Princeton wrestlers qualify 8 for sectionals, St. Bede advances 4: BCR roundup for Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024

Princeton qualified eight wrestlers for sectionals, including five regional champions from Saturday’s Class 1A Sandwich Regional.

St. Bede qualified four wrestlers, including two regional champions to join Princeton at this week’s Byron Sectional.

“Overall, I thought we performed really well,” PHS coach Steve Amy. “It is not too often that you finish a regional with five champs and three other top 3 placers. We had some great performances out of our guys that makes us really excited for sectionals.”

Regional champs for Princeton were sophomores Augustus Swanson (106) and Casey Etheridge (165), juniors Ian Morris (215) and Cade Odell (285) and senior Preston Arkels (157).

Ace Christiansen (138) was runner-up while Mikey Kurth (150) and Eli Berlin (190) each placed third to advance.

Also for PHS, Jaydon Cooke (120) and Abe Longeville (144) placed fourth.

Princeton (170) placed second as a team behind host Sandwich (205.5).

St. Bede’s Hunter Savage (125) and Grady Gillan (190) won regional titles while Logan Pineda (150) was runner-up and Garrett Connelley (175) was third.

The Byron Sectional starts on Friday with finals slated for Saturday. The top 4 place-winners from each class advance to State.

“We’re looking forward to Sectionals. We have a great opportunity in front of us,” Amy said. “I like where we are sitting in the brackets, but we have to come ready to compete. At this point in the season anything can happen so you have to have a short memory and keep moving forward to give yourself an opportunity to be wrestling at state next week.”

Girls basketball

Princeton 55, Kewanee 54: The Tigresses literally hung on for a victory at Prouty Gym Saturday afternoon as the Boilermakers had a final shot at the buzzer rim in and out.

With the win, the Tigresses clinnched the Three Rivers East title at 8-1, improving to 18-7 overall.

After falling behind 35-33 at the end of the third quarter and 41-38 midway through the fourth quarter, the Tigresses went on a 12-0 run to take a 50-41 lead.

Keighley Davis had scoring drives on the front and back ends of the run and Paige Jesse and Camryn Driscoll hit back-to-back 3s in the middle.

Mya Dearing shot the Boiler Girls back in the game with a pair of free throws and two 3-pointers and Tehejhiana Amos drew them within 55-54 with 14 seconds left.

Dearing got a good look at the buzzer and nearly sent Kewanee home a winner, but couldn’t get it to drop. PHS missed three free throws in the final 24 seconds to give Kewanee a chance.

Davis led the Tigresses with 17 points and Driscoll added 15.

For Kewanee (9-17, 5-5), Damaris Diaz and Dearing each had 17 points and Amos had 15.

Princeton 24, Kewanee 17 (F/S): Ava Kyle led PHS in victory with 10 points Saturday.

Bureau Valley 50, Orion 48: Kate Salisbury scored 18 points to lead the Storm to a Three Rivers Conference crossover victory at the Storm Cellar. Taylor Neuhalfen added 13 points for the Storm.

St. Bede 48, Putnam County 29: Sisters Ali (16) and Lily (14) Bosnich combined for 30 points to lead the Bruins to a Tri-County Conference victory at the Academy. The Bruins finished 13-1 in the TCC to win the conference title.

Ava Hatton had 12 points for Putnam County, while Maggie Richetta had seven points.

Boys basketball

Byron 72, Princeton 57: Host Byron won the battle of Tigers in the nonconference game Saturday in Byron. Ryan Tucker (30) and Jack Hiveley (20) combined for 50 points for Byron

Midland 60, LaMoille 30: The Lions dropped a nonconference game in Varna on Saturday.

St. Bede 55, Amboy 41: Kaden Nauman scored 14 points to help the Bruins to a nonconference victory at the Academy on Saturday. Mason Ross had 10 points.