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Boys Basketball 2005-2006
Senior Night Snapshots 02 10 06 Team Awards
Presented at CHS Basketball Banquet Neither the Chillicothe High School Lady Hornets nor Hornets had the 2005-06 basketball seasons they'd have liked to have had, but both produced some good moments with consistent hard work, fans attending last (Thursday) night¹s annual postseason awards banquet in the CHS commons heard from the coaches. Highlighting the evening, as always, were the announcements of the teams' special award recipients.
For the Chillicothe boys, senior guard Clint Macoubrie was presented the Most Valuable Player Award and fellow senior guard Andrew Campbell the Coaches' Award from head coach Chad Snyder. Senior guard/forward Cody Lowe earned the Hustle Award. Statistical awards for the Hornets went to juniors Jacob Fellhoelter, for most rebounds, and Austin Sloan, for best free-throw shooting percentage. The Lady Hornets' third above-.500 finish in coach Karen Jackson's four years as head coach also meant back-to-back winning seasons for the first time since the 1995-96 and 1996-97 state-quarterfinalist campaigns. Jackson noted that the team nearly upset the state's No. 1-ranked Class 4 team, St. Joseph: Benton (albeit with Benton without one of its best players), in the semifinals of the Kearney "Bulldog Classic" tournament in early January, letting a late lead slip away in a 43-37 loss. Eventual district champion Benton also delivered two of the other losses by more-substantial margins, including the season-ending defeat in the district tournament semifinals. The Lady Hornets coach noted with pride and satisfaction the team¹s late-season performances, which included solid wins over Maryville and Cameron and perhaps their most-impressive win of the year, a 20-point wipeout of St. Joseph: Lafayette at home. The year also saw Chillicothe earn, in overtime, its first victory over an always-solid and usually-strong Kirksville program in a number of years. The Lady Hornets went 4-3 in Midland Empire Conference play, the late-season win over Lafayette enabling them to finish in the top half of the eight-team league. This year's CHS girls' club included five seniors Bailey Benson, Maggie Weldon, Kim May, Walter, and Maxwell. Prior to Jackson's review of the varsity's season and recognition of those players, the junior-varsity and freshman teams were introduced and lauded. This year's Lady Hornets junior-varsity club posted a very good 14-4 mark, although it won only one of its last four games. The freshman Lady Hornets went 4-10. For the Hornets, a fast start to the season at least in terms of wins and losses had them 5-1 entering the holiday break.
However, field-goal shooting difficulties that had been masked in December by very good free-throw shooting and tough defense couldn¹t be overcome forever.
As the team entered a tougher stretch of competition, beginning with the Bank Midwest/William Jewell Classic tournament over the holiday break, the lack of scoring from the floor paved the way for a struggling stretch in which the Hornets went 4-10 over a six- or seven-week period.
Finally, in early February, the team seemed to start to turn a corner with its shooting, the difficulties with which Snyder attributed to both unselfishness and an unwarranted lack of self-confidence. The team members can shoot well, showing that on the practice floor, he related. It just didn¹t get taken onto the game floor, for some reason, the coach related. The jayvee boys, winning 10 of their last 11, ended the year 13-6. The freshman team with several players playing junior-varsity and even varsity ball went 2-14.
Close This Window Garrison's Gang Goes To State
EXCELSIOR SPRINGS - Their sixth-seeded girls had come remarkably close in the preceding game, being within three points of state No. 1-ranked St. Joseph: Benton with less than two minutes remaining before losing 36-27. The Excelsior Springs boys, seeded fifth in a six-team district, got it done. Before a large, enthusiastic, title-starved crowd on their home floor, the ESHS basketball Tigers claimed a district title for the first time in 19 years Friday night, overcoming a bad start to defeat the third-seeded Chillicothe Hornets 57-51 for the Class 4 District 16 crown. In their second season under CHS alumnus and former Hornets assistant coach David Garrison, the 8-17 Tigers advanced to the Class 4 state tournament and n 8:45 p.m. Wednesday sectional-round game against Kansas City: Lincoln Prep Academy at St. Joseph's Civic Arena. The accomplishment came despite falling behind 12-0 in the game's first 4:10. Always considered critical to postseason success is getting very good guard play. While Chillicothe's was solid enough Friday, it didn't quite match up to Excelsior Springs' junior trio of Ryan Clemens, Craig Cox, and Matt Wilkins. Clemens scored 24 points on 10-of-18 shooting with a combination of outside shots and penetration. Cox matched Clemens in hitting three of six 3-point tries and totaled 11 points. The threesome provided 41 points.
Two other notable numbers were the Hornets' 8-of-18 free-throw performance, including seven misses in the fourth quarter, and an 11-0 ESHS advantage in points from reserves. Chillicothe's scoring was led by Macoubrie's and Fellhoelter's 15 each. Campbell had 11 in, like Macoubrie, his final prep game. Sloan, a junior like Fellhoelter, tallied 11. Those four, however, were the only Hornets to score. With the defeat, Chillicothe's boys concluded an up-and-down season with a 13-14 record. That's the first time since 1990-91 that it has not had a winning campaign. In addition to Macoubrie and Campbell, Cody Lowe, Tyler Hardie, Blake Shearer, and Drew Quinn suited up for the last time Friday. Close This Window Hornets Mystify Zoned-Out Irish Caption:
Chillicothe's Austin Sloan gets inside Lafayette's Dominique Thuston to score on a close-in shot for the first points of Thursday night's
(February, 23)
game. The basket gave the Hornets a lead they'd never relinquish in a 47-35 Class 4 District 16 tournament semifinal win. Sloan would go on to hit four 3-pointers and score a game-high 18 points. EXCELSIOR SPRINGS - Chillicothe basketball Hornets fans and head coach Chad Snyder probably wouldn't have felt too good about the team's chances in its Class 4 District 16 tournament semifinal game against St. Joseph: Lafayette Thursday night (February, 23) had they known beforehand that the Hornets would make only six of 26 2-point field goal attempts in the game.
