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January 27, 2012

Add Eikey to St. Francis scoring list

Sheldon broke mark held by Swaney and Eikey

By DENNIS CHASE dchase@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Tom Hardy will need to update the St. Francis basketball record book not once but twice.

Sean Sheldon broke the school's single-game scoring mark Wednesday night when he tallied 46 points in a 104-78 win over Benzie Central.

The previous record was 42 points by Jim Swaney — and Rich Eikey. In fact, Eikey did it twice.

Eikey's name was not in the school's record book, though, because officials do not have statistics from the early 1980s when Eikey played.

A check of past Record-Eagle articles confirmed Eikey did score 42 points in two games, tying Swaney's mark at the time.

"There is a time period, and it's during Rich Eikey's era, that we don't have records," said Hardy, the athletic director at St. Francis. "We had a carousel of coaches (back then)."

Eikey said his coach, Bill Wright, took the books and film with him when he left. Eikey said he has tried to contact Wright to get the information so he can pass it on to school officials.

Eikey scored 42 against Manistee Catholic and Kalkaska.

"I remember being really upset not beating it (42)," Eikey said.

In one of those games, Eikey said he missed two free throws late in the game that would have set the mark. Just prior to stepping to the line, Eikey said, the school's public address announcer mentioned to the crowd that he was about to break the scoring record. A jinx?

"I shot 89 percent (from the free throw line) and I missed them both," he said.

Hardy said after it was announced that Sheldon had broken Swaney's record he heard from a few people that Eikey's numbers were right there, too.

Among those tipping him off: Shane Kleinrichert.

"He said, 'I know it. I was here,' Hardy said. "I told him, that's the hard part. We have no record of that time period. I said I believe it, though."

Eikey is also not listed among the career scoring leaders, although his total of more than 1,200 points ranks him third behind Swaney and Josh Jorkasky.

Sheldon's 46 points tied a gym record set previously by Mio's Jay Smith. It was originally believed the mark was 45, but a newspaper account of that game verified that Smith scored 46.

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