A bumper crop of college achievers

Spring ahead - while we salute the college achievements of these winter athletes ...

Wisconsin senior Zach Ziemek became Lake Park's first NCAA Division I individual champion on March 12 when he won the heptathlon at the indoor track & field championships at the Birmingham CrossPlex in Alabama. Ziemek set facility and Big Ten Conference records with 6,173 points, which Track & Field News rates as the seventh-best college indoor score in history and which Wisconsin claimed was the fourth-best score in meet history.

A four-time state champion at Lake Park, "Double Z" opened his NCAA meet by winning the 60-meter dash in 6.75 seconds and clinched it on the second day by winning pole vault at a personal-best 17 feet, 8½ inches followed by a fifth-place 1,000 run of 2 minutes, 53.53 seconds.

In the women's national meet Texas senior Morolake Akinosun (Waubonsie Valley) followed her Big 12 title in the 60-meter dash with a fifth-place national finish, at 7.19 seconds. Adding to her 2014 outdoor title, Akinosun ran the third leg of the Longhorns' winning 1,600-meter relay. Entering her final outdoor season Akinosun owns 13 first-team All-America honors.

On March 1 Illinois Wesleyan senior sprinter Nia Joiner (Glenbard East) was named Division III women's indoor track athlete of the week by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. Joiner's 60-meter time of 7.51 seconds in the finals of the College Conference of Illinois-Wisconsin (CCIW) indoor championship tied the Division III record set in 2001. Joiner eclipsed even that at the indoor championship at Grinnell College when she set a new Division III record at 7.49 seconds to win the event; she also won the 60 in 2014.

A number of DuPage County athletes did well at the Division III men's and women's meets. Washington University junior Rebecca Ridderhoff (Downers Grove North) ran the lead leg of a championship 1,600 relay. Junior Elizabeth Brandenburg (Metea Valley) broke her own Loras College pole vault record with a fourth-place mark of 12 feet, 7½ inches; in that competition Illinois Wesleyan junior Jamie Gradishar (Glenbard East) placed 16th. Coming off an All-America cross country season and distance relay win at the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Hope College junior Erin Herrmann (Wheaton Warrenville South) improved upon her seed to place 12th in the 3,000 at the Division III meet.

On the men's Division III side North Central College freshman Daniel Spaccapaniccia (Naperville Central) ran on a fifth-place 1,600 relay, while Wheaton College senior Mark Hiben (Glenbard West) helped his squad to an eighth-place finish. Spaccapaniccia's high school and college teammate, Kyle Hilton, ran on a 10th-place 4,000-meter distance relay.

Elsewhere in indoor track and field, senior Pat Niyork (Willowbrook) of Wisconsin-Parkside - where Micah VanDenend (Glenbard South) recently resigned after six years as track and cross country coach - won the Great Lakes Valley Conference 5,000-meter run in career-best time.

Kelly McShea (St. Francis) helped Illinois State win the Missouri Valley Conference women's indoor championship for the first time since 1997. The senior, who this winter helped set a program distance relay record, won her first MVC title in the mile and finished third in the 3,000. Redbirds junior Jalen Lewis (Downers Grove South) ran third on the men's MVC-winning 1,600 relay.

Another ex-Mustang, Cara Piazza (Downers Grove South), was a sophomore forward for the Minnesota women's hockey team that repeated as NCAA champion, 3-1 over Boston College. Plus-1 in the title game, Piazza scored 11 goals with 23 assists for 34 points and was a plus-26 for the 35-4-1 Golden Gophers.

Wheaton College senior wrestler Mikey Swider (Wheaton North) repeated as CCIW champion at 197 pounds, topping North Central College freshman Tyler Vittal (Lake Park) in the title match. Swider went on to earn All-America honors with a seventh-place finish at the Division III meet in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. CCIW mat champs included Elmhurst College seniors Jimmy Nehls (Downers Grove North) at 141 pounds and Blake Santi (Lake Park) at 149.

Wheaton sophomore Erin Bagley (WW South) bagged Women's Outstanding Performer honors at the CCIW Swimming and Diving Championships, which the Thunder won a 19th consecutive time. She won the 200-yard breaststroke at 2:19.46, just .02 seconds off her own CCIW record, helped set a new 200 medley relay record, won the 100 breast in a school- and CCIW-record 1:01.13 and helped set a meet record in the 400 medley relay.

We've written a lot about the Benedictine University men's basketball team, because the Eagles deserve it. Capping a program-best 31-1 season and Division III runner-up finish, Eagles forward Luke Johnson (Wheaton Academy) was national player of the year by D3hoops.com. The 6-foot-9 senior, also Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference player of the year, averaged a team-high 14.7 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks, setting school and conference records for rebounds and blocked shots. In the title game loss to St. Thomas, Johnson recorded his 18th double-double of the season with 21 points 11 rebounds. He's also a finalist for the Bevo Francis Award honoring the best small college player.

Johnson's teammate, sixth man Tim Reamer, scored the Elite 90 award for Division III men's basketball. The award honors the student-athlete carrying the highest grade-point average participating at the finals site of an NCAA championship. A senior forward, Reamer has a 3.88 GPA in physical education. And, taking an NACC program to a championship game for the first time in any sport, Eagles coach Keith Bunkenburg, a Benedictine Hall of Fame inductee, was selected as D3hoops national coach of the year.

Johnson was joined on the NACC all-conference team by Eagles Michael Blaszczyk (Naperville Central) and Tahron Harvey (Glenbard East) - plus Aurora University's Nick Kladis (Hinsdale Central).

Roosevelt University senior point guard Becky Williford (Waubonsie Valley) was a second-team College Division Academic All-American as chosen by the College Sports Information Directors of America. She's got a 3.91 grade-point average in special education and is driven toward charity, recently heading a book drive that delivered more than 600 books to a Chicago elementary school. On the court Williford finished as the Lakers' career assist leader with 549; she holds every program assist record including 18 in a game this season.

David Sinickas (Naperville North), a senior guard with Ohio Valley, earned first-team academic all-district honors in Division II. The information technology major has a 3.96 GPA while also averaging 11.3 points a game and hitting 73 3-pointers to set the Fighting Scots' career mark.

The Millikin women's volleyball campaign ended last fall but its team awards were released Tuesday. The Big Blue Heart and Soul winner was senior defensive specialist Geena Mancuso (Waubonsie Valley). Emily Milhalkanin (Hinsdale South) won the Coaches' Award after recording 1,356 assists - fifth all-time at Millikin and 1 off her fourth-place mark from 2013.

Another fall notice, University of Dubuque senior long snapper Lucas Walzak (Wheaton North) shared the football program's special teams player of the year award with his punter and place-kicker.

Finally for this week, Calvin College senior defender Nick Groenewold (Timothy Christian) was a National Soccer Coaches Association of America Division III first-team All-American. The business marketing major was the MIAA MVP while leading the Knights to a record of 24-1-1. Of his 7 goals, 3 were game-winners.

doberhelman@dailyherald.com

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