Sports B Perfect timing keeps Wildcats’ perfect season intact

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Sports
FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 2006
B
MOORESVILLE TRIBUNE
LNHS TENNIS
Perfect timing keeps Wildcats’ perfect season intact
By LARRY SULLIVAN
[email protected]
Lake Norman’s tennis team
picked the perfect time to keep its
season-long winning streak intact.
Kicking off the start of crucial
North Piedmont Conference play,
the Wildcats remained spotless for
the season and jumpstarted their
effort within the league ranks with
a cruise control, 9-0 throttling past
host West Iredell.
With that win, the Wildcats kept
their undefeated motor running,
pushing out to the 7-0 barrier overall that now includes the 1-0 start
in NPC play that assures them at
least a very early multiple-way
share of the league lead heading
back on the court early next week.
The Wildcats blitzed the
Warriors during the course of singles play, winning all six of those
match-ups with relative ease.
Then, for good measure, Lake
Norman tacked on sizeable outcomes in each of the three doubles
duels to polish off the sweep. It
allowed Lake Norman to prevail in
the only tabled meeting with West
Iredell during the course of conference play as, in tennis, league
teams meet just once.
For the guests, singles winners
in order of team rank included Trey
McKee, Tim Johnson, Jason Lewis,
Matt Dowell, Logan Talbert and
Taylor Burton. Of that group, the
crew involving Johnson, Lewis,
Dowell and Talbert each cakewalked through their respective
matches without losing so much as
a single game in their two sets.
Burton just missed that party,
dropping just one game in his set
sweep.
In doubles play, the twosomes
made up of McKee and Lewis,
Johnson and Dowell, and Talbert
NASCAR
CASTING KIDS
YOUTH, TOO, REEL IN FISHING REWARDS
Win in local event earns threesome
berth in regional competition
By LARRY SULLIVAN
A
and Ben Hulse all cruised to convincing decisions. Johnson and
Dowell did not lose a single game,
allowing both of them to finish play
for the entire afternoon without
dropping a single game between
them.
Lake Norman will spend the
weekend sharing the league’s firstplace spot before putting that share
on the line back at home against
West Rowan Monday afternoon.
[email protected]
ll the competition and accompanying rewards
were not relegated to just those in the field during
earlier this year’s annual Casting Out Cancer Jim
Ledbetter Team Bass Tournament taking place on Lake
Norman. Those out of the boats were also in the mix.
The 20th annual event, the area’s single largest
fundraiser towards generating proceeds used to help
in the fight against cancer, drew in excess of 225 teams
and helped raise another $33,000 to benefit the
American Cancer Society. Those in the event also participated in daylong fishing for Lake Norman largemouth bass with more than $13,000 provided in cash
prizes.
All the anglers, though, weren’t the only ones emerging as winners.
While the fierce fishing took place on the largest
man-made body of fresh water in North Carolina,
another contest was taking place along its shoreline. A
local phase of the national Casting Kids competition
was also held, with the respective age division winners
all meriting the right to claim prizes and also advance
to the next level.
It’s an early step towards a possible national championship that one area entry in the field used previ- HERE’S HOW: Pro Chris Richey (left) offers some advice to John Patterson
ously to reach just such lofty status.
Three youth participating in the local
event received the right to represent the
Lake Norman attraction in a regional
qualifying tournament that will take
place later this spring. Success there
could be used as a springboard towards a
possible appearance at the Bassmasters
Classic, where the finals are conducted to
determine the various age and gender
groups’ national champions.
Area winner Andy Jones, a seven-yearold from Denver, surfaced as the most local
of the three winners. He can only hope for
the same kind of success that followed 10year-old Alex Moore from Granite Falls,
who was also a local event winner this year.
Just last year, Moore went on to emerge as
the North Carolina Casting Kids champion
within his age division.
Also from the local attraction, Rae Ann
Richey of Conover, also age 10, wound up as
a Casting Out Cancer Casting Kids winner.
