Burkoth hopes he caught some eyes in D-II all-star game
Todd Burkoth hoped to catch the eye of a few NFL scouts last week.
Burkoth, a Buffalo Grove graduate and senior at Winona State University in Minnesota, was selected to play in the Valero Cactus Bowl for some of the top senior Division II football players in the country.
And the 6-foot-5, 265-pound tight end wound up catching a 2-yard touchdown pass with 4:20 to play to put the West team ahead to stay in a 28-27 victory before 6,000 Friday night at the University of Texas A&M-Kingsville.
"It was a great experience," Burkoth said. "I'm the type of guy that wherever you put me, I'll do my thing.
"I blocked a lot and showed my blocking skills. I had the opportunity to catch the winning touchdown, it was a great opportunity and I took advantage of it."
Burkoth helped Buffalo Grove make three state playoff trips and was a junior when it went 11-1 and reached the Class 7A quarterfinals in 2002 with Tom Zbikowski, who has helped the Baltimore Ravens to the AFC Championship Game in his rookie season.
Burkoth had a stellar senior season at Winona State with 32 catches for 492 yards and 2 touchdowns. He received his second first-team all-Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference South Division selection.
Then he found out nearly a month ago about the Cactus Bowl selection. Burkoth was in Texas for a week and got the chance to practice in front of NFL scouts early last week.
"I felt I did really well," Burkoth said. "There were at least two or three scouts from each NFL team there Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday watching practice and testing you out.
"I thought I did really well compared to the best people in the country in Division II football."
Burkoth had a couple of interviews with NFL teams. He said he's been told he might be late-round draft pick or more likely a free agent signee.
The education major, who hopes to eventually return to the area to teach physical education and health and coach, is postponing his final semester of school to concentrate on training. He's been invited to the pro scouting day at the University of Minnesota in March.
"It's always been a childhood goal," Burkoth said of playing in the NFL.
Basketball
Kristin Paczosa (Buffalo Grove) had a big pre-holiday award haul for Cornell College in mid-December. The junior forward was the school's female athlete of the week and the Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference female basketball player and athlete of the week for the week ending Dec. 14, 2008.
Paczosa's career-high 18 rebounds in a loss to sixth-ranked Wisconsin-Whitewater tied for fourth-best in a game in school history. She followed that by tying her career high with 19 points in a win over Grinnell.
Paczosa is averaging 9.3 points and 8.8 rebounds and is now ninth in career rebounds for Cornell with 363.
• Sophomore Geoff McCammon (Conant) scored a career-high 10 points for Loyola in an 88-53 win over Alcorn State.
• Alex Washington (Wheeling) helped Augustana, ranked No. 7 in Division III, overcome a 9-point deficit in the final 2:12 to beat No. 10 Elmhurst 56-55. Washington, a senior who averages 8.8 points, scored off a turnover to get Augustana within 55-54 with 22 seconds left.
• Freshman Brittany Begrowicz (Maine West) scored a career-high 13 points for St. Mary's University (Minn.) in a loss to Coe College.
Soccer
Former Prospect teammates Martina Pettenuzzo and Kelsey Carmichael became teammates again of sorts this fall as the sophomores were named to Mid-American Conference's women's soccer all-academic second team. Pettenuzzo, a defender/midfielder for Buffalo, had 2 goals and an assist and started 16 of 18 games. Carmichael, a midfielder, had 3 goals and 3 assists and started all 18 games for Western Michigan.
• Sophomore midfielder Brett McKenzie (Antioch) of Central College in Pella, Iowa was an All-Iowa Conference first-team selection with a team-high 9 goals and 3 assists. Junior midfielder Erik Lundgren (Stevenson) was a second-team selection with 1 goal and 1 assist.
Swimming
Steve Wimmer put himself in some pretty select category at the 2008 Speedo Short Course Junior National Championships in Austin, Texas, in mid-December. Wimmer, who swims for CATS Aquatics in Libertyville, swam the 50 free short-course meters preliminaries in 20.41 seconds to break the Illinois record of 20.49 by Olympic medalist Matt Grevers.
Wimmer finished fourth (20.79) and also broke the 50 free long course meters Illinois mark with a 23.38. He took 10th in the 100 free (44.98), 15th in the 200 free and 51st in the 100 fly and qualified to be a member of the USA Swimming Junior National Team.
John Blankenhorn, who has signed to swim at Kentucky, finished 15th in the 100 free (46.05) and 28th in the 50 free.
Baseball
Adam Smith (Schaumburg) is now the head assistant baseball coach at Concordia University in River Forest. Smith played at and was an assistant coach for seven years at Carthage College and played baseball and basketball at Schaumburg.
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