Sixteen Schools Advance to the Northern Region Playoffs

With high school hoops preparing to end, 16 of the 30 area schools advanced to the first round of the Northern Region Playoffs.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - With high school hoops preparing to end, 16 of the 30 area schools advanced to the first round of the Northern Region Playoffs.
"Round of 16" Results:

(Boys) - Chantilly 59 - G.C. Marshall 47; Langley 67 - Centreville 60 [OT]; Mount Vernon 93 - Annandale 79; Yorktown 53 - South County 50; West Potomac 67 - Falls Church 52; Herndon 79 - South Lakes 52; Oakton 64 - McLean 35 and JEB Stuart 52 - W.T. Woodson 46.

Thereafter, the eight winners met in the quarter-finals.

Quarter-final Results: (Boys) - Chantilly 63 - West Potomac 51; Langley 51 - JEB Stuart 39; Mount Vernon 71 - Herndon 64 and Yorktown 63 - Oakton 37.

Therafter, those four winners advanced to the Northern Region "Final Four" held at Robinson Secondary and Chantilly advanced past Mount Vernon whereas Langley defeated Yorktown. In the process, both the Chargers of Chantilly and the Saxons of Langley punched their ticket to the State Quarter-finals. (The top two teams from each of the States four Regions advance to the State Tournament).

Prior to that taking place however, Chantilly defeated Langley 50-43 in the Northern Region Championship Game held March 1st - also at Robinson Secondary.

By virtue of their Regional Championship, Chantilly stayed at home and defeated Garfield (Dale City) this past weekend to advance to the State semi-finals (March 11th in Richmond).

On the other hand, Langley played on the road and were defeated by Patrick Henry (Roanoke) to end their season.

Should Chantilly win on March 11th, they would play for the State Title on March 14th - also in Richmond.

The Northern Region has not fared quite so well at the State Tournament in recent decades.

To note the last three Northern Region teams to have won a State Title in Boys Basketball, one must go back to the Jimmy Carter administration if one can believe that.

In chronological order, the last three Northern Region Boys Teams to have claimed the State Championships are as follows: T.C. Williams ('07/'08), Robert E. Lee ('80/'81) and T.C. Williams ('76/'77).

This season did not go so well for perennial powers T.C. Williams and Hayfield.

The Titans had to forfeit a huge number of victories this season when it was revealed that they were playing with two fifth-year seniors.

Head coach Julian King had but a few days to work out the kinks with his revamped roster and the Titans were defeated by Annandale in the Patriot District quarter-final round which denied them entrance to the Regional "Round of 16".

On the other hand, Hayfield was playing with an unnamed player who was not academically eligible due to grades. That unnamed player played for the Hawks in their apparent National District quarter-final victory versus Falls Church.

When the revelation of the academic ineligibility surfaced hours after that contest, it was the Jaguars of Falls Church that advanced to the Regional "Round of 16" and not the Hawks of Hayfield.

Both T.C. Williams and Hayfield had been ranked by the Washington Post this season in virtually every one of their weekly polls - but that was prior to the startling revelations which handicapped the Titans and the Hawks '09/'10 season.

For coach King's Titans and head coach Ron Palmer's Hawks, they must look forward to next season ('10/'11).

Olympic Highlights

With the conclusion of the 21st Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada there were 22 individuals that claimed medals for the USA.

[ALPINE SKIING]: Bode Miller - gold in the super combined, silver in the super-G and bronze in the downhill; Lindsey Vonn - gold in the downhill and bronze in the super-G; Julia Mancuso - silver in the downhill and silver in the super combined; Andrew Weibrecht - bronze in the super-G.

[FREESTYLE SKIING]: Hannah Kearney - gold in moguls; Jeret Petersen - silver in aerials; Byron Wilson - bronze in moguls and Shannon Bahrke - bronze in moguls.

[SHORT TRACK SPEEDSKATING]: Apolo Anton Ohno - silver in the 1,500 and bronze in the 1,000; Katherine Reutter - silver in the 1,000 and J.R. Celski - bronze in the 1,500.

[LONG TRACK SPEEDSKATING]: Shani Davis - gold in the 1,000 and silver in the 1,500; Chad Hedrick - bronze in the 1,000.

[FIGURE SKATING]: Evan Lysacek - gold in mens individual.

[ICE DANCING]: Meryl Davis/Charlie White - silver in ice dancing.

[SNOWBOARDING]: Seth Wescott - gold in snowboard cross; Shaun White - gold in halfpipe; Hannah Teter - silver in halfpipe; Scotty Lago - bronze in halfpipe and Kelly Clark - bronze in halfpipe.

[NORDIC COMBINED]: Bill Demong - gold in the large hill/10 kilometer; Johnny Spillane - silver in the large hill/10 kilometer and silver in the normal hill/10 kilometer.

In addition, six teams won medals as well: [MENS BOBSLED]: "USA-1" - gold (led by driver Steven Holcomb); [MENS HOCKEY]: silver; [WOMENS HOCKEY]: silver; [MENS SPEEDSKATING]: silver in team pursuit; [MENS NORDIC COMBINED]: silver in the 4 x 5 kilometer relay and [WOMENS BOBSLED]: bronze (Elana Meyers/Erin Pac).

As stated last week, the USA finished with 37 medals overall - good for first place.

Twenty-six countries garnered at least one medal. Here are the top 10 in order:

1) USA - nine gold/15 silver/13 bronze - [37].

2) Germany - 10/13/7 - [30].

3) Canada - 14/seven/five - [26].

4) Norway - nine/eight/six - [23].

5) Austria - four/six/six - [16].

6) Russia - three/five/seven - [15].

7) South Korea - six/six/two - [14].

8) tie between China and Sweden - five/two/four - [11].

10) France  - two/three/six - [11].

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, Russia approximately 17 months following the upcoming Summer Olympics in London in 2012.