Eye on Libertyville High School Sports

athletic director Briant Kelly chooses athletes of the week for his high school. Last week, he saluted Libertyville boys bowler Jack Baumruk.

It seems Baumruk has figured out this winter sport. His scores of 658 against Lake Zurich and 675 against Vernon Hills were a big improvement on his scores from the last year. About 50 pins better that is. Of course last year, Baumruk was a freshman on the varsity. Now he's an experienced sophomore leading the Wildcats. These Wildcats fell to Lake Zurich to open the campaign but gave Vernon Hills all they could handle in a 5-4 loss.

The Wildcats head for Niles next Tuesday for a battle with Evanston. Also there is a contest with New Trier at home.

Girls Bowling: The girls bowler to keep an eye on? Maybe it's senior Kayla Gibbs. On opening night of girls bowling, Gibbs fired a 470. That was inspired by a 196 score in game two.

And what was the final score of this match? Libertyville shot a 2,095. Lake Zurich rolled a 2,095. What are the chances of that? Libertyville won the match via points (5.5 to 3.5).

Boys Hoops: Four straight wins opened the campaign at the Maine West Tournament.

"I'm happy with our record,'' said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil. "We played really well in the first game and then had the turkey hangover in the next few games."

Ellis Matthews and Griffin Pils earned all-tournament honors.

The Wildcats are working with some experienced players this season and that should help.

Luke Mathewson and Anthony Mack are also back to help the Wildcats. Bogumil was also pleased with his team's defensive efforts.

"We held all four teams to under 50 points,'' he said. "Having four starters back helps. They know the sets."

Girls Hoops: , the Wildcats clobbered a few teams. Now in rebuilding mode, you wouldn't think that would happen again.

Well the lopsided score is back. In the last two games, the Wildcats have outscored their opponents, 130-45.

This included a 60-31 romp over Westinghouse in the Buffalo Grove Thanksgiving Tournament.

We came out ready to play in the first quarter,'' said Libertyville coach Kathie Swanson. "Our intensity on defense created our offense. Considering that we had come out slow the past few games, that was good to see."

Swanson was pleased with the work of Dana Kym who came off the bench. She had a double double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Swanson also complimented the play of Nicole Kruckman, who had a great start in this game.

The score from Tuesday's game with Round Lake was 70-14.

"This was one of the few times in which we were taller than the opposition, so we were able to get good inside looks,'' Swanson said.

Last week's athlete of the week, , easily outscored the entire Panthers team with 27 points.

Also winning an athlete of the week award was swimmer Morgan Dickson, who collected a pair of sixth-place finishes at the IHSA state meet. She starred in both the 200 and 500 free races.

Wrestling: Libertyville didn't beat Grant last week but there were some good moments. In the 27-15 loss to the NSC Prairie Division power, Steve Polakowski made his first varsity match as success when he toppled a returning sectional qualifier. Polakowski, wrestling at 113, won this match 8-5.

Also bringing down a returning regional champion was Austin Pettinato. At 140, Pettinato won his match 6-3. Also picking up their first varsity wins were Sal Ayala (160) by a pin, Austin Koziol (182) by 6-0 and Joey Nield (195) by a 6-0 score. The tested veterans Pat Fitzgerald (126) and Charlie Meyer (132) also breezed. Fitzgerald won 9-3 and Fitzgerald dominated 13-0.

Saturday's Barrington Invitational brought in 30 teams. The Wildcats placed fifth and managed to beat Grant. Polakowski reached the finals before falling to the top wrestler in the state. He placed third. Fitzgerald landed in fifth place. Also placing fifth was Josh Hirth (138) in his first varsity match.

In better news, every Libertyville wrestler won at least one match. Also new to varsity wrestling, Connor O'Donnell, won three matches. Mike Coutre (152) and Kevin Barbian (220) won two matches each.

Ice Hockey: Now it's true there is no ice rink at . But that doesn't mean there are no folks interested in hockey.

The Ice Cats are a club team that brings in players from both Libertyville and Vernon Hills. And hockey season is well underway. Shawn Brown is the new coach for this team that plays in the Metro Central League.

This team has four wins in the early going as they await the return of leading scorer Peter Henderson who was lost for the past month with a shoulder injury. In the 10 games he did play, Henderson fired in 7 goals. Picking up the load in his absence is junior Phil Santi who now has 11 goals.

With five goals each are Alex Valente and Jack Segall.

In the best news so far, this team held a Pink Game to open the season and raised $2,500 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation to fight breast cancer.

Gymnastics: It's early in the season but the varsity came close to beating Lake Forest, falling 142.60-136.45. The JV team did manag to stop the Scouts 65-21.9.

Correction: The previous version of this article misspelled Libertyville High School Athletic Director's name. We regret the error.