Castonzo lauded for success at Boston College
Until this year, only 11 Atlantic Coast Conference student-athletes had been honored four straight times in the 57-year history of the league’s All-Academic football team.
Former Lake Zurich lineman Anthony Castonzo joined that elite group this month.
The Boston College offensive tackle and three of his teammates — linebacker Mark Herzlich, running back Andre Williams and center Nate Richman — were named to the 52-member 2010 All-Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Football Team.
Castonzo, who started 54 games in his BC career, was a Rhodes scholar nominee and NCAA Scholar-Athlete this past year. He was named a first-team All-American by Scout.com, CFN.com and Pro Football Weekly and a second-team choice by Walter Camp and SI.com.
Duke led all ACC schools with 13 all-academic selections, followed by Clemson (6), Virginia Tech (5), and Boston College, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Maryland and North Carolina with four each. Wake Forest and Miami had three apiece while NC State and Virginia each had one selection.
Indoor women’s track and field
St. Francis freshman Hilary Halford (Carmel) recorded her team’s top placement by earning runner-up honors in the 800-meter run at the 19-team Chicagoland Indoor Championships hosted by North Central College.
Halford finished just 0.29 seconds behind winner Krista Coda of North Central at 2:20.88.
Also, last fall, Halford was the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference cross country ‘Freshman of the Year’ finishing fourth and qualifying for the NAIA National Cross Country Championships in Vancouver, Washington.
St. Francis finished in a two-way tie for ninth place.
The Saints tied with Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference foe Trinity Christian College with each team scoring 13 points. Host North Central won the meet with 153.33 points.
Women’s basketball
Augustana junior Brianna Skeens (Vernon Hills) pulled down 5 rebounds in the Vikings’ 77-65 College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin victory over North Central.
Men’s basketball
John Androus (Lakes) came off the bench and scored 14 points off the bench for Luther when it clinched its first Iowa Conference championship since the 1983-84 season with a 72-58 triumph over Coe College.
Luther finished the regular season 13-3 in conference play, 16-8 overall. The victory also secured Luther a No. 1 seed for the six-team Iowa Conference Tournament.
Babcock-McGraw, Kwasinski on the air
Daily Herald sports writer and columnist Patricia Babcock-McGraw will be part of the Illinois High School Association and “When We Were Young Productions” that will broadcast upcoming television broadcasts of girl basketball state finals Feb 25-26 and March March 4-5.Longtime IHSA TV Network mainstays Dave Bernhard and Lee Hall return to call play-by-play on all of the boys and girls action. Bernhard teams with Big Ten women#146;s basketball anyalst Babcock-McGraw for the girl#146;s Class 2A and 4A games.Babcock-McGraw brings five total years of broadcasting experience to the IHSA state finals, including having served as the color analyst on television broadcasts for the WNBA#146;s Chicago Sky for the past two seasons.Since 1997, she has been a reporter and columnist for the Daily Herald, writing a weekly women#146;s sports column that is one of the few of its kind in the country. During basketball season, she is a game and studio analyst for women#146;s basketball games on the Big Ten Network. The 1990 Indiana Miss Basketball winner went on to play collegiately at Northwestern University, where she earned All-Big Ten and Academic All-Big Ten honors.IHSA girls basketball state champion Sarah Kwasinski (Fenwick) and current Schaumburg assistant girls basketball coach will join Hall on the Class 1A and 3A girl#146;s broadcasts.
Kwasinski led Fenwick state finals twicem, helping the Friars to a third-place finish in 2000 as a junior and the Class AA title during the 2000-01 season.
In six total state final tournament games, the 6-4 forward averaged 14.5 points, 10.8 rebounds and 4.3 blocks per game.
Kwasinski then earned Big Ten All-Freshman accolades and Academic All-Big Ten honors while playing for Northwestern.
After playing a year professionally in Luxemburg, she worked as a broadcast and video production manager for the WNBA#146;s Chicago Sky and has served as an analyst on television broadcasts of high school and collegiate basketball, including the 2010 IHSA state finals.
Girls basketball
The 2nd Annual Lake County Senior Shootout, a high school all-star basketball game, will be held Friday April 22 at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.#147;We are looking to double the amount of people we had attend last year,#148; said coordinator Fred Fleming. #147;Those that missed out last year definitely need to attend this year. We#146;ve added a coed 3-point shootout, putting the top shooting girls players vs. the boys. Also, we#146;ve added the most anticipated slam dunk competition, featuring some of the high-flying players in Lake County.#148;Fleming says a few more sponsors are supporting the event this year.#147;That allows us to do a lot more things,#148; he said. #147; I really want the community to come out and support our players. They#146;ve worked really hard this year and I think they deserve a nice send-off.#148;The game is sponsored by the American Heart Association Fred Fleming Sports, Inc.Proceeds will be donated to the American Heart Association.Players selected to participate in this year#146;s game will be announced by mid March. Chicago Hitmen
The Chicago Hitmen, a local North American Hockey League team, spent Valentine#146;s Day visiting patients at Children#146;s Memorial Hospital.
As part of their on-going efforts to give back to the community, five members of the team went to the Brown Family Life Center located inside the hospital to help co-host and participate in the hospital#146;s weekly game of #145;body parts#146;.
#145;Body parts#146; is a game played every Monday in the hospital hosted inside the Brown Family Life Center. It is played similar to #145;bingo#146; where patients match their game card to parts of the body that the host, #147;Extra Technician#148; Tracey calls out.
Patients are allowed to come to the set to play and the show is also broadcast live over the hospital television system which reaches an average of two hundred rooms every episode.
#147;It was a good time for all the boys who went #8212; we had a blast,#148; said Chicago Hitmen goalie Brennan Knoblock. #147;It made all of us feel good to be able to go and be a part of the kids#146; day and to go and have a good time with them.#148;
Special guests are not unfamiliar to the Brown Family Life Center.
The Hitmen are among a plethora of athletes from the Chicago area that visit the children. Teams including the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bulls have made appearances.
The center also received a visit from Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville with the Stanley Cup last year.
As part of the Valentine#146;s Day event, the Hitmen served as both players of the game as well as an added extra. Chicago Hitmen defenseman Shane Piggott and goalie Reid Mimmack co-hosted the game by assisting #147;Extra Technician#148; Tracey with the game#146;s score board.
#147;It#146;s great to have the opportunity to spend time entertaining children that are going through a lot in their lives,#148; said defenseman Alec Wilhelmi. #147;Giving back to the community is extremely important in showing the character of your organization, and I feel that we represented the Chicago Hitmen very well.#148;
The Hitmen play their home games at West Meadows Ice Arena in suburban Rolling Meadows.
Please e-mail Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com or FAX to (847) 427-1173.