Powerlifters place at tourney 

Four Suttons Bay football players placed Saturday in the regional Powerlifting Tournament at Kingsley.

Brian Ray tied for first in bench press in the 145-pound weight class. Pete Bumgardner of Suttons Bay was second in bench press, squat and dead lift in the 207-pound weight class. Scott Grant was fourth in bench, squat and dead lift in the 165-pound weight class. And Nathan Kiessel was second in dead lift in the 235-pound weight class. Over 20 schools and 160 lifters competed.

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The Class D boys’ and girls’ basketball District games did not draw overwhelmingly large crowds to either the Northport or Leland school gyms over the last two weeks. For Northport, hosting the boys’ district, athletic director Marshall Collins said there were 392 people in the stands for Friday’s championship game, 250 for the semifinals on Wednesday, Feb. 27, and 310 for the Monday, Feb. 25 games for a total attendance of 952. "We were hoping for a few more people, but glad we had as many as we did," Collins said.

For Ryan Knudsen, Leland’s athletic director, he said for the week they had an attendance figure of 559 people. "We figured about 280 per night. With only two nights (Monday, Feb. 18 and Friday, Feb. 22) I didn’t think we’d get a lot of people," he said.

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Leland fans had some fun Monday in the first round of Regional play at the expense of a Mio crowd that had driven — apparently in several vehicles — about 2½ hours to root for the Thunderbolts. With the Comets in control with less than two minutes left, enthusiasts began a chant of "Warm up the bus, warm up the bus, warm up the bus . . . "

Mio fans responded, "We don’t have a bus, we don’t have a bus . . ."

Which brought a reply from across the Traverse City Central gymnasium: "Warm up the tractor . . ."

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Leland senior Matt Rinehart might have been sincere, but his coach was doubtful after listening to Rinehart explain his secret for knocking in an off-balance and unlikely shot along the baseline. He was even fouled in the act.

"It was good coaching," explained Rinehart.

"He’s just brown-nosing," replied Stowe.

Both were wearing huge grins after the Comets 83-59 win over Mio.