There are no records of these things, but I can assure you that if, as expected, North Kingstown’s Elizabeth Beisel and Prout’s Laura Sogar, swim in the Interscholastic League girls state swimming championships Saturday at URI, it will be the first time there has ever been an Olympian and an Olympic trials finalist competing in a Rhode Island high school athletic event.

 As most Rhode Islanders know by now, Beisel, a North Kingstown junior, finished fourth and fifth in the women’s 200-meter individual medley and 200-meter backstroke respectively at last summer’s Olympics in Beijing.

 What many Rhode Islanders don’t realize, however, is that Sogar, a Prout senior, reached the eight-swimmer final of the 200-meter breaststroke at the U.S. Olympic Trials in June.

 Having two athletes of that caliber competing in a Rhode Island high school athletic event not only is unprecedented, it probably will never happen again.

Boys championships feature big talent, too

 The boys swim championships on Sunday may not have an Olympian in the field, but the word is that some long-time state records may fall with swimmers like East Greenwich’s Jeff Winters, South Kingstown’s Kevin Sun and the La Salle duo of Graham Eve and Paolo DeLuca in the field.

 Of course, there’s also the question whether any team can end Hendricken’s 19-year reign as the boys state team champion.

Good bloodlines

 Apparently there is something to the idea of genetic-athleticism.

 Andrew Charbascz, the 6-5 Portsmouth High freshman basketball player who is averaging 17.7 ppg and received mention by colleague Bill Reynolds in his Saturday “For What It’s Worth” column, is the cousin of former Portsmouth star athlete Katherine Murphy.

 Murphy was three-sport Portsmouth star who earned a six first-team All-State honors, won two state girls high school golf titles and also won the woman’s state amateur golf title a few months after she graduated from Portsmouth in the spring of 2006. She currently is a member of the Penn State women’s golf team.

Hawks edged by Central Catholic

 Hendricken established its credentials as the top boys basketball team in Rhode Island with its nine-point victory over Woonsocket Friday night and the Hawks just missed out on a chance to claim they are the top team in New England on Sunday when they dropped a three-point decision to Central Catholic in a non-league game in Lawrence, Mass.

 Central Catholic currently is the top-ranked team in the Boston Globe’s Massachusetts boys high school basketball poll and Hendricken held as much as a nine-point lead in the second half before the defending Division I Bay State champions battled back for a 58-55 victory.

“It was a great game. Almost identical to last year,” said Hendricken coach Jamal Gomes referencing last year’s game in Warwick when Central Catholic won in overtime.

 “We got off to a somewhat slow start, but by the second quarter we were playing well and we were up by six at halftime,” Gomes said.

 (Massachusetts divides its high school basketball games into quarters rather than halves as in Rhode Island.)

 The Hawks were still leading going into the final four minutes of the game when Central Catholic, now 15-1, went on a 14-5 run down the stretch. Despite the Central surge, Hendricken was still only a point down with about 10 seconds to play and after Central pushed the lead to three with a pair free throws the Hawks just missed a three-point shot at the buzzer that would have tied the game.

 “They are a very good team,” Gomes added about the Raiders. “They have the big kid (6-10 junior Carson Derosies) who I heard has 16 Division I offers, and Billy Marsden, who is the leading scorer in Massachusetts. Plus, they bring 6-5 guys off the bench.”

Reinforcements coming

It’s probably a little frightening to Hendricken’s Rhode Island opponents that the Hawks have compiled the best Division I record without the services of 6-7, senior forward Matt Barboza.

 Barboza was sitting on the Hendricken bench Friday night with his foot encased in a protective boot just like he has been doing for the past six after he suffered ligament damage in his foot.

 But Gomes – and the Hendricken faithful – hope he will be back in lineup soon.

 “We’re hoping he’s back next week,” said Gomes. “Even we he gets back he’s going to need some time, but hopefully he will be ready so we can make a run in the playoffs.”

Bentsen wins football honor

 Warwick’s two-time All-State quarterback Bob Bentsen has been named the Rhode Island Old Spice Red Zone player of the year. Bentsen’s photo appeared in a full page advertisement in USA Today last week along with the other 49 state selections who were honored for their play in the red zone.

Rogers Hall of Fame

 The names read like a Who’s Who of former Rhode Island high school sports stars.

 Jane Corcoran, the first girl in R.I. Interscholastic League history to earn first-team All-State honors in four unrelated sports; Don Kaull, one of the most dominant Rhode Island high school basketball players of the 1960s; Phil Kane, a high school All-American runner, and Tim Walker, who 33 years after he graduated from high school still holds the state indoor track high jump record.

 Of course, they all competed for Rogers High.

 So it’s not surprising that Corcoran, Kaull, Kane and Walker are among the nine individuals and one team that make up the second induction class of the Rogers Athletic Hall of Fame.

 Other former Vikings athletes who will join Corcoran, Kaull, Kane and Walker in the 2009 induction class are John Burke, a former Rogers High and state amateur golf champion in the 1930s; John Caswell, a two-sport star in the early 1940s; and Paul Gaines and Henry Sullivan, a pair of multi-sports stars in the 1950s. Ron MacDonald, a 1958 Rogers graduate also will be honored for his 50 years of commitment to Rogers Athletics along with the 1978 state championship football team.

 The induction ceremony will be held on May 2 at Rogers High. For information contact John Dias at (401) 862-0954.