Baltes headed to Final Four; catching up with Shaun Seuschek
Two seasons with Lexi Baltes on the court, two Final Four appearances for Illinois Wesleyan University.
St. Charles East graduate Baltes, a sophomore guard, helped the Titans reach the NCAA Division III Women's Final Four, with semifinals Friday and the championship Saturday.
Baltes was the Titans' first player off the bench and scored 12 points in 22 minutes in Wesleyan's 77-69 sectional final win over fellow College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin club Carthage College, March 10 in Alliance, Ohio.
It's Illinois Wesleyan's second straight Final Four berth, having finished fourth in 2010-11. The Titans (26-5) play 30-1 St. Thomas (Minn.) at 6 p.m. Friday at the DeVos Field House on the campus of Hope College in Holland, Mich. They've far exceeded their ranking, No. 16 entering the tournament by both d3hoops.com and USA Today/ESPN.
The 5-foot-7 Baltes has averaged 6.8 points, 4 rebounds and 1.3 assists in the Titans' four playoff wins thus far. On the year she's averaged 4.8 points, 3.1 rebounds and 1.6 assists in an average of 21.4 minutes of action, fourth on the team.
Another 3 made by Ryan McQuade
The drive to the Class 2A South Beloit boys basketball sectional for 45 seconds of 3-point shooting paid off for Aurora Christian juniors Ryan McQuade and Hayden McNelis. Each qualified for last week's Class 2A Three-Point Showdown at the Peoria Civic Center. It was McNelis' second straight trip.
“It was definitely good having him there with me. It made me a little bit more comfortable,” said McQuade, who finished third overall and said he was more nervous shooting at the sectional championship than in Carver Arena.
“My shot felt really good that day,” he said.
Among the first group of eight to shoot, McQuade sank 11 of 15 shots from the three designated spaces on the arc including nine of the last 10. The 6-foot-4 forward canned all 5 shots from the top of the key. In the finals McQuade made 8 baskets, one off the winning total.
“I wanted to win really badly, but just making the final four was pretty good,” he said. “If I would have won it would have just been icing on the cake. It's a big accomplishment to make the final four. Out of thirty-two only four make it. It's definitely a pretty cool thing.”
The last shooter in the fourth and final group, McNelis suffered from the time lag, Eagles coach Steve Hanson thought.
“He shot dead last which I don't think was an advantage because he warmed up then sat around for a half-hour,” Hanson said. “I actually thought he had a chance to win it because he can make a bunch of them in a row.”
The 3A and 4A boys shooters took the court this Thursday, with finals Friday. Locals competing in 3A were Aurora Central Catholic sophomore Sean Harreld and Wheaton Academy senior Lars Olson. Geneva junior Mike Trimble was among the preliminary field of 32 in 4A.
Catching up with Shaun Seuschek
A St. Charles East senior and easy conversationalist, Shaun Seuschek will soon have to make a decision — swimming or water polo in college. Swimming will probably be the one, possibly at Colorado Mesa University where his brother, Shane, is a sophomore swimming for the Mavericks. Shaun has been swimming since the age of 6, starting with the Addison Frogs club before Mike and Shelly Seuschek and the boys moved to West Chicago the next year. He's been on club teams both in West Chicago and in St. Charles; at the high school level he's earned four all-state honors including fifth in the 200-yard individual medley and ninth in the 100 butterfly at the 2012 state meet in February. From March 20-24 he'll be in Orlando with the St. Charles Swimming club — to compete in seven individual events and maybe a couple relays — at the National Club Swimming Association Junior Nationals. Introduced to water polo, he was named all-sectional as a freshman in 2009 and entered this spring a preseason all-state honorable mention pick by illpolo.com. In 2011 Seuschek led the Saints with 85 goals. He's also an Eagle Scout and an A-B student.
Q: What do you like most about water polo?
A: I think honestly, it's the change of pace. You're not swimming back and forth and you're actually interacting with other people. I think the best part is yelling and screaming with your friends to get the ball down and score. The practices are different — you're doing offense, defense ... It's got a ball. There's a goal to take the ball and put it into the back of the net. It's a nice change of pace, a difference mindset, you've got teammates to depend on.
Q: That said, you favor swimming over water polo in college?
A: I think I'm going to go the swimming route just because I've been doing it for so long. Honestly, if I stopped swimming I wouldn't know what to do with myself. It's four hours a day and without those four hours a day it's four hours of nothing. It's time with my friends, time to train.
Q: What colleges are you considering attending?
A: Southern Illinois, Colorado Mesa University, Eastern Michigan and University of Illinois at Chicago.
Q: Four hours of practice is a lot of swimming. What do you think about when you're doing all those laps?
A: You kind of go under water; you can't really talk to people under water, other than yourself. I just kind of reflect on the day. What I usually think about when I'm swimming is what I'm having for dinner at home. I think about my homework, I think about the girls from school. You pretty much go over everything.
Q: You're an individual medley guy; what is the most difficult stroke for you?
A: I want to say between breast stroke and butterfly, just because of the timing. With the breast stroke you've got to get the kick down in sync with your arms, because if you don't get those in sync pretty much you don't go anywhere.
Then with the butterfly it's a lot of upper-body strength. Even doing just a 25-yard lap with the butterfly the streamlining is the most important thing, but getting your whole upper body out of the water is difficult in itself. Honestly, getting your torso out of the water with your head just to take a breath is a difficult part of the stroke. It's two kicks per arm stroke, so it's all timing ... As difficult as it is, you feel really strong as you swim it. It's cool to feel the water rush by as you're using both arms as opposed to one arm.
Q: This will be a silly question for you, but how does one time the breathing?
A: The rule of thumb of breathing in freestyle depends on the race. For the 50 free it's a sprint. I was taught one breath down, two breaths back. Coming into the 100, 200, 500, I think the best and most conservative way to breathe is three strokes and two breaths on the right, three more strokes and two breaths on the opposite side. so basically it's a 2-3-2 breathing pattern. It limits the oxygen as much as it keeps it consistent.
Q: Let's get out of the pool. What was your service project to advance to Eagle Scout?
A: What I did was a book drive. I put a flier together and sent it out into the St. Charles community, over by Pottawatomie Park. I was collecting books for a good cause. I ended up collecting that next week, had a couple scouts with me and we ended up collecting over 600 books for the St. Charles Public Library as well as the community. They took them and gave them to Lazarus House and (other) needy people.
Q: That is awesome.
A: I got my Eagle Scout rank in October of 2010, I believe the 25th. It was a big deal for me when I got it. I was real excited; it's a big accomplishment, a high status. It took me from when I was in kindergarten to my junior year.
Q: What kind of goals do you have?
A: Graduate college, find a great job. I've always wanted to move to California, so that's kind of one of my goals. I think the ultimate goal would be possibly going to the Olympic Trials my senior year in college, obtaining one of the Olympic Trial cuts and swimming with the top dogs in the United States.
I think it's just being happy with my job. I think that'd be a good goal. And, hopefully retiring someday. I've got a long way before I can do that, but that could be a good goal.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com