However, it turned out the Hornets had a couple of aces in the hole that trumped that bad statistic. Chillicothe more than made up for its 2-point-range inaccuracy by nailing eight of 17 from beyond the 19-foot arc and, just as importantly, saw Lafayette's Fighting Irish make only five of 33 tries from 3-point land, telling the tale of the Hornets' wire-to-wire 47-36 victory at Excelsior Springs High School. The CHS triumph, which squared the club's 2005-06 season record at 13-13, puts the Hornets in tonight's district championship game for the 11th time in 12 years and eighth in nine years under Snyder. There, they'll face a most-surprising, but familiar, opponent, the Excelsior Springs Tigers. Eliminated in the first round of last year's district tourney to end their first season under former Chillicothe assistant coach and CHS alumnus David Garrison without a win, the Tigers shocked top-seeded St. Joseph: Benton 61-52 in Thursday's other semifinal contest. Garrison's club will carry a 7-17 record into tonight's boys' title game, set for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off. “I'm happy for coach Garrison,” Snyder, at whose side Garrison sat for five years, stated. “They've got two big district wins this year and hopefully only two. With what they've done here, the last four or five years, and where he's taken them in two years, they've come a long way. In our game, the Hornets and Lafayette Irish found a lid on the basket - almost exclusively from beyond 15 feet - the first three minutes of play. The Hornets finally pried theirs off at the 4:45 mark when Austin Sloan slipped inside Irish star Dominique Thuston from the left block and scored. With the Fighting Irish continuing to be luckless lauching over the 1-2-2 CHS zone, Hornets ninth grader Tyler Trammell served notice he had no freshman jitters. Catching a pass on the right wing with his heels nearly on the sideline, he sent a high-arching set shot straight through the ring for a 5-0 Chillicothe lead at the 3:52 mark of the opening stanza. The story line didn't change much the last three quarters, The Hornets' lead never dropped below seven the final 29-plus minutes. Pivotal in maintaining control was Chillicothe's penchant for preventing Lafayette from scoring consecutively, more than once answering an Irish score with a 3-pointer. In addition to Sloan's game-high 18 points and Trammell's 12, Clint Macoubrie chipped in eight points with his nine boards. “It wasn't a very pretty game,” reflected Snyder.” We shot 33 percent - that's not very good, but they shot 22.” Senior
Night Snapshots
Close This Window Campbell Souper-Duper Again
Chillicothe basketball Hornet Andrew Campbell could have broken into a Jimmy Durante imitation - assuming he knows who the late comedian/singer with the prominent proboscis was - after the Hornets' game with Maryville the night of February 7, 2006. Coming off a 5-for-5 performance from 3-point distance in Saturday's home loss to Kirksville, Campbell went five for seven from there while three teammates were a combined six for six last night as the Hornets enjoyed a 66-35 laugher over the Maryville Spoofhounds. “It's definitely not the way we've done it all year,” a dazzled, almost dazed Chad Snyder, Hornets head coach, marveled after his team scored more than 57 points in a game for the first time in 2005-06. “This was a different ball team we watched tonight. We shot the ball as well as I've seen us shoot it. (For the second-straight game) We shot the ball better from the 3-point line than we did from 2-point range. That's not the way it's supposed to work.” Playing with greater offensive alacrity for a third-consecutive outing, the Hornets connected on 11 of 14 treys they tried, a mind-boggling 79 percent, while making a respectable 43 percent inside the arc as they played in the middle school fieldhouse for the only time this season. Clint Macoubrie hit all three of his 3-point launches, while freshmen Colin Parker and Tyler Trammell hit two and one, respectively, in the late going. However, most responsible for the long-distance damage to the 'Hounds was Campbell. Perhaps just now getting back to full health after a badly-broken right leg while playing American Legion baseball last summer, the senior second-year starter followed up his 17-point effort against Kirksville with a career-high 24 against Maryville. Not only was the Chillicothe coach overjoyed with the offensive fireworks, but he felt his squad heeded his admonitions about not forgetting to defend, too. The Hornets supplemented Campbell's 24 points with 11 by Macoubrie, Austin Sloan's 10 - all in the first half, and a whopping 19 from the bench players. The Chillicothe boys play their final home game of 2005-06 and fifth in a row Friday night when they welcome Savannah for what will be “Senior Night.” This year's Hornets varsity team has six seniors - Cody Lowe, Drew Quinn, Blake Shearer, Campbell, Hardie, and Macoubrie. Close This Window Signs Of Life Caption: Andrew Campbell of the Chillicothe Hornets launches and hits one of his five 3-pointers during the second half of Saturday,
February 4, night's 58-52 loss to Kirksville. Campbell hit all of his 3-point attempts and scored a personal-season-high 17 points as the Hornets had their best offensive performance in quite a while, perhaps all season. “I thought, for the most part, tonight we turned the corner. We'll have to wait and see.” Chad Snyder's words might seem strange for a coach in the wake of a six-point loss at home, but consider some numbers that may validate that take after Kirksville handed the Chillicothe Hornets their fourth-straight loss, 58-52, Saturday night:
That those positives didn't translate to ending the CHS losing streak is primarily because of the offensive play of two Kirksville juniors. The first half saw the Hornets shoot the ball somewhat better than they have much of the season and, aside from a a few wobbles, take care of the ball better, too. The result was, despite 16 first-half points by Hays, their reaching intermission behind only 27-23. After trailing by four at halftime, in the third period, Chillicothe uncorked a 6-0 run of its own to retake the lead, 31-30. Fellhoelter scored inside, Macoubrie drove for a layup from the key, and Sloan's free throws at the five-minute mark put the Hornets back on top. The lead seesawed into the quarter's final minute before Nelson's lay-in with 36 seconds to go restored KHS to the lead for good, 40-39. Campbell's scoring was supported by 13 points from Macoubrie, who - like Campbell - was five of nine overall from the floor, and nine each by Jacob Fellhoelter and Sloan. Close This Window Hornets Beaten By Bishop LeBlond
Despite Seven Sloan 3s
CAMERON - For two nights, veteran Chillicothe basketball Hornets fans had wondered where the Cameron High gym 3-point magic had gone. Friday night, it resurfaced, yet still wasn't enough to snap the team out of its recent sputtering ways. On the court which has been the site of nearly every record or near-record individual 3-point shooting performance in the Hornets' history, junior forward Austin Sloan pumped in seven 3s against St. Joseph: Bishop LeBlond, but the Golden Eagles still took home a 45-41 win in the consolation game of the 18th-annual Cameron Invitational tournament. Chillicothe's defeat was its fifth in its last eight games and seventh in 11 since beginning the 2005-06 season 5-1. This one seemed to be going the Hornets' way when Sloan stroked in three right-corner 3-balls - his fifth, sixth, and seventh of the game - in a 2-1/2-minute span of the third quarter, turning a 24-24 tie into a 33-28 Chillicothe lead. However, the spark fizzled as LeBlond at last paid closer heed to Sloan's position. The Eagles responded to the optometrist's son's shooting the eyes out of the basket with an 8-1 run to close out the third period with a 36-34 lead. They would not trail again. Most costly to the Hornets (9-8) were breakdowns on the defensive boards and seemingly-unthinking passes against the trapping pressure of the extended 1-3-1 zone LeBlond employed. "It's not a lack of effort," Hornets head coach Chad Snyder said of his team's losing ways of late. "It's not playing smart," meaning mental mistakes like not recognizing defensive traps and avoiding them before they spring and not working to get good rebounding position on the defensive glass. Having established a personal varsity-career high of 17 points the night before in a victory over Excelsior Springs, Sloan splintered that with his 21-point performance Friday. He went seven of 14 from outside the arc to account for all of his scoring total, which was a CHS season-high. With a meaningless putback at the final buzzer, Hornets center Fellhoelter also reached double digits in scoring with 10 points, but the CHS guards combined for only 10 points and the bench provided nary a tally. Stumbling, but with its next five games at home over the next two weeks, Chillicothe heads into the meat of its Midland Empire Conference schedule this week. Currently 0-1 in the MEC with its loss to Platte County at Columbia, CHS will welcome Smithville for a 5 p.m. tripleheader Thursday, January 2. St. Joseph: Benton will come in Friday, January 3, and non-league foe Kirksville Saturday, January 4. Close This Window Left Draggin'
