Yelvington is tourney MVP; Donatucci sets Quincy mark

The basket must have looked much bigger than normal last weekend for Bryan Yelvington.

Yelvington (Hersey) of Kenyon College (Gambier, Ohio) exploded out of the gate with an impressive start to his senior year of basketball.

The 6-foot-6, 235-pound forward scored 62 points in his first two games, and he was an easy choice as the most valuable player in the University of Chicago Midway Classic.

Yelvington had 30 points, pulled down 9 rebounds, and led the Lords to a season-opening 71-59 victory over the Illinois Institute of Technology and then added 32 points against Edgewood, the team that knocked off No. 22 Chicago in the opening round.

Yelvington was the team's MVP last season.

Heading into 2008-09, the senior ranks fourth in career free-throw percentage at Kenyon (.834, 341-408), sixth in career field-goal percentage (.491), and 10th in free throws made (341) .

• Prospect High School's boys basketball program will host Hoops Fandemonium on Friday, Nov. 21 in Jean Walker Field House to help kick off the 2008-09 season. Kids and students will be able to participate in different contests from 7-8 p.m. (3-point contest, free throw contest, hot shot contest, dribble obstacle course) with the Varsity Blue/White scrimmage tipping off at 8 p.m. and lasting until approximately 8:45 p.m. An autograph session will follow with the players.

Complete details on the event will be found at www.prospectbasketball.com.

Football

Redshirt freshman Sam Donatucci (Buffalo Grove) broke the Quincy University passing record with 2,067 yards. He completed 187-of-340 passes for 11 touchdowns, averaging 206 yards per game, and ranked sixth in the 14-team Mid-States Conference.

Brother Tony Donatucci (Buffalo Grove), a redshirt senior, wrapped up his college career at Quincy Saturday. He ranked first on his team and fifth in the conference in solo tackles with 47.

• Tight end Todd Burkoth (Buffalo Grove), leading receiver at Winona State University, received Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference honors. The 6-foot-5, 265-pounder has started at tight end for four years. He has been honored at some level of the all-conference team for four years, earning first-team honors as both a junior and senior.

• Jeff Koeneman (Fremd) of Carthage caught 13 passes for 170 yards Saturday against Wheaton and scored a touchdown on a 1-yard run.

• Senior tight end Jack Simmons (Carmel) of Minnesota caught 3 passes for 34 yards Saturday at Wisconsin. For the season, the 6-foot-4, 246-pounder has 28 receptions for 274 yards and 2 touchdowns. For his career, he has caught 65 passes for 705 yards and 3 scores.

Soccer

Midfielder Keum Sung Kim (Hersey) of Loyola University Chicago earned all-Horizon League honors for the fourth straight year. He leads the Ramblers with 5 assists and has also recorded 5 goals, including two game-winners. He scored the first goal in Loyola's 4-0 win over Detroit that advanced the Ramblers to the semifinals of the league's championship, tournament.

Also for Loyola, Eric Marofske (Conant) recorded his first college assist in the win over Detroit.

• Midfielder Jackie Peterson (Schaumburg) of Carthage College, an NCAA Division III tourney entry for the second straight year, was a first-team selection in the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin. Midfielder Paige Lund (Barrington) of Carthage earned second-team honors.

Peterson finished the season with 16 goals and was the team's leading scorer with 34 points. She finished her career with 49 goals (second all-time at Carthage) and 113 points, which ranks No. 4, and she is No. 1 in game-winning goals with 19.

• Brett Olson (Rolling Meadows) of Benedictine University finished as the team's leading scorer with 15 points and earned honorable mention status on the all-conference team.

• Kyle Zumski (Barrington) of Saint Joseph's College (Rensselaer, Ind.) was named to the Daktronics Midwest Region second team. He split his time between defense and the midfield.

Allison Van Beek (Libertyville) finished in style as a college soccer player.

Van Beek of Hope College (Holland, Mich.) was named most valuable player in the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association. She led Hope in scoring with 12 goals and 2 assists and finished with 31 goals and 16 assists in her four-year career.

Van Beek also scored the only goal for Hope as the team bowed out of the conference tournament with a 2-1 semi-final two-overtime loss to Alma.

Volleyball

Junior middle hitter Jill Smart (Grayslake) of Aurora University was named to the Northern Athletics Conference all-conference second team. She averaged 3.07 kills and 0.97 blocks per game and was named to two all-tournament teams.

Sophomore Amy Reynolds (Schaumburg) of McHenry County College, who played libero for the NJCAA nationally-ranked Scots all year, was pressed into service as an outside hitter in the Region IV, District B Championships and helped her team advance to the national tournament Nov. 20-22 at the Wisconsin Dells Center.

Reynolds finished fourth in the nation in digs and was named first-team NJCAA All-Region IV and first-team Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference.

• Sophomore outside hitter Kyrsten Becker (Rolling Meadows) of the University of St. Francis was named second team in the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference. In the final match of the season she had 18 kills in 53 attempts and 23 digs against IIT Chicago.

Cross country

Breck Fresen (Stevenson) of Carnegie Mellon University earned all-region honors after placing sixth overall (25:36) and third on his championship team in the NCAA Mideast Regional.

Fencing

Fencers from across the country gathered at the Henry Crown Sports Center on Northwestern University's campus for the Remenyik Open, and several entries from the Illinois Fencers Club based in Mt. Prospect finished in the top 10: Men's Saber, Darek Koman (6) and Devin Zayas (9); Women's Epee, Tasha Domashovetz (9); and Women's Saber, Theresa Stoodley (3).

For more information, to to www.illinoisfencersclub.org.

Swimming

Four members of the Cats Aquatic Team have qualified for the USA Senior Nationals in the men's 400 free relay with a 3:05.70 clocking. Relay team members from Libertyville were Steve Wimmer, John Blankenhorn and Ben Glick, and they were joined by Kevin Zakrzewski of Deerfield.

Wrestling

Josh Terrell (Round Lake), competing for the University of Dubuque, placed second at 165 pounds in the NIACC Open Wrestling Tournament.

bfrisk@dailyherald.com