Sixth-graders Tyler Townsend (McDill) and Lindsay Smaglik (Bannach) and fifth-graders Austin Westlake (Roosevelt) and Jocelyn Herman (Bannach) are champions for 2002 of the Stevens Point elementary schools free throw competition for boys and girls.
Winners were determined during halftimes of recent Stevens Point Area Senior High School (SPASH) boys and girls varsity home games at which the top two finishers in semifinal activity earned the right to throw their final five free throws during intermissions of high school contests.
It was the fourth annual competition and was sponsored by the separate boys and girls SPASH Basketball Booster clubs.
Physical education teachers conducted free throw shooting to select the winner at each of the Stevens Point School District's 10 elementary schools.
Pete Taggatz coordinated the program for the boys and Trace Kujawa coordinated for the girls. They were assisted by members of their respective booster organizations.
Townsend and runnerup Nick Przybylski (Washington) each hit eight of 10 free throws in their semifinal round. Townsend added four more (out of five) to begin the finals, then got three more in front of the SPASH crowd to finish with 15 of 20. Przybylski got two and three in his last two appearances to finish with 13. Andrew Shirek (Kennedy) just missed forcing a shootoff with seven in the semifinals.
Smaglik and runnerup Amanda Evanoff (Plover-Whiting) both finished their final round by sinking four out of 10 throws. Smaglik then took top honors by winning the sudden-death shootoff.
Westlake made eight of 10 in the preliminaries. He was one up at that point on both Brett Napiwocki (Washington) and Joel Helminiak (Kennedy). Napiwocki then won a shootoff to determine the other finalist. In the finals Westlake again hit eight of 10, including four of five at halftime of the SPASH varsity game. That gave him a total of 16 out of 20, top score for all Grade 5-6 participants.. Napiwocki got three in the finals and finished with 11 of 20.
Herman and runnerup Colby West (McKinley) also needed a sudden-death shootoff to determine first place. Each made five of 10 during the two sets of championship round competition, then Herman won the playoff.
Also participating in the semifinals as school champions were:
Grade 6: Ben Provisor (Bannach), Travis Salvinski and Amber Rehberg of Jackson, Josh Loslinski and Micaela Hanson of Jefferson, Emily Johnson (Kennedy), Zac Matke and Nikki Golomski of Madison, Tia Teske (McDill), Dustin Lepak and Crystal Tracey of McKinley, Jordan Shirek (Plover-Whiting), Curtis Ver Hagen and Amber Zabawa of Roosevelt and Thomasina Johnson (Washington).
Grade 5: Jacob Schultz (Bannach), Joe McKeown and Mariah Bemowski of Jackson, Allen Fengier and Rhoda Henson of Jefferson, Kaitlin Zarecki (Kennedy), Danny Braudry and Katie Shulfer of Madison, David Flury and Kelly Jastromski of McDill, Eric Waterson (McKinley), Jordan Brozik and Brittany Berquist of Plover-Whiting, Hillary Trebiatowski (Roosevelt) and Holly Meshak (Washington).
Note: Flury hit six of 10 free throws in the semifinals.