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BY JIM WIENERS

Hazelwood West High School Boys Swimmer Ben Solari has been able to compete in the Missouri State High School Activities Association consolation finals the previous two seasons.

On Nov 9-10 at the St. Peters’ Rec-Plex, Solari was not only able to qualify in the championship finals in two events but he also won two state titles. As a result Solari, a senior was named Co-Swimmer of the Meet, sharing the honor with Greenwood’s T.J. Auner.

Solari won the 200-yard Individual Medley and the 100-yard Breaststroke which gives Hazelwood West seven individual state championships, most by any Florissant Valley area high school. A year ago (Nov. 10-11, 2006) Solari finished ninth in both the Individual Medley and Breaststroke, the first year the sport competed in the fall. In the last year Boys Swimming and Diving was a winter sport (February 10-11, 2006) Solari finished ninth in the 500-yard Freestyle (the same event won by Cody Reeb) and 11th in Breaststroke.

While Solari’s swimming career at Hazelwood West is over, Hazelwood Central junior John Krause has a chance to win state next year. Krause was second to Blue Springs South junior Derrion Thomas in the 50-yard Freestyle a year after Krause took ninth. Krause is also attempting next year to build on a third-place finish in the 100-yard Freestyle.

State medallists from area high schools were not limited to Boys Swimming. In Boys Cross Country Hazelwood East junior Charles Johnson finished 13th in Class Four State, his third year of competing in state in Jefferson City.

Meanwhile two runners from a North St. Louis County high school outside of the Florissant Valley area finished in the top 20. In Class Two Lutheran North sophomore Adam Prahlow, son of head coach Jim Prahlow, finished fifth while Prahlow’s teammate, senior Steven Liggins, ended his career with a 16th-place finish.

In Girls Cross Country none of the area runners that competed in state finished in the top 20.

None of the area high schools finished in the top four in state, so there were no state trophies awarded to area high schools. Pattonville was the only Suburban North Conference high school to take home a state trophy, a Class Six Semifinalist trophy after losing Nov. 16 to Mehlville, who lost last Friday to Class Six Champion Kansas City-Rockhurst. Meanwhile Incarnate Word Academy was the only other high school in North County to take home a state trophy and that was a fourth-place trophy in Class Four Girls Volleyball.

Here is a salute to the following Suburban North Conference champions. Cross Country (team-runner) Boys-McCluer North-Charles Johnson, Hazelwood East, Girls-Pattonville-Holly Hackney (same school), Girls Volleyball-Pattonville, Girls Tennis — Dual Meets-Hazelwood West — Tournament-Pattonville, Softball-Pattonville, Boys Swimming-Hazelwood West, Boys Soccer-Hazelwood West, and Football-Hazelwood East-McCluer North.

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