The Streaks returned four starters from the 1999 team that finished second in State. But Galesburg was quickly hit with adversity, Megan Pacheco was out to start the season with a foot injury. Megan would miss the first 12 games of the season.
At the start of the season, the Streaks started Jaque Howard as point guard, Michelle Flaar as a wing, Rachel Bicego and Shanell Jackson played the other wing, Whitney Snyder and Sarah Pacheco started as posts with Ashley Shepherd first in as a sub.
To top off things, Galesburg opened their Thanksgiving Tourney with Peoria High. Peoria was ranked in the top ten in Illinois. And the next three games were against Alleman, Carthage, and Quincy, who were also State Ranked.
Without Megan Pacheco, the Streaks managed to go 4-0 vs these ranked teams- Peoria 69-62, Alleman 64-48, Carthage 71-69, and Quincy 59-32.
Galesburg won their first 7 games without a loss. In early December, they hosted state-ranked Maine South from the Chicago suburbs. The Streaks lost 52-57. Galesburg would not lose for a full month, as they rattled off 12 straight wins.
Perhaps one of the most impressive stretches was when the Streaks won their third straight Grand Championship at the Bloomington Christmas Tourney. At this time, the tourney had a bracketed 16 team AA tourney and a 16 team A tourney. Galesburg won the AA Tourney with wins over East Peoria, Ottawa, Lincoln, and Chicago Washington. Ottawa was mentioned in State Ranking, while Lincoln was #8 and Chicago Washington #3. Galesburg was #6 at this time.
Galesburg won all 4 games in the AA tourney- East Peoria 69-21, Ottawa 65-31, Lincoln 38-26, and Chicago Washington 51-35. It was an impressive run. Washington had a team of incredible athletes, and their coach blamed the players for staying up too late the night before.
After winning the AA Championship, Galesburg then faced the A Champion, Quincy Notre Dame for the Grand Championship. The Streaks won a heated game vs. the State Ranked Raiders.
The Streaks winning streak ended at 12 games when they lost at home to Quincy 40-43. Quincy was ranked #12 in AA at the time.
The Streaks went on another run, winning their last 10 regular season games. A highlight of the last stretch was when Barrington came to Galesburg on February 5. Barrington was ranked and had two D1 players. The Streaks dismantled the Broncos 79-56.
Galesburg finished the regular season at 29-2 overall. The Streaks won the Galesburg Thanksgiving Tourney, the Bloomington AA Tourney, the Bloomington Grand Championship, and the Galesburg MLK Tourney.
Galesburg went 9-1 in the WB6 to win the championship. The WB6 Conference held their first championship for girls basketball in 1979, and I write this after the 2025 season. In the 47 years of girls basketball in the WB6, 2000 was the only year in which every team in the conference received ranking or votes in the AP State Poll.
Because of Galesburg’s success over the last five years, it was not easy to get teams to be willing to play Galesburg. In 2000, Galesburg played 31 regular season games. 19 of those 31 games were against teams who were ranked or received votes in the AP State Poll. To go 29-2 vs that competition was very impressive.
Before the last regular season game- Senior Night- vs. Moline, Tom Loewy added up some interesting stats of the seniors- Megan Pacheco, Jaque Howard, Whitney Snyder, Michelle Flaar, Mary Lindstrom, Stacy Boettcher, Michelle Mundy, Kimi Peck. Going into their last regular season game, they had accumulated the following stats on the varsity level:
Games- 693
Starts- 340
Points- 3,578
Rebounds- 1,803
And to that point, their varsity record was 119 wins- 12 losses.
It was a great regular season, and next up was an attempt to make the fifth trip in a row to State!!
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