KEARNEY - The Chillicothe basketball Hornets have a reason to thank their lucky stars today. With a 58-33 defeat at the hands of Cameron Saturday, the Hornets have lost three of their last four games, all to fellow members of the Midland Empire Conference, yet they still sit with only one conference loss. The seeming contradiction is explained by the fact that the two most-recent Chillicothe losses - the first by 13 to St. Joseph: Lafayette - came in the Kearney "Bulldog Classic" tournament, not in conference play. With this year's MEC boys' championship race looking to be wide open among three or more teams, potentially, any team that could get through the seven-game league schedule with only one loss should be in great shape for having at least a share of the crown. However, with its three recent setbacks being by an average of 20 points and its shooting failing to show needed improvement from season-long struggles, Chillicothe's chances of running the table in its six remaining MEC games look extremely remote. “Like I told (the players) Saturday, basketball is a game of confidence and, if you don't have any, the game definitely gets a lot tougher,” Chad Snyder, Hornets head coach, related to the C-T today (Monday). “You play a lot tighter. “Right now, that's kind of what we're doing.” After trailing by double digits all except a couple minutes of the second half in their 60-38 loop loss to Platte County and then the better part of the final three periods against Lafayette, the Hornets (7-6) had the ignominy of having Missouri high school basketball's "running clock" measure enforced against them briefly late in Saturday's third-place game loss to Cameron at Kearney. About the only thing which went right - especially on a repeated basis - for Chillicothe Saturday was being able to get points on the scoreboard in the closing seconds of a period. In fact, the Hornets were perfect at it, scoring a basket in the final 10 seconds of each stanza, two of those being 3-pointers. That quartet of plays were about all the Chillicothe team and its fans had to hang their hats on this night. Otherwise, Cameron effectively had its way, scoring inside and out on offense, while pressuring the Hornets into missed shots and turnovers defensively and numerous times beating Chillicothe down the court after rebounding or making a steal for simple transition points. The damage was done by a variety of Dragons, but most prominently by the familiar names of seniors Eric Anderson and Drew Newhart. The three-time football All-Staters combined for 35 points, nine by Anderson in each half and 17 overall by Newhart, who drained three second-half treys. With only 33 total points, it's no shock that the Hornets did not have a double-figure scorer. Disturbingly, Fellhoelter was the only member of the Chillicothe starting five to score in the second half. Having sustained two losses in a tournament for the second time this season, the Hornets happily will have only non-tourney action this week. The varsity and junior-varsity will visit Trenton Tuesday, January 17, 2006, along with the varsity Lady Hornets, before hosting struggling Maryville Friday. Close This Window Aggressive Hornets power way past Kearney
KEARNEY - The Chillicothe basketball Hornets held host Kearney scoreless for the equivalent of one full quarter in the first half, unreeling a 10-0 run in that time, and used that early dominance to pave the way to a 47-41 triumph in the first round of the 2006 “Bulldog Classic” tournament last (Tuesday) night. Hornets junior forward Austin Sloan tallied a game-high 14 points, including 6-of-7 free-throw shooting, and senior guard Andrew Campbell 13 as Chillicothe improved to 7-4 on the season and advanced to a 6:30 p.m. championship semifinal meeting with St. Joseph: Lafayette Thursday. Third-seeded Lafayette defeated Excelsior Springs 66-40 behind sophomore guard Bryce McCrary's six 3-pointers and 23 points and team 24-of-32 foul shooting Tuesday to earn its advancement. Numerous times since the late 1990s, Chillicothe and Kearney have hooked up in tooth-and-nail, quality battles in the Kearney “Bulldog Classic” and district tournaments. When they met Tuesday, it was a meeting of a 6-4 CHS club trying to shake off a poor showing in a 60-38 loss to Platte County last Friday and a 1-12 KHS squad desperate for victory, but coming off a promising performance in a loss to Lafayette last week. The play reflected the struggles each team has had thus far in 2005-06 as Kearney let the Hornets get out to the sizable lead and then offensively-challenged Chillicothe couldn't put the Bulldogs away. The final margin was deceptive as Chillicothe still had the 12-point lead with which it entered the fourth period as the tilt reached its final 35 seconds. Kearney junior guard Derek Barnes hit two shots - one a 3-pointer - in the remaining time and teammate Trent Kohlstaedt scored just ahead of the buzzer to meaninglessly slice that margin in half. Two stretches - a 10-0 CHS run in the first half and a 12-3 spurt in the second - told the tale in the Chillicothe victory. Statistically, a huge difference in free throw attempts wasn't fully exploited by the Hornets, but they did sufficiently well. Chillicothe hit 14 of 21 foul shots while Kearney - on its home floor - tried only three, making two. “I think that was the difference in the game, our aggressiveness in taking the ball to the basket,” CHS assistant coach Phil Willard remarked today. Willard ran the club while head coach Chad Snyder served a one-game suspension. In support of Sloan's and Campbell's twin-digit scoring, Macoubrie (five assists) and Fellhoelter (nine rebounds) netted seven apiece and Cody Lowe had six. Close This Window Hornets Heat Up,
Start 2006 With Home Triumph
After their performance Monday night, the Chillicothe basketball Hornets would have a hard time convincing the St. Joseph: Lafayette Fighting Irish that shooting the ball accurately has been a problem for them thus far in 2005-06. The Hornets hit 12 field goals in 23 first-half tries (52 percent), including four of seven 3-pointers, in building a 30-15 intermission lead, then netted 12 more shots in 24 attempts in the second half to turn back a suddenly-hot-shooting Irish team's comeback bid and win 57-50. The non-Midland Empire Conference action saw Chillicothe generate - by a single point - a season-high in offense to snap a two-game losing streak. The Hornets now stand 6-3 heading into the start of MEC play Friday when they meet Platte County in neutral-site action at Mizzou Arena in Columbia as part of the 2006 MFA Oil/Break Time Shootout. Lafayette fell to 6-4. "It seemed like we finally put both phases of the (offensive) game together," Hornets head coach Chad Snyder reflected after the action at the CHS gym. Caption: The statistics starkly bear out that observation. Chillicothe hit 50 percent (six of 12 shots) outside the 3-point line, with Andrew Campbell converting three of five and Clint Macoubrie two of three, and 18 of 35 inside, where the remainder of the starting five - Cody Lowe (four of four), Jacob Fellhoelter (eight of 12), and Austin Sloan (five of nine) - were a composite 17 of 25 (68 percent). "We've always made a conscious effort to get the ball in the paint, because that helps open up your perimeter play," Snyder observed. "Fellhoelter and Sloan have both been doing a pretty good of doing that. Statistically, Chillicothe's heretofore-uncharacteristic shooting acumen produced three - and nearly five - twin-digit scorers. Added to Fellhoelter's 16 points were 13 by Sloan and 11 by Campbell. Macoubrie finished with nine and Lowe eight. Close This Window CHS Front-Line Assault Carries The Day
C-T photo / Butch
Shaffer Close This Window Familiarity Breeds Defensive Dominance
With Excelsior Springs, according to Hornets coach Chad Snyder, showing signs of continued improvement in Garrison's third year there after some very lowly win-loss records, Chillicothe found it hard to get by a foe that was fully aware of and prepared for its offensive tactics. However, the Hornets' tough defense and a 7-1 CHS mini-run bridging the end of the third quarter and start of the fourth ultimately carried the day. Andrew Campbell's basket that gave Chillicothe an insecure 22-18 advantage after three periods began the modest spurt that, after a Clint Macoubrie bucket was capped by Macoubrie's fast-break layup three-point play. When he hit the free throw, the Hornets were on top 27-19, the largest lead of the night to that point. Given the lack of offensive success ESHS had experienced in the first 25-plus minutes, that spread seemed huge and indeed proved to be virtually enough to cement the win as the Tigers (1-3) would eventually tally only 28 points. Snyder proclaimed the dearth of offense for his team was two-fold in cause. Foremost, he indicated, was, through Garrison, Excelsior Springs' preparedness for how Chillicothe's offense operates. Much like practicing against their own reserves, the defense knew where the offense wanted to go with the ball. "It's very difficult to run much of your offense when coach Garrison knows everything that we do extremely well and, whenever we make the call, he's echoing it to his kids and they're very well-coached and they know what we're running," the Hornets leader explained. The second factor in the Hornets' low production was self-induced, Snyder asserted. "We're just really struggling at the offensive end right now," he remarked. "We're not doing a very good job at finishing inside the paint when we have the opportunity. It's just one of the things we're going to have to continue to work on, one of the things that we continue to make an emphasis throughout practice." Close This Window
