Sports

The Quail Forever banquet and Chillicothe Elks Gun Show for 2024 are already over and done for the year, but, if you missed out on one or both, you still can still attend one or both of the other conservation events Chillicothe hosts every spring.The Grand River Area Ducks Unlimited Sponsors banquet and the North Central Missouri Wild Turkey Federation banquet both will be held this month.The DU sponsor banquet will be next Friday evening at the Knights of Columbus Hall and the turkey federation banquet will be on March 23 at the Chillicothe Elks Lodge.Committee members from both organizations have tickets available now.

Having gone to overtime before capturing their Class 1 District 12 Tournament high school basketball semifinal game two nights before, the Hale/Bosworth Cardinals seemed potentially pointed toward a similar scenario when they were tied with Brunswick three-fourths of the way through last Saturday night’s championship contest at Meadville.An unfortunate circumstance – foul trouble – derailed them, however.Losing two starters to their fifth fouls in the first 3:15 of the fourth quarter – the second being floor leader and top scorer Gage Heussner, the Cardinals scored only two points thereafter and went from being knotted at 49 all to sustaining a 59-51 defeat that terminated their fine season and extended Brunswick’s into state play this week.That same evening, Braymer’s boys, top-seeded at Norborne’s District 13 tourney as Brunswick was in District 12, predictably got no argument from No.

In apparently a team first in exactly 241 months, Chillicothe High School’s basketball Hornets rode sharp shooting to achieve double-digits scoring from five players a week ago last night and needed every bit of that diversified production to gain a 70-65 overtime triumph over the visiting Kirksville Tigers.On the heels of the Lady Hornets’ 19th win of the season in 20 tries – a 54-27 doubling of their non-conference guests, the CHS boys battled back from an early double-digits deficit to improve to 17-4.After trailing the entire first half, including by 13 less than 11 minutes into the contest, due to torrid 3-points shooting by the Tigers, back-to-back treys by sophomore guard Jack Marshall had CHS within eight at intermission.The hosts then pumped in 10 of the first 12 points of the third period to tie the game at 38-38 and subsequently used a 9-0 spurt at the end of that frame and start of the fourth to move in front for the first time, 49-44.While caught at 59-59 with 10 seconds left and sent to overtime when they missed two free throws with less than two seconds remaining in regulation time, Hornets senior Alijah Hibner netted the first four points of the extra half-period in the first 40 seconds and CHS this time preserved its upper hand.When Marshall – rarely seen in varsity play until late January, but a starter for a second-straight contest following recent injuries to fellow backcourters – netted two free throws with 1:13 to go in OT, he reached 10 points for the night and joined season-long starters Hibner, Jackson Trout, James Mathew and Jaishon White in dual digits for the game.

The exceptional 2023-24 seasons of Chillicothe High School’s basketball Hornets and Lady Hornets continued last Friday night with clear-cut, non-conference victories in their final road games of the regular season.The state-No.

EXCELSIOR SPRINGS — Five Chillicothe High School wrestlers spent the middle of this week at Columbia, competing in the girls’ Class 1 and boys’ Class 2 State Championships tournaments with strong prospects that more than one – and potentially even all of them – would return to Livingston County Thursday night possessing a state medal.That number of participants was solidified last weekend when, in a performance largely matching expectations and featuring both a school record-breaking achievement and a couple of personal milestones, four Hornets qualified for the state competition by placing in the top four of their weight division in the District 4 Tournament hosted again by Excelsior Springs High School.CHS seniors Brody Cairns and Cayden Larson were responsible for the milestones and record, respectively, with junior Bo Smith joining Cairns in being a district runnerup.

C-T-area high school basketball teams commenced – and, given the nature of the beast, by now, the majority have ended – postseason competition this week with more than a few possessing strong prospects for extending their 2023-24 seasons into next week’s start of state-tournament play.Five area Class 1 squads – Meadville’s girls and Brunswick’s boys in District 12, Braymer’s boys and girls in District 13, and Higbee’s boys in District 10 – are the top seeds in this week’s state-qualifying tourneys.

TINA — With a pair of Braymer vs.

TINA — Talk about your abrupt “about-faces.”When top-seeded Higbee Lady Tigers junior guard Ronnie Welch completed a three-points play on a short shot from the lane and free throw 51 seconds into last Saturday night’s championship game of the 2024 Carroll-Livingston Activity Association high school basketball tournament, it put 2-times defending tourney champion Braymer under the gun in a huge way, trailing 31-12.Amazingly, however, the contest spun 180 degrees from that dire moment, beginning just over a half-minute later when BHS Lady Bobcats senior guard and eventual repeat tourney most valuable player Karissa Rogers hit a mid-range right-baseline jump shot.That seemingly-innocuous 14-footer over a leaping Higbee defender started a rally that, behind an array of 10 Braymer 3-points baskets and second-half free throws, mushroomed into a stunning comeback that ended with a shocking 68-57 Lady ’Cats triumph and repeat title.Establishing the evening’s protocol of claiming back-to-back-to-back championships behind a repeat MVP despite trailing at halftime, the top-seeded Higbee Tigers out-fought Brunswick in a tight battle throughout, winning 58-57.

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