Five Star Performer: Ravenna and Giltner basketball

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by Kyle Thomas

Story Created: Mar 14, 2012 at 6:55 PM CDT

Story Updated: Mar 15, 2012 at 12:14 PM CDT

Last weekend at the boys state basketball tournament in Lincoln the Giltner Hornets and the Ravenna Blue Jays won state titles, again. Giltner over Howells in a drama filled double overtime affair for their second straight D-2 championship and Ravenna over Lutheran Northeast for their third C-2 title in four years..

News 5's Kyle Thomas relives those great memories in our report brought to us by Aurora Cooperative in this News 5 Five Star Performances of the week.

To win a state championship and cut down the nets is quite an accomplishment, but to do it as an undefeated team puts the accomplishment on a whole other level.

"That was our goal at the beginning of the year was perfection. I mean, we got the state championship last year, but this year we wanted to be perfect and that requires a lot of hard work and sometimes a little luck, but, ah, thankfully we got it done," said Giltner senior Ethan Kreutz.

For the Hornets a little luck might be an understatement, as they needed a last second shot by Jake Findlay to put them into overtime leading to a second title for Giltner after last season needing a similar shot by Ethan Kreutz to win it all against Wauneta-Palisade.

"This one seemed a lot luckier so, ah, you know, at least we were going to go to overtime if Kreutz's doesn't go in. This one was a miracle to get to overtime," said Giltner Coach Matt Drew.

Hornets and Jays win it all by winning them all

Meanwhile, for the Ravenna Blue Jays the trek to a state championship didn't have very many bumps along the way beating every opponent except for two by ten points or more as the jays won their third title in the last four years sending out nine highly decorated seniors.

"They are a great bunch of guys. I wouldn't want to grow up with anybody else, you know, I love these guys. This is my family this is a great community we got a great tradition going on right now," said Ravenna senior Trevor Cyboron.

"Three out of four. I would imagine a lot of people would like that, you know, it's kind of selfish in a way, I guess, where we would take all those. We're still a little disappointed we didn't do it last year," Ravenna Coach Paul Beranek said.

With nine seniors graduating from Ravenna Coach Beranek has a complete rebuilding year ahead of him which I'm sure plenty of C-2 teams are happy to hear, but as for Matt Drew and the Hornets while they do lose three very influential seniors in Drew Ott, Ethan Kreutz and Trevor Poppen five juniors including buzzer beater Jake Findlay are back and looking for a three-peat.

"Yes, I think we can. We got five juniors coming back and we'll be good but we're going to miss the seniors a lot they've been a huge part to our team," said Giltner junior Jake Findlay.

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