More Top Picks Best Batting Cages
player ready...Dennie Bridges has coached the Illinois Wesleyan men’s basketball team since 1965. He’s had had 991 opportunities to tell his Titans, “Go out tonight and play hard for 40 minutes.”
Monday night at Elmhurst College, Bridges will have to alter that standard coaching cliche to something like, “Men, play hard tonight . . . for all 22 minutes and 45 seconds.”
That’s because at 8:05 p.m. last Saturday, with 2:45 left to play in the first half and Wesleyan trailing 31-28, the lights went out in Elmhurst.
A power outage forced a suspension of the game, which will resume Monday from the point of the suspension.
Officials from both schools agreed that Nathan Hubbard, Wesleyan’s senior sharpshooter guard from Normal University High who just recovered from a broken hand, will be eligible to play Monday night.
In the swim: Glenbard East graduate Maureen Szweda enrolled as a freshman with a swimming scholarship at Michigan State. Deciding she wanted to attend a smaller school, she transferred to Division III North Central, where she was immediately eligible to swim.
Swimming in the Illini Classic in Champaign this week, Szweda won the 200-meter butterfly in 2:07.68, the best time this season for a Division III swimmer. Szweda also won the women’s 100 butterfly.
Rank and file: Augustana and North Central finished first and second, respectively, in the 18-team Augustana wrestling invitational. Their showings earned Augustana a No. 10 national ranking and North Central No. 21.
Juniors Ryan Dannahorn from Elgin and Darrick Snyder of Mishawauka, Ind., have led North Central. Dannahorn, at 197 pounds, has a 25-1 record, four meet titles and is unbeaten against Division III opponents. His only loss was to Ed Cyman of Marquette. Snyder, at 174 pounds, has a 23-5 record.
Bruins aced: Lewis University’s Division I men’s volleyball team, ranked No. 2 nationally, defeated No. 1 UCLA in a tournament in Hawaii last weekend. Lewis and UCLA both finished 2-1, and Penn State and Hawaii finished 1-2 in the four-team event.
Lewis’ first victory over UCLA in seven tries wasn’t enough to move the Flyers past the Bruins into the No. 1 spot.
Victor Rivera, Lewis’ All-American from Puerto Rico, was named national player of the week by the American Volleyball Coaches Association.
Swimmin’ sisters: Laura and Kathy Carroll, sisters and graduates of Sandburg High, share 10 season-best times set by the women’s swimming team at Illinois Wesleyan.
Laura Carroll, a junior, has season-best times in five freestyle events. Kathy, a freshman, has the squad’s best times in three butterfly and two individual-medley events. Kathy broke her own school record when she swam the 200-butterfly in 2:14.30 in a dual meet against DePauw.
Honorees: Two junior forwards, Bridget Colgan from Loras College and Kate Hemker from the University of Chicago, were honored by their respective basketball conferences. Senior guard Jake Olson from Carthage College earned a similar award in men’s competition in his league.
Colgan, from Waubonsie Valley, averaged 19 points and 15.5 rebounds in two games last week and was named player of the week in the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Hemker, from Battle Creek, Mich., was named University Athletic Association athlete of the week. She achieved two double-doubles: 20 points/13 rebounds and 13 points/13 rebounds in victories over Case Western Reserve and Rochester.
Former Hersey star Olson scored 25 points, including five three-point shots, in a victory over North Central and was named player of the week in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW).
Catching on: Former Deerfield basketball players Mike Casey at Rollins (Fla.) College and Brian Panek at Washington-St. Louis are clicking.
Casey, a junior forward, averages 13.6 points per game and has shot 44.4 percent from three-point range. His brother, freshman Brian Casey, has contributed as a reserve. Panek was Washington’s leading scorer in a victory over NYU that moved the Bears into a first-place UAA tie with the Chicago Maroons.
More Top Picks Best Digital Magnifiers For Macular Degeneration