Holidays, Early January
Will See Hornets Play On Two College Courts The Chillicothe High basketball Hornets will have the week before Christmas off from game play before heading into a two-week stretch when they'll play three or four games on courts at William Jewell College and the University of Missouri. Although division assignments and brackets are still being finalized for the 24-team, three-division Bank Midwest/ William Jewell Classic at Liberty over the holidays, the 24 teams which will be involved have been learned by the C-T. In addition to the Hornets, fellow Midland Empire Conference (MEC) clubs Platte County, Maryville, St. Joseph: Benton, Smithville, and Cameron are in the BM/WJC field. Also there will be Kearney, a team which will be in CHS' district tournament. The remaining teams will be Columbia: Rock Bridge, Liberty, Raymore-Peculiar, St. Joseph: Central, Shawnee Mission, Kan.: St. Thomas Aquinas, Blue Springs, Raytown South, Independence schools Truman and William Chrisman, Hickman Mills, and Kansas City schools St. Pius X, Park Hill South, Central, Lincoln Prep, O'Hara, Oak Park, and Rockhurst. That tourney is slated for Dec. 26-30. The following week, on Friday, Jan. 6, the Hornets will participate, for the second-straight year, in the MFA Oil/Break Time Shootout at MU's Mizzou Arena. They'll play their MEC game against Platte County at 7:30 p.m. after Jefferson City: Helias takes on Jennings. Advance tickets, available at CHS, are $5. At the arena, they'll be $8. Close This Window Hoops Hornets Give
A Hoot, Do Major Charity Work To Defeat Visiting Owls
C-T Photo / Paul Sturm Chillicothe Hornets head coach Chad Snyder is happy his team is off to a 2-0 start in the 2005-06 high school basketball season, but he's wary his club is beginning to form a not-too-healthy habit. After falling behind by 12 points after the first quarter of their season-opening road win at St. Joseph: Benton six nights earlier, the Hornets made only field goal in the first 11:05 of their home opener against Marshall. However, because they got to the free throw line and did near-perfect work there, the Hornets hung close against the cold-shooting Owls until their offense settled in, eventually claiming a 48-39 triumph. “We're definitely going to have to get that fixed,” Snyder said of CHS' snail's-paced offensive beginnings to the first two contests. “We're putting ourselves in holes and eventually that's going to catch up to you.” It might have last night, but Marshall shot only 29 percent from the field in the first half while being unable to keep from fouling hard-driving Hornets on forays to the basket. The Hornets never trailed by more than five points as, after missing their first foul shot of the night, they reeled off eight straight “makes” en route to a string of 15 consecutive successful attempts that ended with two Drew Quinn misses in the final minute of the game. Trailing only 12-9 as a result of their marksmanship from the foul stripe, the Hornets tied the game for the first time since the game's opening bucket when senior guard Andrew Campbell pumped in a 3-pointer from left of the key as a long rebound was tipped out to him at the 4:55 mark of the second period. Just over two minutes later, it was still a 13-12 game, Marshall leading, when Clint Macoubrie popped a trey from the left win and Chillicothe was up to stay. When junior center Jacob Fellhoelter, trailing the play, put back Macoubrie's fast-break layup miss with three ticks left on the first half clock, Chillicothe carried a 20-15 advantage into the locker room.
The 6'4” Fellhoelter, it turned out, was just getting cranked up as he scored eight third-quarter points and another
Caption: Chillicothe junior center Jacob Fellhoelter goes up uncontested for two of his 16 points against Marshall. (C-T photo / Paul Sturm) Close This Window Hornets Make
'05-'06 Debut At SJ: Benton The last time the St. Joseph: Benton Cardinals played a high school basketball game that counted, they were greatly disappointed with the final count. Tuesday night, they'll get an immediate chance to - to a degree - get even. The Cardinals will host the Chillicothe Hornets in both teams' 2005-06 season opener at Benton's Pop Springer Gym Tuesday in the concluding game of a 5 p.m. freshman/junior-varsity/varsity tripleheader. The varsity contest will not count toward the Midland Empire Conference standings; that clash will come up in February in Chillicothe. Late last February at Excelsior Springs, after splitting with the Cardinals during the regular season - including by a point in the now-traditional season debut for the squads, the Hornets claimed an unexpected Class 4 district championship and trip to the state tournament over Benton 67-50. It was the second time in three years Chillicothe had bested the Cardinals with a district crown at stake. As the teams take the court tomorrow night, most of the same Cardinals will be in uniform. While the Hornets will have three returning starters (Clint Macoubrie, Andrew Campbell, Austin Sloan), the '05-'06 otherwise has a mostly-new cast. Apparently rounding out the CHS starting lineup Tuesday will be junior post man Jacob Fellhoelter, who saw very limited varsity time last year, and junior Cody Lowe, who will make his varsity debut. Heading up Hornets reserves will be senior forward Tyler Hardie, who played some last year. Two other seniors - guard Blake Shearer and forward Drew Quinn - figure to get into the fray, too. Expected to dress out, but projected for limited minutes in the early weeks, are a trio of guards - junior A.J. Kohl, sophomore Correy Miller, and freshman Tyler Trammell. Close This Window |
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Girls
Basketball 2005-2006
See Annual Awards Banquet Results above. A Very ‘Chilli' Night
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The five senior members of the 2005-06 Chillicothe Lady Hornets - from left, Angel Maxwell, Andrea Walter, Maggie Weldon, Bailey Benson, and Kim May - watch from the sidelines with head coach Karen Jackson as reserves close out Friday's 68-38 victory which clinched back-to-back winning seasons for the CHS girls for the first time since 1995-96/1996-97 seasons. Seemingly less uptight after head coach Karen Jackson encouraged them at the start of the week to “have fun” in their final two regular-season games, the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets made it a double exclamation point Friday night when they followed up last Tuesday's stunning 20-point home win over St. Joseph: Lafayette with a season-high offensive explosion in a 68-38 trouncing of the visiting Cameron Lady Dragons. The victory, putting the Lady Hornets' record at 13-10, assured fourth-year coach Karen Jackson not only her third winning campaign in three years leading her prep alma mater, but also consecutive winning seasons. That is a first for the CHS girls' program since its heyday back in the early and mid 1990s when it reeled off 123 wins in six seasons under the late Rich Fairchild, the last five of those being 20-wins-plus campaigns. That string ended in 1997-98 after Missouri Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Fairchild was sidelined just prior to the season by cancer which would end his life within months. Under emergency, interim coach Laurie Hardie, Chillicothe slipped to 13-14 that season. If the fourth-seeded CHS girls can win their Class 4 District 16 tournament opener against Kearney at Excelsior Springs this (Monday, February 20) evening at 5:30 p.m., they'll match their win total of a year ago and assure themselves a better winning percentage than last year, when they ended 14-12. Should the Lady Hornets survive Kearney, guided by former Hamilton coach Herb Webster, they'll have to meet St. Joseph: Benton, not only the tournament's No. 1 seed, but ranked No. 1 in the state by the Missouri Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association since January. A year ago, also ranked No. 1 in the state then, Benton ended Chillicothe's season with a 60-49 triumph in the district semifinals. Friday's game, February 17, against struggling Cameron - delayed one day by the threat of treacherous travel conditions as an ice storm passed through - saw a Lady Hornets performance Jackson would dearly love to bottle and be able to uncork every game. On their way to not only a season-high 68 points - their previous best had been 60 in a holiday-break victory over Putnam County at Trenton in the North Central Missouri College Foundation Shootout, the Chillicothe girls scored 20 points in the opening period, claiming a 13-point lead after one, and 39 in the opening half. The 68 points not only marks a 2005-06 team best and the largest Chillicothe point total - boys or girls - of the season, but also the most scored by a CHS girls' team in three seasons. Jackson's first Lady Hornets squad ended the 2002-03 season with a 74-73 loss to Excelsior Springs in the district tournament. It came with senior point guard Andrea Walter, for the fifth time this season, bettering her previous career-high in points with 28. Supplementing Walter's 28 were fellow senior Angel Maxwell's near-double-double of 14 points and nine rebounds, nine points by Kerri Cook, and seven from senior post player Maggie Weldon. For Maxwell, the point total was one shy of her career-best notched in the Jan. 3 home win over Kirksville. Senior
