First-team 3-1A hoops announced

The All-District 3-1A basketball team was announced earlier this week, and it wasn’t much of a surprise to see the boys list dominated by Elida and Dora juniors, while the girls list was a much more eclectic mix.

District tournament champion Elida and state runner-up Dora both placed four players each on the boys list, led by seniors Casey O’Connor and Ryan Craig from Dora and Caleb Widener from Elida. Half of the 12-man first team were juniors, including Wesley Gilmore, Trenton Chenault and Ever Varela from Elida and Wesley Skelley and Hector Fierro from Dora. The youngest of the bunch was Floyd freshman Chet Chenault.

“We’re happy”, Elida head coach Darrell Chenault said. “When you go in there and you can get four (on the first-team) you know that you’ve had a good year and it paid off for us because the other coaches voted for them.”

Three players from Fort Sumner rounded out the boys first-team: Senior Ryan Hall, junior Cass Dimitroff and sophomore Berry Stinnett.

“(Making the first-team All-District just gives (the juniors) more of a taste for it and make them want to work hard this off-season and come back hungry for next year,” Chenault said.

The Elida Lady Tigers led the girls first-team with four players led by senior Alicia Cross-Smith. Bob Smith, Shanna Anthony and eighth-grader Reavis Best also made the cut for Elida.

District tournament champion Fort Sumner placed three girls on the first-team including seniors Kaylyn Johnson and Alex Owens as well as sophomore Rachael Chavez.

Melrose also placed three players on the list: seniors Lauren Widner and Zanessa Dodd and junior Taneil Roberts.

Floyd’s two first-teamers were senior Blair Jaramillo and eighth-grader Tori Tucker.