Mentor Sports Teams Have A Big Weekend Coming

This is an important weekend for Mentor High athletics, as the gymnastics, wrestling, hockey, swim and basketball teams all have pivotal games or tournaments coming up.

• The Cardinals boys basketball team is riding a 10-game win streak going into tonight's showdown with Garfield Heights.

The Bulldogs and Cardinals have been trading heavyweight hits the last two times they met. Garfield may have knocked the Cardinals out of the playoffs last year but Mentor won the rematch earlier this season.

The boys basketball team ends its regular season next Friday at Brunswick. A win against either Garfield Heights or Brunswick will clinch a share of the NOC Valley Division title and a win at both will win the championship outright.

The boys begin sectional play on Feb. 28 against Riverside at Euclid High School. Tickets for this game are on sale as well in the athletic office.

• Meanwhile, Tthe girls basketball team finishes its regular season on 7:30 p.m. Saturday with a home game against the Magnificats.

They begin sectional play on Feb. 22 against Ashtabula Lakeside at Perry High.  Tickets for this game are also available in the MHS athletic office.

• The wrestling team begins its sectional tournament tonight at Willoughby South High.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to next weekend’s Mentor District Wrestling tournament, which is better known as “the meat grinder.”

• The gymnastics team, coming off of their Northeast Ohio Conference Championship, begins sectional play on Sunday at West Geauga. The meet begins at 9 a.m. with the top four teams qualifying for districts at Riverside High next weekend.
• The hockey team begins sectional play against Kenston at 5:45 p.m. Sunday at Kent State University Ice Arena. If they win, they  move on to play the winner of the Hudson/Brush game on Feb. 25
• The swim team competes in the district meet today and Saturday at Cleveland State with trips to Canton for the state meet on the line.
• Finally, the boys and girls bowling teams won their sectional championship Thursday at Wickliffe Lanes.

The boys team finished with a score of 4,481 defeating second place Fairport, who scored 4,267 total pins. The girls team finished with a score of 3,437, topping second place Wickliffe at 3285 pins.

Both teams move on to districts next weekend in Kent, bowling for a chance to go to the state tournament in Columbus.