Night Snapshots
Close This Window Walter's Early Spree, Career-High 27 Dooms Maryville
Andrea Walter apparently had had enough of the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets' three-game losing streak. The senior guard, in her second-to-last home-court appearance, scored 15 of the Lady Hornets' 21 first-quarter points to rocket them on their way to a 59-39 Midland Empire Conference victory over the Maryville Lady Spoofhounds at the Chillicothe High School gym. Walter had 20 points by halftime and finished with a career-best 27 in the blowout which snapped a three-game CHS skid. The Lady Hornets went back above .500 on the season at 11-10 and advanced their MEC record to 2-2. Chillicothe took a 21-11 lead into the second quarter, having matched its season high for points in a quarter. It also scored 21 in the fourth quarter of a Dec. 20 loss to St. Joseph: Lafayette. Walter riddled the Maryville defense in the opening stanza. She opened with a pair of treys, followed with a couple of 2-point baskets, two free throws, and finally a three-point play to amass her 15-point share of that production. “It was a great game for her and, really, everybody involved.” Having an outstanding scoring night of her own was junior "sixth girl" Kerri Cook, who tallied 16. Senior forward Angel Maxwell was an eyelash away from a double-double, collecting nine rebounds to go with nine points. The game's most-critical stat almost certainly was the 28-5 difference in turnovers which favored Chillicothe. In Tuesday's freshman game, Chillicothe prevailed 26-23 behind Lily Pyrtle's 10 points. The ninth-grade Lady Hornets had lost at St. Joseph: Bishop LeBlond 45-11 Monday night. Close This Window Lady Hornets Learn Their Lesson
CAMERON - The Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets showed on the night of January 27, 2006, that they'd learned quite a bit from a couple of one-night classes - one two weeks earlier, the other two nights prior. Facing the Kansas City: Central Lady Eagles in a tournament's third-place game, just as they had (at Kearney) 14 nights before, the Lady Hornets executed a defensive approach coaches Karen Jackson and Doug French had selected very well and remained reasonably assertive on the offensive end as they gained a 51-48 triumph and their first tournament trophy of the year. After letting a 12-point second-half lead get away two nights earlier in a 35-34 semifinal loss to St. Joseph: Bishop LeBlond, being able to hold on - especially against a team to which it had lost by 15 not long before - was very satisfying, Jackson acknowledged. Using an uncharacteristic defense the coaches chose in an attempt to slow down outstanding 5'11" Central senior post player Shardae Jones, the Lady Hornets turned the tables from their previous meeting. With, first, Bailey Benson and then, for most of the night, Kerri Cook assigned to try to stay in front of Jones - who had 21 points in their meeting at Kearney, Chillicothe limited Jones' touches effectively. Never trailing in the game after Andrea Walter made a hustling steal in the first 10 seconds and drove down-court for a lay-up, the Lady Hornets went on a 20-3 run in a span of about seven minutes, including 16 unanswered points in less than four minutes late in the first quarter and early in the second. Walter, the Lady Hornets' top all-around offensive player and leading scorer on the season, seemed to thrive by getting some chances to move off the point and to the wing. Her 21-point night came on 50 percent shooting overall, but she nailed three of four 3-pointers. She also was a perfect four of four from the free-throw line while making five steals and handing out four assists with only one turnover. Angel Maxwell barely missed a double-double, pounding the glass for a game-best 14 rebounds - one of the best single-game totals in recent seasons for a Lady Hornet - while scoring nine points, the same amount Cook produced. Perhaps as important as any of those higher totals, however, was the six Maggie Weldon posted on perfect 3-of-3 shooting inside. Coupled with four rebounds, her presence was felt in the paint at both ends of the court. Chillicothe (10-7) now is finished with regular-season tournament play and turns virtually full attention to the Midland Empire Conference schedule. Close This Window Missed It By That Much KEARNEY - The Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets were less than two minutes away from upsetting - albeit in a situation worthy of an asterisk - the state's No. 1-ranked Class 4 team last (Wednesday) night. Alas, it wasn't to be.
However, even without its best player, Benton came up big in the clutch, closing with a 9-2 surge that carried it to a 43-37 triumph in the championship semifinals of the Kearney “Bulldog Classic” tourney. After Chillicothe failed to answer at its end, Benton killed some time before Jenni Musser nailed both free throws with 40 seconds left, pushing the spread to five. Andrea Walter's stop-and-go drive from out front to the right baseline and then into the paint trimmed the margin to 40-37 with 31 seconds left and Benton left the door open when Barnett missed twice at the line five seconds later. However, a pair of CHS 3-point tries to re-tie the contest surrounding a Benton traveling call were well off-target and two McIntosh charities with 10 seconds to go sealed it. With the defeat after three-straight wins, Chillicothe (7-5) moves into the tourney's third-place game at 6:30 p.m. Friday. It will face Kansas City: Central (9-5), a 45-41 loser to St. Joseph: Lafayette Wednesday night. Statistically, neither Chillicothe nor Benton shot even 28 percent from the floor, both being a bit above 27 percent. In both cases, that came despite quite a few shots from short range. “I thought we got good opportunities inside,” Jackson assessed. “We just didn't finish and, in these big ballgames, you've got to finish on the inside. “We talked about it (after the game). They're just going to have to continue to work and learn to turn and go up strong and make those shots and get fouled. Then it would maybe change the whole complexion of some of these ballgames.” Both teams also failed to capitalize much at the free-throw line. Benton was only eight of 18 there, Chillicothe nine of 22. Another notable stat was the Lady Hornets committing 16 turnovers (according to CHS statisticians) and forcing only six from the Lady Cardinals. Scoring-wise, Walter and Cook each had 11 points for CHS. McIntosh had 16 for Benton. Close This Window Lady Hornets Use
Their Influence, Edge Raytown After seeing the Lady Hornets seemingly make turnover after turnover, yet still be tied in the final minutes of their game's regulation time, Raytown may have been brainwashed into thinking the way to victory was to give the ball away. Either that or Chillicothe got a little bit lucky. Three times in the last 45 seconds, the Lady Hornets took the ball away from the suburban Kansas City team - converting the mistakes into the three points that made the difference in a 45-42 CHS victory in the opening round of the Kearney “Bulldog Classic.” Kim May's layup after the first of the three last-minute Raytown miscues snapped a 42-42 tie with 41 seconds remaining. May's steal then provided Chillicothe with a chance to increase its slender margin, which Andrea Walter did by making one of two free throws with 20 seconds to play. “We came up with a huge steal that put us out in front,” Chillicothe coach Karen Jackson commented following the game. “It was just a great finish to kind of an ugly ballgame.” The late reversal of fortune gave the fifth-seeded Lady Hornets (7-4) a three-game winning streak in 2006 and a berth in Wednesday's championship semifinals against the top-seeded St. Joseph: Benton Lady Cardinals. Benton (11-1) was a surprisingly-close 36-27 winner over Excelsior Springs Monday. Close This Window
