SPORTSBEAT BY PETER JAKEY: Two talented female athletes

Huron senior Lacey Kreft?s drive on the cross country course and Posen junior point guard Mary Calhoun?s drives down the lane on the basketball court against Hillman provided some of the top moments of the fall high school sports season this last week. Kreft overcame injuries that kept her out of the first part of the cross country season to climb into the top 10 at the Division IV state finals, after finishing 31st as a junior. Calhoun overcame an aggressive Hillman defense to shatter the school record for most points in a game with 47 and put her Viking squad in a position to capture an outright North Star League championship, which would be the school?s first title in 25 years. A win tonight against Arenac Eastern will wrap up the title.

IT ISN?T often an athlete turns in one of the best performances of his or her career in their final sporting event. That?s what Lacey was able to accomplish. She had shin splints at the beginning of the season and didn?t start running competitively until midseason. Once Lacey got going, she continued to improve during her shortened season but as regionals drew closer a hip problem started giving her problems. The hip had to be continuously realigned. Karen Kreft, Lacey?s mom, said Damon Hastings of Rogers City Physical Therapy worked with her before regionals at Gaylord and before state at Brooklyn. At regionals it was a tremendous one-two finish for Rogers City. Lacey earned a second place finish, right behind her sister Kaylee.

IN THE days leading up to state, Lacey needed more treatment for her injured hip. Hastings again realigned it and Lacey turned in her best time of her cross country career with a time of 19:08, in her final cross country race. ?To come back like that was amazing,? said second year coach Rob Kortman. Lacey missed making all-state last year by a couple of seconds, but she wasn?t fighting the injuries either, which makes this year?s accomplishment all the more notable. ?I thought she would do well,? said Randy Kreft, Lacey?s dad. ?She worked at it real hard.? Karen doesn?t believe the top 10 finish would have been possible had Hastings not worked with Lacey prior to the meets. Hastings might find his patient working alongside of him someday as Lacey has decided to pursue a career in physical therapy. During the past three or four months, she?s had some excellent training.

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CALHOUN HAS been a consistent scorer for the Vikings girls basketball team since starting as a freshman. She has had her share of 20-point games this season, but nobody expected the junior to explode for a school record of 47, in the biggest girls basketball gam

e in almost five years. In last Thursday?s contest in front of a packed gym, Posen was fighting for the schools first conference championship in 25 years against a tough Hillman team. The game was extremely close with both schools sharing the lead. Fans winced at every foul, with several key players in foul trouble, and cheered every basket. ?Roxann picked up her second foul early in the game and had to go to the bench,? said Posen coach Tom Schellie. ?Mary took it upon herself that she needed to pick up her game a little bit. She was just ?on.? She wanted that game in the worst way and she was hitting everything.?

CALHOUN LED the comeback from nine points down early in the second quarter with a basket and four consecutive free throws. She was 17-for-19 from the free throw line and made three, three-pointers. On one three pointer she used her top-notch ball handling skills to drain a trey off the dribble. It was a quick move, dribbling forward to clear out space, and then backing up behind the arc for a quick shot before the defender can recover. That?s something I haven?t seen too many times in girls basketball. Calhoun doesn?t deserve all the credit for the win against Hillman because her teammates elevated their performances as well. Fans are wondering if Calhoun and the rest of the Vikings have anything left, because Hillman and Posen will do it all over against Wednesday at the district tournament in Hillman. Schellie knows the Tigers will be looking to avenge the loss last week.