The Belvidere North cheerleaders began the first postseason step toward a three-peat as state champions by capturing the NIC-10 crown on Thursday night.
The Blue Thunder tallied 95.67 points to outdistance second-place Harlem (87.47).
Rounding out the scoring was Boylan (84.13), Hononegah (81.27), Guilford (79.13), Belvidere (69.51), Freeport (58.40), Auburn (57.11), East (56.56) and Jefferson (56.07).
Next up for area teams is the Jan. 26 Grayslake North Sectional, which will feature all the NIC-10 squads along with DeKalb, Byron, Durand, Genoa-Kingston, Oregon, North Boone, Rockford Christian, Stillman Valley and Big Northern winner and defending state champ Rockford Lutheran.
MLK TOURNAMENTS
Many area schools were set to participate in Martin Luther King Tournaments Saturday and Monday, but the inclement weather has thrown a wrench in those plans.
Saturday action in the Lena-Winslow, DeKalb and Byron girls tournaments, and the Freeport South Beloit boys tourney has been cancelled. However Monday’s action is still expected to go off as planned with possible changes within that day’s schedules.
As of this writing, the Jefferson MLK set for Saturday and Monday is still on as scheduled.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Boylan got a revenge victory over Harlem on Wednesday night, moving the Titans into a second-place tie behind undefeated East.
After losing to the Huskies by 25 points on the own court, Boylan invaded Harlem territory and rattled off a 63-54 victory. Both teams now sit at 8-3, giving 12-0 East a fairly big cushion.
In the Big Northern, Rockford Christian fell 6957 to Byron last weekend to drop out of the undefeated ranks, leaving Rock Falls as the only team with an unblemished BNC mark at 3-0.
RC fell to 3-1 and sits in a tight second-place tie with Dixon and Byron.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
The NIC-10 girls race continues to feature just two horses, as undefeated Boylan sits on top at 12-0 (20-0 overall) with Hononegah one game back at 10-1. North, which almost knocked off the Titans earlier this season, dropped a pair of matchups with the Indians within a five-day stretch (63-37 on Jan. 8 and 76-56 on Jan. 12) to drop to a relatively distant third.
Boylan and Hononegah meet again in Rockton on Feb. 5.
BOYS BOWLING
Hononegah, Harlem, Rockford Christian and Belvidere will be among the .. teams set to participate in Saturday’s Jefferson Sectional at Don Carter Lanes in Rockford. Those four advanced from last Saturday’s North Regional.
Ethan Pash of Harlem took medalist honors with a total score of 1,437. For complete regional results, click here.
Also advancing to the Jefferson Sectional are DeKalb and Sycamore, who took third and fourth respectively at last Saturday’s DeKalb Regional, and Freeport, Auburn, Boylan and Oregon out of the Freeport Regional. Oregon’s Austin Strite took medalist honors at Freeport with a 1,372 score. For complete results from Freeport, click here.
DANCE
Area dance teams will be competing in the Huntley Sectional on Saturday. This includes all nine NIC-10 teams (Jefferson does not have a team), along with Rochelle, Genoa-Kingston, DeKalb and Sycamore.
— By Randy Ruef, Sportsfan 1330