Monday marked the beginning of the annual Northside Holiday Tournament. Four local teams — Northside, Washington, Southside and Terra Ceia — will battle over the course of two days for Beaufort County bragging rights.

It marks the last games of 2016 for those four teams, and will be the end of the non-conference stretch for many of them, too.

Before breaking down the tournament action, though, let’s take a look at last week’s top athletes.

 

RACHEL LANG, NORTHSIDE

Northside suffered an early-season skid after back-to-back losses to Washington and Manteo. The Lady Panthers, behind one of their leaders in Rachel Lang, recovered nicely. They earned consecutive wins to even their record at 3-3 heading into the Christmas break.

Lang had a team-high 14 points in a 41-17 win over Bear Grass on Friday. Even more impressive has been her defensive presence in the paint. She also helped hold South Creek to 28 points on Thursday.

 

KEVIN ANDREWS, WASHINGTON

Kevin Andrews and the Washington swim team keep rolling on their mission to defend their state championship. Andrews finished first in two events (50- and 100-yard freestyles) to help the Pam Pack earn a win against Rose and Christ Covenant on Wednesday.

He also helped Tony Lovenberg, A.J. Howard, Justin Clark and Hodges Tubaugh as two of Washington’s relay teams earned first place, too.

 

DAJOUR CRATCH, SOUTHSIDE

After a long football season once again disrupted preparations for basketball, Southside was thrown right into the fire when it opened its season against 1-A Coastal Plains foe Lejeune on Friday.

Dajour Cratch played a large role in the Seahawks finding their offensive rhythm almost immediately. Cratch led the team with 20 points, but the defense couldn’t do enough to stop the Devil Pups in an almost 30-point loss.

JACOB SMITH, WASHINGTON

Washington’s wrestling team, which is bent on getting over the hump and cementing itself as the best in the east, was invited to participate in the WRAL Tournament at Athens Drive over the weekend.

Jacob Smith place fifth in his weight class, which was the highest finish for the Pam Pack. Carson Asby also made the podium with a sixth-place finish in his weight class. Washington finished 24th out of the 38 top-notch teams to participate.

 

PRECIOUS GAYNOR, SOUTHSIDE

Like her male counterparts, Precious Gaynor and the Southside girls’ basketball team struggled with their defensive form in their season opener against Lejeune on Friday. The girls fell, 68-48, but Gaynor’s offensive performance looked promising.

She had 13 points in the game, and was a threat from long range. She hit two 3-pointers in the first game of the season. Gaynor and the Lady Seahawks will hope to continue to shoot well while focusing on better defense come next week’s tournament at South Creek.