ST. VINCENT GOLFERS CARD 1A STATE CROWN

COLUMBIA -- Thanks to the boys golf team, St. Vincent High School has its first-ever state championship.

The Indians rallied from a six-stroke deficit after Monday's first day of competition to storm to the title in the Class 1A Tournament held at the Lake of the Woods Course.

St. Vincent, after Monday's 341, got down to 320 Tuesday for a total of 661. That was 13 strokes better than first-day leader Tipton, which finished at 674.

"What a great comeback today," said St. Vincent coach Tom Prost. "It's really exciting and it's a great accomplishment."

The Indians' top individual was freshman Craig Schumer, who was seventh at 158 after Tuesday's 75. Schumer earned all-state honors, which go to the top 15 finishers.

"Craig's round just got everybody going," said Prost.

Also for the Indians, freshman Jon Paulus tied for 21st at 165 and three golfers tied for 38th at 171: junior Joe Ponder and sophomores Matt Hoch and Ryan Prost.

St. Vincent has been close to a state golf title before, finishing second in 1994, third in 1995 and third last season. Despite having an extremely youthful squad this year, Prost felt the Indians had a shot.

"We've got some really young talent, with two freshmen, two sophomores and a junior," he said. "But I just knew that if you got enough solid players, if somebody would just step up and take the lead, that's all a team needs. That's what happened for us today."

In other state golf action in Columbia, Notre Dame wound up 14th out of 18 teams in Class 2A. The Bulldogs finished at 677. Champion Richmond had 603.

Notre Dame's top finisher was Jonathan LeGrand, who tied for 34th at 158. The champion had 139. LeGrand shot 77 Tuesday.

Also for the Bulldogs, John Brey tied for 53rd (164), Chris Koeper tied for 102nd (179), Matt Howard tied for 111th (186) and Cliff Seratti tied for 113th (187).

In Class 4A competition held in Sedalia, Cape Central's two golfers finished well off the pack as Dane McLaird had 167 and Danny Groesbeck 173. Their exact places were not available.

Also in 4A, Jackson's Gabe Estes finished at 167.

In the 4A team competition, Poplar Bluff was 12th at 651. Champion Rockhurst had 594.

GIRLS SOCCER

District 1 Tournament

JACKSON -- Cape Girardeau Central and host Jackson, the top two seeds, both posted shutout victories Tuesday as the District 1 Tournament got under way.

No. 1 seed Central had little trouble keeping its perfect season alive with a 10-0 thrashing of No. 8 Farmington while No. 2 Jackson eased past No. 7 Windsor.

The first round will conclude today with two more games as No. 4 Poplar Bluff plays No. 5 St. Pius at 3 p.m. and No. 3 Perryville meets No. 6 Notre Dame at 5.

Semifinal action will be Thursday at 3 and 5, with the championship game set for 11 a.m. Saturday.

Central's Lady Tigers built a 6-0 lead at halftime and enacted the 10-goal rule with nine minutes remaining. Central improved to 18-0-1.

Amber Voerg and Mindy Hoffman both scored two goals to lead the attack. Amanda Hiler, Corie Nunnley, Jennifer Daume, Rachel Hessenkemper and Ashley Voerg all had single goals.

Hessenkemper also had two assists, as did Melissa Altenthal.

Goalie Amy Harris recorded her 14th shutout.

Jackson got two goals from Julianne Hall and one each from Julie Wunderlich and Jessica Shultz to improve to 14-4-1. Wunderlich also had two assists. Emily Ruessler earned the shutout.

BASEBALL

1A, District 2 Tournament

ORAN -- Top-seeded, host Oran and No. 2 Advance won semifinal games Tuesday to move into Thursday's 4:30 championship game.

Oran improved to 19-3 and avenged last year's district title loss by pounding No. 4 Valle 13-3 in six innings.

Dustin Dannenmueller allowed seven hits and two earned runs while striking out nine for the win.

The Eagles pounded out 16 hits, including six home runs. Billy Loper homered twice among his three hits and drove in four runs. Also getting homers were Justin Wiermann, Chris Nichols, Jeff Schaefer and Travis Friga.

Wiermann, Nichols, Schaefer, Justin McAllister and Adam Friga all had two hits.

Advance downed No. 3 Oak Ridge 9-6. Garrett Broshuis got the win. He worked five innings, allowing eight hits and one run while fanning five.

Oak Ridge got the game's only homer from Blake Friese. Brian Glueck took the loss even though he went just one inning before leaving with tightness in his shoulder.