Caption: Chillicothe senior guard Andrea Walter popped in a career-high 26 points Thursday, including 12-of-15 free-throw shooting in a home win over Platte County. She also made six steals, had three assists, and grabbed a team-high-equaling five rebounds. A career-best scoring performance by senior team leader Andrea Walter and cashing in at the free-throw line helped the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets make their 2005-06 Midland Empire Conference debut a profitable one. Hitting 12 of 15 foul shots herself, including her last nine ina row, Walter rang up 26 points as the CHS girls carved out a 60-49 home victory over Platte County. The team output was a season-best and the most for the Lady Hornets since they had 61 in an opening-round win over Excelsior Springs at the Kearney Bulldog Classic tournament last season. Ironically, Chillicothe¹s next action will be its first-round game in this year¹s Kearney tourney when it meets fourth-seeded Raytown at 5 p.m. Monday. With Walter providing eight first-quarter points, Chillicothe never (6-4, 1-0) trailed against Platte County (3-6, 0-1). Platte County¹s 24-0 points advantage from beyond the 3-point line was effectively counter-balanced by Chillicothe¹s 24-7 lead in free throws. In addition to Walter¹s big night, Cook and Maxwell produced a dozen points each. Bridger¹s 14 paced PCHS. Walter also made a game-high six steals, shared the team lead in rebounds with five, and had three assists, according to CHS statisticians. Close This Window May Day, May Day She may not have figured directly in her team's game-winning 5-0 spurt in the final minute of overtime, but senior guard Kim May had her fingerprints all over the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets' 56-52 home conquest of the Kirksville Lady Tigers Tuesday night. “She played tremendous tonight,” fourth-year CHS head coach Karen Jackson saluted the 5'6” May's 16-point, 12-rebound, four-steal performance. “We've been waiting for that Kim May all season long. We knew she had it in her.” Although it had four players score in double figures - May's 16, 15 by Angel Maxwell, and 10 each for Andrea Walter and Kerri Cook - for the first time in just over two years, led a majority of the game and was in front by as many as nine points 90 seconds into the last quarter, Chillicothe needed every bit of May's eye-popping performance to get its first win over Kirksville in many years. After letting its lead get away and each team failed to score on a couple of possessions apiece in the last minute of regulation time, Chillicothe swapped one-point advantages with the visitors four times in a 75-second span in the middle minutes of the four-minute overtime period before coming up big in the clutch. Fouled with 54 seconds remaining, Maxwell calmly sank both attempts for the lead. “Sixth girl” Kerri Cook alertly read a pass aimed for the left sideline and stepped in front to steal it about 10 seconds later. She took it in for a layup and a 55-52 cushion with 38 seconds remaining. By CHS statisticians' tally, the shorter Lady Hornets out-rebounded Kirksville by six, 51-45. May should have her performance bronzed. The senior played a central role in a pair of first-half 11-0 CHS runs, including a rare four-point play in the second stanza, as the Lady Hornets built as much as a 12-point lead. “She'd been a little frustrated because she hadn't played up to her capability,” Jackson said. “Tonight, she showed how she could play and what we were hoping she'd play like. “She played both ends of the floor - steals, laying it in, knocked down a 3. I don't think she came off the floor. Close This Window CHS Girls Run Over Lady Midgets
TRENTON - Forcing turnover after turnover with their guard-sparked fullcourt pressure, the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets were head and shoulders better than the Lady Midgets of Putnam County Tuesday afternoon in their first game in the North Central Missouri College Foundation Holiday Shootout. Never trailing and uncorking a string of 16 unanswered first-half points, the Lady Hornets posted a 49-26 victory over the girls from Unionville at NCMC's Ketcham Community Center. “I knew it was going to come down to the guards, and we were stronger and older than they were there,” CHS head coach Karen Jackson remarked afterward. “They were awfully young (two freshmen and a sophomore starting) at the guard spot.” Chillicothe, which was to play Clark County at NCMC at 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, improved its record to 4-3 in snapping a two-game skid. Putnam County, a Class 2-size school compared to CHS' Class 4 status, dropped to 4-3.
On the very mild day, the scoring ice finally shattered when Chillicothe's top scorer in the game and for the season, Andrea Walter, popped home a 3-pointer just over two minutes in. Putnam County's Jessica Steele put her team on the scoresheet with a pair of free throws at the 4:19 mark of the opening stanza, trimming the CHS lead to 3-2. That would be as close as the Lady Midgets, who managed only eight field goals the entire game on 25 percent shooting, would come to catching up. Fast-break layups by Chillicothe's reserve center Claire Constant - forced into early action by two quick fouls on starter Maggie Weldon - and Kerri Cook made it 7-2. Hilary Mason's layup in transition with 54 seconds to go in the quarter was Putnam County's initial field goal, but would be drowned by a subsequent CHS torrent. Chillicothe was paced by Walter's 16 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the field, including a pair of 3-pointers. She also had six steals and three rebounds. Joining her in scoring in double digits was “sixth girl” Kerri Cook, who went six of 12 from the floor for a dozen points. Constant just missed her first double-figure varsity game, tallying nine points, also on 50 percent shooting. Close This Window Lady Hornets Hone
Shooting, Bust Macon Zone In Third Win
C-T file photo / Paul Sturm The Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets seem to be playing a different, more-confident game this season than in the program's recent past. Given that last year's 14-12 final mark was their first winning campaign since the latter mid-1990s, it's far too early for this season's CHS team to have a swagger yet. However, like the traditional shooting accuracy game H-O-R-S-E, they're showing signs of having the “s” and “w” and working on the “a.” The Macon Tiger-ettes team came to Chillicothe Monday ready to counter CHS' pesky, swarming defense and up-tempo style with a counterpoint zone defense and inside offensive game that has frustrated Chillicothe in years past. However, the Lady Hornets hit three first-half 3-pointers and went four of seven from outside the arc on the night as they rang up a deceptively-close 46-32 home win. Chillicothe (3-1) probably could have won the non-conference game by 20 or more points - they were up by 18 with two minutes remaining in the third quarter. Coach Karen Jackson instead used the cushion and time to get some game-setting practice in on the team's ball-control, clock-burning strategies, in anticipation of trying to nurse a smaller lead to the wire later in the season. Andrea Walter had CHS' only double-digit scoring night, netting 21 points, but all seven players who saw significant time scored. As a team, the Lady Hornets shot an impressive 46 percent overall - 57 percent from 3-point land. Close This Window Lady Hornets Win ‘By the Book” At Marshall
C-T file photo / Paul Sturm MARSHALL - For the second time in three games, the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets gave coach Karen Jackson just what she's been looking for, but found only sporadically, the past couple of seasons. It's no coincidence that, also for the second time in three 2005-06 games, they won impressively. Getting virtually everyone who played involved in the point production, including having three double-digit scorers, the Lady Hornets stung Marshall's taller Lady Owls 48-36 at Marshall that afternoon. When the final horn sounded, Chillicothe had two 13-point scorers in senior forward Angel Maxwell and sixth-girl guard Kerri Cook and a dozen points from senior guard Andrea Walter. Maxwell got the decisive run going with a basket and Walter made one of two free throws after drawing the fourth foul of Amy Durham. Both Durham and fellow Jordan Gorrell spent many minutes on the bench in foul trouble and the Lady Hornets took advantage.
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Wrestling
2005-2006
Successful CHS Wrestling
Season Celebrated A 2005-06 Chillicothe High School wrestling season which met several key criteria for success was reviewed and the team members honored Thursday night (February 23) at the annual postseason awards banquet in the school commons.
