Sometimes in the grind of the winter season it’s easy to forget memorable moments as you move on to the next day’s slate of games and start to look forward to what’s coming up.

Now, with a little time to reflect, it’s time to take a look back at some of the top moments of the past winter season.

State champ at last

It’s hard to explain exactly how much pressure there is at the Class A individual gymnastics state meet. There is no scoreboard and there are very few results available during the meet, so athlete are basically left to compete against themselves.

One small mis-step or a fall of the beam can not only hurt a gymnasts all-around score, but it can drive them to a frustration point that sets them off course for the rest of the day. That’s why it was key for Austin junior Maddie Mullenbach to stay calm when she won her first ever all-around state title this season.

Mullenbach, who had finished in the top five of all-around in the past three years, seemed to be a lot more laid back headed into this year’s meet. She wasn’t stressing herself out and she was focused on doing the best she could.

That attitude paid of for Mullenbach when she nailed the most pressure packed event — the beam — to start the day and she cruised to solid performance that saw her named the top all-around gymnast in Class A.

It’s hard to believe Austin had never had an all-around girls champ before Austin grad Sela Fadness won the event four years ago and now the Packers have won three of the last four all-around titles.

Mullenbach and Fadness both put in a lot of time in the gym and they are highly motivated in what they do. It’s not a coincidence that they both found a way to reach the top of their sport.

The shot heard round the web

It was just another Tuesday night boys basketball game in the Big Nine when Austin headed to play Northfield in early December, but what transpired was a shot that will go down in Packer history.

Austin looked to be finished when the Raiders had a chance to finish off the game by making two free throws with 1.6 seconds left, but Northfield missed both free throws and Austin’s Oman Oman grabbed the rebound and flung the ball the length of the court for a three-pointer that sealed Austin’s 57-56 win.

What happened after the shot was almost as amazing as the heave itself. The clip of the shot made its way all across the world wide web from BuzzFeed to ESPN and Oman found himself flooded with interviews from TV stations the next day in practice.

It may have been a regular season win for the Packers, but it’s one that Oman will never forget.

Against all odds

The Lyle-Pacelli boys basketball team had plenty of chances to bow out and call it a season against Randolph in the opening round of the Section 1A tournament this year.

But that wasn’t happening.

LP made three huge plays to knock off Randolph 59-58 in front of a frenzied crowd in Lyle Gym. The Athletics, who had trailed by 10 points in the second half, forced overtime when Braden Kocer pulled down an offensive rebound and went two-for-two from the free throw line, LP forced the second OT when Noah Jiskra came up with a steal for a lay-up and LP won the game Lee Bauer converted a lay-up off a dish from Jordan Cotter.

All four players involved in those big plays were seniors and it was fitting for an LP team that rode those four players for much of the season. The impact of those four players was a big one this season and they’ll be tough for LP to replace next year.