As is tradition for the local event, several members of the bass angling field,
including a number of professionals,
PHOTOS COURTESY OF BOB PATRICK
took the time to teach some of the youngsters participating in the Casting Kids THREE FOR THE SHOW: Denver’s Andy Jones (center) among trio of winners from local
branch of Kid’s Casting competition including Rae Ann Richey (left), and Alex Moore
affair proper techniques for casting.
Busch’s win
adds to bash
by brothers
Siblings sweep NASCAR
Cup, Busch Series events
By LARRY SULLIVAN
[email protected]
Mooresville’s Kurt Busch did Mooresville’s Kyle Busch one better on the
NASCAR Nextel Cup Series circuit last
weekend.
One day after the younger Kyle Busch
prevailed at the same Bristol Motor
Speedway to capture the
NASCAR
Busch
Series
Sharpie Mini 300, older
brother Kurt Busch steered
his local-based Penske
South Racing Dodge to
Victory Lane in the weekend’s main event Food City
500 to complete the first all Kyle Busch
brother sweep of sameweekend same-site races since the fall of
2001.
Kurt Busch, in his first year with Penske
after taking over the ride in the No. 2 entry
formerly controlled by Lake
Norman resident Rusty
Wallace prior to his retirement at the end of last season, maneuvered his way
into the lead for the third
and final time with a friendly bump past a former teamKurt Busch mate with just four laps left
to run and remained there
after that to maintain his string of careerlong solid showings at the famed .533-mile
oval track known for its close contact
caused by its relatively short confines.
Though it was Busch’s first win for his new
team, it accounted for his fifth victory in
the last nine stops at BMS.
“I bumped him a little bit,’’ admitted
Busch after the fact, “and that was my window to get the lead. If I was still a teammate
of his, maybe I would have let him live. But
I was hungry.’’
Following the effort, Busch made light of
the unseasonable early spring weather that
visited the area by taking the checkered
flag and performing snow angels at the finish line. The previous day’s Busch Series
See BROTHERS on Page 3B
GIRLS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT
Angels on the hardwood as hostesses, participants in AAU Classic
By LARRY SULLIVAN
[email protected]
Mooresville and southern Iredell
County area facilities were among
those cited as host sites serving as
spottings for Angels earlier this
month.
Never fear. Those same places
were also where the likes of
Cougars, Jaguars. Comets and
Komets, Stealers, Jammers. Magic,
Starz, Slammers, Patriots, Flames
and Fire, and Aces, to name just a
few were also seen.
That was the case as a number of
those local outlets played host to
games galore during the course of
the ninth annual Carolina Angels
JumpStart Classic Amateur Athlete
Union level girls’ basketball tournament. This year’s three-day
CYANMAGENTAYELLOWBLACK
event, made possible through a
host of surrounding sponsors,
attracted a host of teams from
throughout several states, all looking to emerge as the survival of the
fittest in a number of age-level
playing divisions.
Once again, the area-based
Carolina Angels AAU girls’ basketball program filled the roles as both
the attraction’s hostesses and participants. The home program fielded entries in four of the seven different age division fields, engaging
in an extended weekend full of
competition on an array of courts
in the county’s high school and
middle school facilities.
Most locally, single courts at
both Brawley Middle School and
Troutman Middle School housed
play, as did both the main court
and the auxiliary court at Lake
Norman High School. Other sites
included West Iredell High School,
West Iredell Middle School,
Statesville Middle School, North
Iredell Middle School, and North
Iredell High School.
Teams of all shapes and sizes,
colors and nicknames invaded the
area for play that took place beginning Friday night and continued
practically non-stop throughout
the following day. Final games in all
age levels were then staged
through half of the final day of the
weekend.
Through it all, competition was
staged in a number of age groups.
This year’s JumpStart Classic
deemed “Survival 2, Winner Takes
See ANGELS on Page 3B
PHOTO BY LARRY SULLIVAN/MOORESVILLE TRIBUNE
SAME NAME GAME: Lake Norman Comets, Kannapolis Komets scrap for ball