high schools

Crowded under the basket

Basketball open gym at Rosemount High School has drawn an impressive crowd the past couple of weeks thanks to senior Andrew Brommer. The 6-9 forward, who made a verbal commitment to the Gophers last year only to re-enter the recruiting process after Tubby Smith replaced Dan Monson as coach, is the focus of a number of Division I schools.

Monson, now the coach at Long Beach State, made an offer after visiting early last week. SMU coach Matt Doherty and his top aide, former Gophers assistant Milton Barnes, watched Brommer work out last Tuesday and made an offer. Colorado State and Valparaiso also have made offers.

Iowa and Santa Clara have been in for a visit in the past week. Southern Illinois will be at open gym today and Vanderbilt on Wednesday. Rob Brommer, Andrew's dad, said Iowa State and Washington State also are showing interest.

Rosemount athletic director Mike Manning, who will serve as interim boys' basketball coach this season, has helped Brommer coordinate his visits. Brommer said he would like to make a decision before the start of the season.

"Things are still kind of wide open right now," Brommer said. "I'm open to everything and anything."

The Brommers are not spending much time thinking "what if" when it comes to parting ways with the Gophers. "It would have been nice to be able to watch him play," Rob Brommer said. "But he's got great choices [now]. Those choices are going to give him the opportunity to be a very large part of a program and to get a good education."

Having a national impact

Three area girls' soccer players have made their respective U.S. national teams that will take part this week in the Nike Friendlies tournament in Carson, Calif. Hopkins native Olivia Schultz (Holy Angels) will play on the Under-14 team. Woodbury's Catherine Sessions made the U-15 team and Cat Parkhill, an Apple Valley native who plays at Shattuck St. Mary's in Faribault, is a goalkeeper for the U-17 team.

Recruiting trail

• Parkhill recently made a verbal commitment to play for the Gophers next season.

• Lucas Kuipers, a 6-8 center/forward from Rochester Mayo, has committed to play basketball at Rice. Bradley had also offered him a scholarship.

• Osseo's Carrington Tankson, a 6-4 guard, has received Division I basketball offers from Montana, Eastern Illinois and Ohio. Northern Iowa and Iowa State have also expressed interest.

Born to run, ready to rock

When Burnsville senior Rob Finnerty, the top-ranked boys' cross-country runner in Class 2A, rolled to an easy victory at Friday's Lakeville North Applejack Invitational, he did it with a new look. Finnerty was sporting a mohawk; the sides of his head were shaved, leaving a band of hair from front to back across the top.

"I figured it would be more aerodynamic," he said, laughing.

After winning the 5K race in 15 minutes, 6.6 seconds, Finnerty said, "This is the best I've felt so far this year."

Finnerty's next race will be the Roy Griak Invitational on Sept. 29. He will miss Saturday's Apple Valley Invitational because he will be making a recruiting visit to Wisconsin. Along with the Badgers, his colleges of interest are Minnesota, Oregon and Arizona State.