By Terry Boehmker
NKyTribune sports reporter
If the Walton-Verona and Beechwood baseball teams win All “A” Classic sectional playoff games scheduled for this week, they’ll meet in the first round of the small-school state tournament.
Braxton Foley
Walton-Verona will host Kentucky Country Day at 5:30 p.m. Monday and Beechwood will visit Nicholas County at 11 a.m. Saturday in the sectional round of the playoffs.
The winners of those games will advance to the eight-team state tournament and face each other at 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 5 at Whitaker Bank Park in Lexington.
Beechwood won the 9th Region All “A” Classic for the third time in the last five years to advance to the sectionals. The Tigers have a 10-6 record under new head coach Kevin Gray this season.
Walton-Verona won the 8th Region All “A” Classic with junior Braxton Foley pitching a no-hitter in the championship game against Gallatin County. The Bearcats will take an 8-2 record into Monday’s sectional game.
Last year, Walton-Verona edged Kentucky Country Day, 2-1, in the sectional playoffs behind a strong pitching performance by Foley. The right-hander allowed one run on three hits and finished with 10 strikeouts.
Former high school basketball standouts headed to hall of fame
Two of the most prolific scorers in 9th Region high school basketball will be added to the Greater Cincinnati Basketball Hall of Fame during an induction banquet on Tuesday, May 8 at Receptions in Fairfield, Ohio.
Dixie Heights graduate Jackie Bearden-Mistler and Holmes graduate Jack Jennings are among this year’s group of nine inductees.
Bearden-Mistler scored 3,016 points during her five-year varsity career and received all-state honors twice. After graduating from Dixie Heights in 1980, she held the 9th Region girls basketball career scoring record for 15 years before Jaime Walz-Richey surpassed it.
Jennings averaged 34.6 points per game during his senior season when he led Holmes to the 1988 9th Region championship. He set a team record with 68 points in a regular season game and holds the 9th Region record for most points scored in a state tournament game with 41.
Two Simon Kenton teams will compete in state archery tournament
Simon Kenton archery teams that swept the Region 6 boys and girls championships last month will compete in the state tournament on Thursday at Kentucky Basketball Academy in Lexington.
The regional runner-up teams that also qualified for the season finale are Covington Catholic (boys) and Ryle (girls).
The top scorers in the Region 6 competition were Simon Kenton sophomore Holly Snow in girls and Ryle sophomore Mason Conrad in boys. He is one of the individual qualifiers in the one-day state tournament.
Paige Robbins, a freshman at Simon Kenton, is returning to the state tournament after placing second in the girls’ division and 11th overall last year.
Volleyball players celebrate college scholarships with club team
Four Northern Kentucky high school players were among the Northern Kentucky Junior Volleyball Club (NKYVC) members who took part in a college scholarship celebration on Sunday at Town & Country Athletic Center in Wilder.
The four local players recruited by NCAA Division I college teams include Notre Dame setter Lainey Stephenson (Wright State), Ryle libero Faith Cobaugh (Belmont), Boone County outside hitter Lynsey Steffen (Eastern Illinois) and Ryle middle hitter Nicole Legg (South Florida).
Cobaugh and Stephenson are on the NKYVC 18-1 Tsunami team that will compete in the U.S.A. Volleyball Junior National Championships that begin Friday in Anaheim, California.