This season's Hornets produced more state-tournament qualifiers, as many state medalists, and had both medalists senior 145-pounder R.B. Quinn Jr. and 119-pound junior Bobby Crabtree claim higher finishes at the state event than CHS achieved a year earlier, head coach Dave Kinen recapitulated for those attending the banquet. "We made improvement over last year," reflected Kinen for the C-T after the state tournament. "Our goals were to score more points down here, have better placing, and better place winners, and we accomplished those. We didn't get anybody into the (championship) finals, like we had hoped for, but we came up against a pretty tough kid" in the championship semifinals when Crabtree was blanked by freshman Kyle Meyer of Monett. Meyer then took first place at 119 pounds. As part of the awards program, the coach, who just completed his sixth year at the CHS helm, announced the recipients of the three special awards he and assistant Ken Stull present and identified a handful of Hornets as all-Midland Empire Conference honorees. Quinn, whose determined charge through the consolation bracket of the previous week¹s Class 2 state tournament to earn fourth place left him with the most wins (29) on this year¹s team, received the Coaches' Award. Two other seniors earned the other special recognition. Another state qualifier, 215-pounder Kyle Smith, was selected by the coaches as "most improved," while Gavin Stith, who spent the latter portion of the season in the 152-pound slot, received the Hustle Award.
A pair of CHS grapplers, Crabtree and Smith, posted the MEC's best records in their weight classes (119 and 215, respectively) during league dual matches, so they earned first-team all-conference status. As a team, this year's wrestling Hornets produced a dual-matches record (including tournament duals) of 11-9. They finished third in the MEC at 5-2 in dual matches, took fourth place in the team point standings at the district tournament at Marshall, and rode the Quinn and Crabtree medal-earning performances at state to a 16th-place team finish in the state tourney team standings. The 11-9 overall duals record gave CHS its first such winning record in three years since the 2002-03 team set a school record with a 15-3-1 mark. The final '05-'06 team mark raises Kinen's CHS career won-loss record to 39-29-1. He became the second-winningest CHS coach in history (behind current Chillicothe Middle School coach and activities director Doug Long) last year, surpassing current Marceline High coach Kent Sherrow, whose MHS team took fourth place in this year's Class 1 state tourney. In terms of individual accomplishments and team statistical leaders of the 2005-06 season, the season saw one Hornet move within striking distance of being only the second CHS grappler ever to win 100 times in a career. Crabtree's 28 wins (in 36 bouts, a team-best .778 winning percentage) moved him into third place on the CHS all-time victories list with 94. With his fourth win next season, presuming he gets it, he¹d move past Denny Albertson into second place, but his injuries this season eliminated his slim chance of catching all-time leader Pickering (149). With his team-high 29 wins, the elder Quinn concluded his career with 64 triumphs, 24th-most in CHS history. However, Murray, currently 25th with 63, figures to pass him early next season. Another 2005-06 junior, Preston Mathews, already is 22nd with 66 and is likely to join Murray in advancing into the 75-win club as a senior. With very strong 2006-07 campaigns, both could conceivably join Crabtree in the top five all-time (93 or more). Six Hornets reached or topped the 20-win level in '05-'06. That was the most since the 1989-90 team had seven. With 21 wins by fall, R.B. Quinn Jr. tied Darren Granneman in 1982-83 for sixth-most in a single season by a Hornet. This year's Hornets team included five seniors Daniel Cummings, Jon Maples, Stith, Smith, and Quinn Jr. "They're going to be missed," Kinen said of that departing group. "We saw quite a bit of improvement out of each of those kids." Fourteen CHS wrestlers with at least six varsity bouts this season will be eligible to return in 2006-07. They include juniors Jeremiah Leonard, Brett Marriott, Trevor Sherrow, Murray, Mathews, and Crabtree, and freshmen Chase Whiteside, Lloyd Jamison, James "Bubba" Maxwell, Deryck Koenig, Lowe, Pepper, Quinn, and Dahlberg. At the banquet, Kinen recounted to the C-T, he also expressed his hopes and desires for that returning group's off-season activities. "I told them we want to get as many guys as we can out on the mat (during the spring and early summer) doing freestyle (competitions)," he said. "We also want them to go to at least one camp."
Close This Window One Step Up The Ladder
COLUMBIA - While there remains considerable room for improvement, Saturday's conclusion of the 2006 MSHSAA Wrestling Championships found the Chillicothe Hornets having met a majority of their significant goals for the season. Their lone returning 2005 state medalist, Bobby Crabtree, overcame an injury-hampered season and state tourney to finish one step higher on medals podium, taking fourth place at 119 pounds in Class 2, while senior R.B. Quinn Jr.'s stirring march all the way through the 145-pound consolation bracket ended also with a fourth-place final standing. Those two medalists equaled the number of '05 medalists the Hornets produced, when Crabtree and then-senior Keith Minnis each took fifth.
“We made improvement over last year,” reflected Chillicothe coach Dave Kinen. “Our goals were to score more points down here, have better placing, and better place winners, and we accomplished those. “We didn't get anybody into the (championship) finals, like we had hoped for, but we came up against a pretty tough kid” in the championship semifinals when Crabtree was blanked by freshman Kyle Meyer of Monett. Meyer then took first place early Saturday evening, decisioning Logan Schmitz of Kirksville 7-2. Having taken on Meyer only hours after sustaining a neck injury that prompted a default to him in Friday morning's quarterfinals, Crabtree had one slipup in Friday night's semifinal bout and it cost him a 5-0 loss. The CHS junior then recovered to whip Curt Gegg of Ste. Genevieve on a 16-1 technical fall in Saturday morning's fourth-round wrestlebacks, setting up a third-place rematch with the quarterfinal opponent who had injured him, Cody Frye of Grain Valley. With a disputed third-period takedown, Frye gained a 3-2 comeback victory. Quinn, after a nerves-hampered decision loss in his opening-round bout Thursday, came back with four wins in a row Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before suffering his fourth loss of the season to nemesis D.W. Bradshaw of Marshall, a 15-7 major decision, in the third-place bout early Saturday afternoon. Chillicothe had one near-miss for a third overall medal. Quinn's freshman brother, Stephen, won his first two consolation bouts after being beaten back in the opening round Thursday, but was eliminated one victory short of a medal (top-six finish) Friday evening when he was major-decisioned 12-3 by senior Michael McCampbell of Marshall. That final score was deceptive as the bout was tied 3-3 after two periods. The other half of Chillicothe's six-wrestler delegation to the 76th-annual state tournament - senior 215-pounder Kyle Smith, 130-pounder Dustin Murray, and 135-pounder Charlie Pepper had been eliminated either earlier Friday or Thursday. Close This Window Hornets' State Wrestlers Test-Toughened
The countdown is on for six Chillicothe Hornets wrestlers. In less than 48 hours, they'll be on the mat in the Mizzou Arena at Columbia in the 76th-annual MSHSAA Wrestling Championships. In the tournament's first year at the University of Missouri's new athletic palace after more than a quarter-century across the parking lot at the Hearnes Multipurpose Center, Chillicothe will be represented in the Class 2 tournament by two seniors, two juniors making repeat state appearances, and two freshmen. Seniors R.B. Quinn Jr. and Kyle Smith and freshmen Stephen Quinn and Charlie Pepper earned their first trip to state-level competition by placing in the top four in their respective weight classes at this past Saturday's District 2 tournament at Marshall.
