Wildcats go nationwide in sports

Twenty-six points of scoring magic by Austin Rivers wasn't enough to carry his Winter Park basketball team to a national championship on Friday. They fell to Montverde 62-56 in the semifinal round.

The Wildcats had wowed the organizers of the National High School Invitational, which invited only eight teams nationwide for the tournament.

The Cats entered the tournament with a bang, knocking off North Carolina's Christ School 82-72 in the first round. Montverde had barely defeated Montrose Christian 51-49 to advance to face Winter Park.

Montverde entered the tournament as easily the physically largest team, sporting two monster centers that are 7 feet tall or taller.

But the Wildcats had led for much of the game, as much as 8 points ahead of Montverde, but they watched a horrifying chain of events swing the score around. A dunk, a steal, a layup, a steal and a shot from outside the arc changed the score by 7 points in a matter of seconds.

Suddenly the Wildcats were playing catch-up. The swing in morale proved devastating, as the Wildcats' scoring mojo seemed to go out the door. In the final seven minutes of the game, the Cats only scored from the charity stripe.

The 62-56 score ended the Wildcats' tournament run.

Baseball

The Winter Park baseball team is struggling to evade the .500 mark on the season after a 5-6 loss to Spruce Creek last week.

The Cats faced off with road games at Olympia and Colonial at press time, returning to their home field at 7 p.m. Monday against Colonial.

Track and field

Winter Park dominated in the four-mile relay at the Florida Relays last weekend, with the girls finishing second with a total time of 21:40.55, and the boys finishing fourth with a total of 18:33.03.