Basketball revs up with tournaments

~The Oran, Woodland and Farmington events are among those scheduled for this week.

High school basketball season has begun for a few area squads, but the annual Oran, Woodland and Farmington invitationals mark the start of the year for many squads.

Nearly every area boys team will be in action starting today.

The Woodland Invitational truly is a local affair, with all eight teams from the Southeast Missourian coverage area.

Notre Dame, the defending champion, has drawn the top seed again and will face No. 8 Zalma at 5 p.m. today. Perryville is seeded second and will play Oak Ridge today, and No. 4 Delta will face No. 5 Leopold today. The other quarterfinal game pits No. 3 Meadow Heights against host Woodland on Tuesday.

The championship of the Woodland Invitational is set for 8 p.m. on Friday.

The 51st annual Oran Invitational could potentially set up a semifinal matchup between Bell City and Scott County Central, both Class 1 district champions from last year and involved in a lawsuit stemming from allegations that Scott County Central coach David Heeb exerted undue influence in an attempt to have players transfer from his former school, Bell City. As a result of the allegations, Heeb was suspended from coaching for the second semester of this season by the Missouri State High School Activities Association, which also is a party in the lawsuit filed by Heeb. Rather than coach half the year, Heeb has essentially turned the team over to former Braves coach Ronnie Cookson, who holds the record for state championships, for this season.

Bell City is seeded second at Oran, and the Braves are seeded third.

Opening-round matchups include top-seeded Malden against the Advance junior varsity, No. 4 Advance versus No. 5 Kelly, No. 2 Bell City versus No. 7 Twin Rivers and No. 3 Scott County versus No. 6 Oran.

If both the Cubs and Braves win their opening games, a semifinal between the two teams would be 8 p.m. Thursday. The championship is 8 p.m. on Friday.

The area's lone Class 5 schools will be in action at the Farmington Invitational.

On the boys side, fifth-seeded Central will face No. 4 St. James at 8 p.m. on Tuesday. No. 3 Jackson will play No. 6 Salem at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. Opening-round games will be played at Farmington High School, while the semifinals and championship game will be played at the Farmington Civic Center.

The finals are 8:30 p.m. on Saturday.

Doniphan drew the top seed.

The girls teams from Central, Jackson and Notre Dame will compete in their division of the Farmington Invitational. Jackson, seeded fourth, will play Dexter today, and No. 6 Notre Dame will play host Farmington today. Central, seeded eighth, faces top seed Belleville (Ill.) East on Tuesday.

The finals are 7 p.m. on Saturday at the Civic Center.

Soccer honors

SEMO Conference champion Notre Dame led the way with seven first-team selections on the all-conference team.

The Bulldogs were undefeated in conference play and captured the Class 2 state title in a 26-1 season.

Notre Dame's Abe Dirnberger, Jack Wedemeier, Jordan Buchheit, Mark Zimmer, Ryan Bass, Ryan Willen and Ty Williams made the first team.

Jackson, a district winner in Class 3, had three first-team members: Brian Davidson, Chris Shelton and Derek Richardson.

Matt Compass, Matt Hester and Zach Zaruba were first-team members from Central.

Caleb Beussink (Jackson), Asad Malik (Central), Lucian Johnson (Central), Brooks Osburn (Central) and Brad LaBruyere (Central) all made the second team.

Notre Dame also had seven first-team all-district members. Dirnberger, Wedemeier, Buchheit, Zimmer, Bass, Willen and Williams were the first-team selections. Austin Gelsheimer made the second team from Notre Dame.

Still running

Several runners from Central's cross county program competed at the Foot Locker Midwest Regional in Kenosha, Wis.

The event featured runners from 12 states in a qualifier for a national meet. The top 10 runners in the high school boys and girls races qualified for nationals.

Three Central students participated in the high school girls race, which featured 341 runners.

Sophomore Brittany Moreland was 90th overall, and second among Missouri competitors, completing the 5-kilometer course in 19 minutes, 40 seconds.

Sophomore Veronica Schabbing was 180th overall, and ninth from Missouri, in 20:53. Junior Tiffany Mead was 267th overall, and 16th from Missouri, in 22:55.

Sophomore Jessie Hahn, participating in the freshman-sophomore race, was 73rd overall, and third from Missouri, in 24:01.

Two boys from Cape Girardeau also participated in the race for grades 6 through 8.

Billy Leighton, a sixth-grader, was 13th overall in 19:25. He was the top Missouri finisher.

Eric Schott, an eighth-grader, was 22nd overall in 20:40. He was the second finisher from Missouri.

"We hoped this would be a good experience for these runners," said Central coach Mark Hahn, who accompanied the group. "That's why we drove this distance to compete. They all did very well."