West Newsmagazine Your online news source for West St. Louis County, Missouri

Eureka’s Hannah Long capped off a brilliant career as a long distance runner for the Eureka High Wildcats by winning her third consecutive state title at Oak Hills Golf Center in Jefferson City last month. And she did it in record-setting fashion.

Saint Louis University senior forward Robert Kristo, a Parkway North graduate who is on the Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Watch List, is also No. 2 on the NCAA Division I men’s soccer career scoring list.

Lafayette’s Matt McCool needed his last dive at state to be perfect. It was. The junior captured his first state championship in diving, dethroning the defending two-time champion to accomplish the feat.

Priory coach Bob McCormack reached a personal milestone in career wins last week by notching No. 400. The win for McCormack came in the Rebels’ 65-31 victory over Metro Academic and Classical High in the semifinals in the Trinity Invitational. It was the second game of the season for the Rebels. While 400 career wins as a head coach is impressive, McCormack downplayed the accomplishment. “That means I’ve been around a while,” McCormack quipped. “But it’s something I really enjoy, too. It’s not considered work for me. It’s such a passion for me. I don’t know what I’d be doing if ...

The Parkway North girls basketball team likes starting off the season playing in the Gerald Linneman Memorial Tip-off Classic for Parkway district schools for good reason — they do well in the event. For the third year in a row, the Vikings won the Classic championship. Parkway North won was never really challenged. The Vikings opened with a 63-22 win over Parkway Central. Then, Parkway North scored a 76-24 victory over Parkway West. The Vikings closed out with a 71-41 triumph over Parkway South. It was quite a debut for Brett Katz, back coaching the Vikings for the second time. ...

The Parkway Central Colts high school boys basketball team opened the season by winning the Gerald Linneman Tip-Off Classic. The Colts (3-0) return to action Wednesday (Dec. 10) at Francis Howell. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. Coach Rick Kirby is happy with how his squad began the season. “We had a pretty good week but certainly are a work in progress,” Kirby said. It was Parkway Central’s second consecutive tournament championship in the round robin that opens the season for the Parkway district schools. While Kirby is happy to see his boys win it, he said the event is important ...

Beginning in the summer of 2015, a group of 15-20 world language students from Westminster Christian Academy will have the opportunity to travel to China, France, Spain, or Korea to study for a week at an international school corresponding to their foreign language coursework.

When Chesterfield’s two outlet malls opened last August – within a few weeks and a few miles of one another ‒ many were concerned there would be more malls in the area than shoppers to support them. Some area officials, including former Chesterfield mayor Bruce Geiger, predicted that one of the two was destined for failure. And such fatalistic predictions weren’t confined to local experts.

Justin Tatum left the Chaminade Prep gym with a scowl on his face and a surly disposition on Tuesday night (Dec. 9). Defending Class 5 champ CBC had just been given an old-fashioned 81-59 whipping by Metro Catholic Conference rival Chaminade and Tatum was fuming.

The fiasco of "Rolling Stone" magazine's apology for an unsubstantiated claim of gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house — and the instant rush to judgment of the university administration in shutting down all fraternities, when those charges were made — should warn us about the dangers of having serious legal issues dealt with by institutions with no qualifications for that role.