, scoring 100 points in the process before a jam packed crowd at Buckner gym. However the Warriors struggled during the first period trailing 17-10, but Pat Dunne's bucket witns^wo seconds remaining in the half narrowed the margin to 28-26. Corey Scott's basket from behind the center line brought the crowd to its feet at the buzzer ending the third period as the Warriors jumped into the lead, 44-41. The final period was a • see-saw affair, until Scott and Peterson hit baskets in the last fifteen seconds to tie the game at 59. The first overtime was much of the same and Mark Peterson's basket with seconds remaining kept the Warriors in the game at 66. In the second overtime the Warriors had enough opportunitiesto win easy, but that was not the case, and it took Scott Freund's basket with two seconds remaining to give the Warriors the win. It was a good win for the Warrior crew, especially after the defeats at Woodstock last Friday. They just didn't play good basketball against Woodstock. Next action for the Warriors is on Monday at 3:45 p.m. when they play Downers Grove North in the Wheeling Holiday Tournament. The winner will play the winner of the Woodstock - Dick Rabbitt Maine West game. The losers will play each other. Wheeling High School is located on Route 83 in Wheeling. • •• The Rassling Warriors finished seventh in the Harvard Tournament last weekend. Maybe I spoke too soon, as it seems the Warriors were only able to put eight of 12 on the mat due to sickness and weight problems, therefore giving up a lot of points. The- previous week the Warriors finished third at Lake Forest. Some Warrior results; Russ Bunday at 105 was fourth at Harvard and second at Lake Forest. Chris Mann at 98 was third at Lake Forest, Ric Connor was second at Lake Forest and fifth at Harvard. Bob Sarabia lost in the finals at 126 at Har­ vard. Ray Lance third at Lake Forest, Jeff Greany at 185 third at Lake Forest and fifth at Harvard. Dan Mohnen, the heavyweight of the team, was third at Lake Forest and seventh at Harvard. The Rassling Warriors will compete in the Rockford-Boylan 16-team tourney next week before facing Wauconda at home on Jan. 5. • . • • • Pat Wirtz will take his Lady Warriors to Dundee-Crown for its holiday tour­ nament. The Warriors meet Stream- wood at the unholy hour of 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday Dec. 27. This is a 16-team affair with such teams as New Trier, Naper- ville North, Waukegan West, Lake Park and York. Pretty good competition in this tourney. • • • Mike Shanahan's McHenry High swimmers will take a vacation during the holidc >^ and meet Elgin at West Campus on Jan. 3. • • • Before we go down memory lane we would like to express our best wishes on behalf of the McHenry High School to all Warrior fans and all sport's fans. Very Merry Christmas. We go back to the 1963-64 season when the Warriors tied for third with Dundee in the North Suburban, beating Liber­ ty ville in a thriller, 56-51. Our good friend and friendly merchant on Green Street, Butch Meyer 4ed the Warrior attack over the Cats with 23 points. The Warriors Cliff Fulton put on a fourth period rally for the victory. ... McHenry 56 LibertyvHle 51 McHenry: Laurence 2-7-2 11, Meyer 11-1-5 23, Mayfield 2-1-2 5, Smith 1-0-3 2, Blake 1-0-1 2, Lockwood 3-3-2 9, Kusch 1- 2-5 4, totals 21-14-20 56. Libertyville: Frederick 5-9-5 ,19, Mellen 4-0-5 8, Shifley 2-0-0 4, Van Orden 3-2-3 8, King 3-2-5 8, Dahl 1-0-3 2, Pfen­ ning 0-2-2 2, totals 18-15-23 51. McHenry 111015 20--56 * Libertyville 13141014 -- 51 Steck takes on marathon challenge By Mike Lamb The sport of marathon ' running is considered to be one of the most grueling sports ever devised by man. It is also one the most respected sports in the world. The New York and the Chicago Marathons happen to be one of the sporting highlights in the year. The Boston Marathon is con­ sidered one of the most presitigious sporting events in the last couple decades. Thousands and thousands of runners run up and down these cities' streets every year. One of those runners who has the craving to run 26 miles non-stop is 19-year-old Mike Steck of McHenry. The Johnsburg High School graduate is a marathon runner and is slowly becoming respected as one of the top marathon runners at his age level. He has become so respected in the marathon arena that one of the major running shoe companies has decided to endorse him. If everything goes well, the company plans to sponsor . Steck in the upcoming Boston Marathon this spring. If he runs well there, the company plans to offer Steck a spot on its running team. That will give Steck the chance to compete in some of the top road races in the country. All of this has Steck very optimistic about his future plans in marathon running. "It depends on my time," said Steck on the provisions set by the company to make the team. "They want me to finish at 2:30 (two hours and 30 minutes). For my age, that time would be in the top 10." "Right now I'm just concerned about my marathon time," said Steck, who has run in several road races the past summer and fall. He finished third in the Libertyville 5K last Sep­ tember, sixth in the Crystal Lake Polar Bear five mile run and fourth in the McHenry River Run in July. His 2:35.35 time in the Terre Haute marathon placed him 94th and made the shoe company interested in him. Marathon running is a funny sport because success usually doesn't come to a runner until late in age. Most runners are at their peak at age 32-years-old or 33. Ron Nixon, who won the New York title, is 33. "The thing about Mike Steck marathon running, you have to put in miles and miles. It takes time." Steck's running career didn't just start with Johnsburg High School and end with his latest marathon career. Steck spent one year at North Central College on the cross country and track team. He was the 12th man of a 30- man cross country squad that won the NCAA division HI title. But he had to give up on his collegiate career when financial funds ran out. That, however, did not stop his running career. Steck does have plans on returning to North Central the upcoming fall. He helped out Johnsburg cross country coach Bob Texidore this past fall season coach the Skyhawk squad. Steck was proud of the fact the squad finished with a .500 record, the best in the school's history. "Training people and setting up a program for them has helped me look at my program." With his father living in Florida, Steck plans to live down there this winter, training for the Boston and hopefully hitch on with a track club. Before that, Steck plans on running in a five-mile road race in Lake Geneva Dec. 31. Steck feels good about his chances at Boston. "It depends. It's an Olympic year and most of the top contenders are not running. They will be running at the Olympic trials. Top 500 -1 think I can do that." Does Steck have visions ' of running as long as some of the top marathon run­ ners in the world? "It all depends on how much I improve the next two years. Mostly I'll play it by ear."