Juniors Dustin Murray and Bobby Crabtree made it back-to-back state appearances by finishing second at Marshall, as well. The six-wrestler contingent matches CHS' largest since 1988, when eight went to state. The 1989-90 team also produced six state qualifiers. Friday morning's session includes the championship quarterfinals and second-round wrestlebacks. Friday night are third-round wrestlebacks and the championship semifinals. On Saturday morning, fourth-round wrestleback bouts are contested, followed that afternoon and evening by the first-, third-, and fifth-place medal matches. Close This Window Swim, Mat Hornets Put Focus On State State-level competition is on the minds of Chillicothe High School's wrestlers and one of its three male swimmers these days. In the case of freshman swimmer Stephan Franke, that focus is on performing well in his two events at the 69th MSHSAA Boys' Swimming & Diving Championships in faraway St. Peters (west of St. Louis about 10 miles). For the CHS grapplers, the attention is on gaining a top-four finish in their weight in this Friday's and Saturday's, Feb. 10-11, Class 2 district tourney at Marshall High School in order to qualify for the state tourney at Columbia next Thursday through Saturday, Feb. 16-18. In CHS' first year of spons | ||||||||||||
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Junior center Jacob Fellhoelter of the Chillicothe Hornets shoots over an Excelsior Springs defender Friday night. Fellhoelter tied Clint Macoubrie for team scoring honors with 15 points and led the Hornets with nine rebounds, but Chillicothe still fell to the ESHS Tigers 57-51 in the district title game.
CHS got 26 from seniors Clint Macoubrie (15) and Andrew Campbell (11), but none from freshman Tyler Trammell. As could be excused, Trammell, whose late-season emergence partially fueled Chillicothe's charge to the finals, seemed to grow increasingly jittery as the game wore on and he struggled some on both ends of the floor. The game's statistics generally favored the triumphant Tigers, with Clemens' and Cox's scoring and shooting totals leading the way. As a team, Excelsior Springs was charted by volunteer tournament-staff statisticians as having two less turnovers (9-11) and outshooting Chillicothe from the field 47-40 percent.
The Hornets were off their recent 3-point shooting form, making only five of 19, including a 1-of-7 first half. Meanwhile the Tigers prospered from there, hitting six of 13, including four of eight before halftime to fuel their rally.
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Tyler Trammell, Chillicothe Hornets freshman guard, hits the first of his three first-half 3-pointers in Thurday's
(February, 23) district semifinal victory over St. Joseph: Lafayette.
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Chillicothe senior guard Cody Lowe grimaces as he finds the going a little tough as he gets sandwiched by Maryville defenders last night. It was one of the few times CHS' Hornets found the going tough as they routed the Spoofhounds 66-35, ending a four-game losing skid.
Hornets' offense perks up considerably in Saturday night loss to Kirksville
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Chillicothe Hornets center Jacob Fellhoelter grabs the ball for an important fourth-quarter steal after it deflected off the hands of Bishop LeBlond's Tyler Irizarry (22). 
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Chillicothe Hornets senior guard Blake Shearer hits the floor to try to secure a loose ball late in Saturday's loss to Cameron in the Kearney “Bulldog Classic” third-place game. Cameron won 58-33. 
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Chillicothe's Austin Sloan pulls down a rebound in Tuesday's victory.
(C-T photo / Butch Shaffer) 
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Chillicothe Hornets senior guard Andrew Campbell makes a pass as he comes past an Austin Sloan screen during Tuesday's 55-44 home victory over Moberly. Campbell dished out seven assists in the game and Sloan and fellow junior Jacob Fellhoelter each scored 15 points and grabbed six rebounds as the Hornets improved to 4-1 on the season. 
Caption: The defensive play of senior Cody Lowe (foreground) and his Chillicothe teammates - Austin Sloan, Jacob Fellhoelter, and Clint Macoubrie seen here, right to left, during last week's home win over Marshall - paved the way to
that night's road victory at Excelsior Springs.
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His legs nudged out from under him and headed for a crash landing that left him with a split-open right eyebrow, Chillicothe Hornets guard Clint Macoubrie nevertheless flips home a fourth-quarter shot that helped CHS beat Marshall 48-39 Monday.
six in the fourth to end the night with 16 in only his second varsity start.
“We've got to have an inside punch,” Snyder asserted. “I think our guards are pretty good and fairly good shooters, (but) you definitely don't want to live and die from (outside shooting).
“(The coaching staff) had to get on Jacob a little bit at halftime and we thought he came out and played an excellent second half. He just played like we think he's capable.”
Once down by a couple of possessions, Marshall's Owls never had the ball with a chance to tie things.
Macoubrie netted a game-best 17 points for the second game in a row, hitting six of 14 field goal tries on a night when the team shot only 33 percent overall.
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Chillicothe senior guard Andrea Walter goes a little “Michael Jordan” on Maryville
the night of February 7, 2006, putting out her tongue as she prepares to score some of her career-high 27 points. 
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Chillicothe senior center Maggie Weldon goes up for an inside basket during the first quarter of Friday's 51-48 Lady Hornets victory over Kansas City: Central in the third-place game of the Cameron Invitational tournament. Weldon hit all three shots she attempted to provide six key inside points as the Lady Hornets executed a game plan of taking the ball to the basket. The senior also pulled down four rebounds and helped with the team's key defensive strategy of trying to keep the ball out of the hands of Central standout center Shardae Jones. 
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Kerri Cook gives Chillicothe a 30-27 lead with this 22-foot 3-pointer in the fourth quarter Wednesday.
KEARNEY - With nefarious, insidious psychology, the Chillicothe basketball Lady Hornets lured the Raytown Lady Bluejays into their trap
on Monday, January 9, only to strike when the right moment arrived.
Lady Hornets
Build Big Lead, Hold Off Platte County Rally in MEC Play
Caption:
Chillicothe senior Kim May has her eyes fixed on the basket as she drives in for a layup during her stirring 16-point, 12-rebound performance in Tuesday's 56-52 overtime win over Kirksville.
(C-T photo / Butch Shaffer)
Caption:
Chillicothe junior backup center Claire Constant and an unidentifiable teammate defend Putnam County's Jamie Mullenix during Tuesday's game in the North Central Missouri College Foundation High School Holiday Shootout at Trenton. With starter Maggie Weldon in quick foul trouble, Constant stepped up to provide nine points and three rebounds in Chillicothe's easy 49-26 victory.
Caption:
Sophomore Holly Williams of the Chillicothe Lady Hornets rips down a rebound in front of Putnam County's Jessica Steele in the first half. 
Caption: The ball goes flying as Chillicothe Lady Hornets senior guard Kim May is fouled by Macon's Abbey Halley as, following May's steal, she prepares to go up for a layup attempt on a third-quarter fast break Monday night. May had a nice game with five points, four rebounds, and two steals as Chillicothe posted a 46-32 home victory.
Caption:
Junior reserve center Claire Constant made a big impact on the Chillicothe Lady Hornets' win at Marshall Saturday, even though she didn't score a point. She had four rebounds and three steals against the taller Lady Owls. 
Caption:
Chillicothe's Bobby Crabtree tries to squirm free for the tying or go-ahead points in his 119-pound third-place bout against Cody Frye of Grain Valley at the state wrestling tournament Saturday,
February 18, as his coaches, Dave Kinen (right) and Ken Stull, look on.
Caption:
Chillicothe freshman Stephen Quinn (in mask) battled back from an opening-round loss in the Class 2 state tournament to split four matches, bowing out
February 18, one victory shy of a state medal with a 12-3 loss to the eventual fifth-place finisher.
Caption:
Senior R.B. Quinn Jr. of the Chillicothe Hornets has Warrenton's Nathan Denny under control during their 145-pound championship semifinal bout at Saturday's Class 2 District 2 tournament at Marshall. Quinn decisioned Denny 11-6 to clinch a trip to this week's state tournament and his younger brother, 125-pounder Stephen, later also qualified for state by finishing in third place.
Caption:
Chillicothe senior Kyle Smith has Ryan Shidaker of Warrenton on his knees during their second-round 215-pound bout during last weekend's district tournament. Smith won the bout by fall in the second period and eventually finished third to qualify for this week's state tournament.