March 4, 2000: TSU, Cookeville
Let's Play Two
Varsity and jv advance to play-offs; Baron, Grappin and Wantland named all-tournament

For only the second time in history, the CHS A-Team had teams competing in different locations on the same day and they certainly took the opportunity to double up on their fun as both the varsity and junior varsity teams made it to the play-off round at their respective tournaments.

The varsity team traveled to Nashville to compete in the Tennessee State University High School Quiz Bowl.  Central’s first team of Robyn Boshers, Lindsay Crowell, Tony Grappin and Emily Senefeld got the day off on a bad foot as they dropped a 205-55 decision to the team from Hendersonville. The foursome quickly shook off the doldrums and ran off big wins over Dekalb County (140-15), Columbia II (175-115), and DCA (220-45) to move into third place in the standings.  A close loss to Hillsboro (205-185) set up a match against USN with a trip to the play-offs on the line for the winner.  The game was tight throughout but Central finally pulled away in the last five toss-ups to score a 245-205 win and advance to the final four at TSU for the first time in three years.  The play-off game was definitely not the high point of the day however as Central once again faced Hillsboro who this time raced out to a 175 point lead at the half and never looked back winning 265-70.  The C-Towners still had a tremendous day at a tournament at which they have not had much recent success.  Leading scorer Tony Grappin tallied 165 points and was named to the all-tournament team for his efforts.  He was ably assisted by Robyn Boshers 130, Lindsay Crowell’s 120 and Emily Senefeld’s 95.

Central’s’ second team ended up playing short-handed but the three who played (David Baron, Jennifer Kragenbrink and Christie Stanford) acquitted themselves quite admirably winning two matches over Hillsboro II 95-70 and state tournament qualifier Coffee County 125-90.  David Baron had a huge day scoring 260 points and also being named all-tournament marking the first time Central has placed two players on that team.  David also passed the 1000-point mark in career scoring during the day.  Christie Stanford also had a career day racking up 125 points.

While the varsity was enjoying a successful day in Nashville, the JV team of Ryan Flynn, Ryan Linger, Kathleen Smith, Michael Smith, Jeff Spurlock and Sam Wantland was 100 miles away at Cookeville playing in the Wonder Bowl against 31 other teams.  The JV team’s day started much like the first team varsity as they fell to an exceptionally quick Morristown-East team 325-230.   The youngsters didn’t let that bother them too much as they then proceeded to win out the rest of the morning rounds with victories over Gordonsville (275-150), Livingston Academy (310-200) Jacksboro, Mississippi I (295-130) and Campbell County II (280-145) and then waited to see if their 4-1 record would be good enough to make it to the play-offs which it was.  Central advanced to the final eight as the seventh seed and ended up matched up against Bartlett who had tied with Riverdale as the tournament’s top seed but lost the coin toss and entered the play-offs as the second seed.  In the quarterfinal match, the inexperienced Central team was not intimidated by their opponents from Memphis and held a 230-190 lead with just two toss-ups remaining. Unfortunately, the team from Bartlett finished fast and came out of the match with a 240-230 nail-biter ending Central’s day.  Central’s team got scoring from Ryan Flynn with 10 points, Kathleen Smith with 20 and Ryan Linger with 60.  Sophomore Jeff Spurlock ignited the team’s play-off run with 40 points against Bartlett and ended the day with 170 points while team captain Sam Wantland played strong all day and ended with 270 points and a spot on the all-tournament team.

Central’s next action will come in two weeks at the TACA Academic State Tournament.