Inaugural IHSA girls flag football broadcast, and then some
From time to time the old mailbag fills and we’re compelled to empty it in brief bursts.
Now is one of those times …
It’s a first
As part of the WCIU Channel 26 “Game of the Week” football broadcasts, “The U” on Saturday will broadcast the first Illinois High School Association flag football state finals live from Willowbrook High School in Villa Park.
Semifinals will be shown at 11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., the second semifinal featuring Round Lake coach Molly Hennig as analyst.
The state championship game will be shown at 4 p.m. All three games are available on multiple platforms, including Comcast/Xfinity.
Fremd advanced to state and will play Evanston in Friday’s first quarterfinal at 4:30 p.m. Willowbrook meets Whitney Young in the 7 p.m. quarterfinal.
Congrats
On Oct. 7 at Prairie View Golf Club in the Class 1A Byron sectional, Montini senior Annika Bartell became the first Broncos female to qualify for the IHSA girls golf finals.
Placing eighth among sectional golfers who did not qualify as part of a team, Bartell will tee it up Thursday, at Red Tail Run Golf Course in Decatur, site of the 1A finals.
Like a broken record
Benet Academy seniors Delilah Helenhouse and Finn Richards both established new cross country program records within weeks of each other, on the same course.
On Sept. 14 Helenhouse ran 17 minutes, 16.40 seconds over 3 miles in the Class 2A girls portion of the First to the Finish Invitational at Detweiller Park in Peoria, the annual site of the girls and boys state finals.
Abby Higgins and McKinzie Schulz shared Benet’s prior record of 17:21 set in 2006.
On Oct. 5 at the Peoria High School Invitational also at Detweiller, Richards won the boys 1A/2A race with a time of 14:22.50.
Richards ran 19 seconds faster than the Redwings’ prior record set by Pat Blaney all the way back in the 1971 state final.
Huskies hall
Northern Illinois University’s Athletic Hall of Fame Class of 2024 gets inducted on Friday as part of homecoming ceremonies.
Included in the seven-member class is soccer player Debbie Huston (Batavia High School), gymnast Holly Reichard (Fremd) and volleyball player Kate McCullagh, out of Woodstock and now the coach of St. Charles East’s girls volleyball team.
Huston arrived at NIU in 1994, the school’s second season of women’s soccer. Leading the Huskies to two Mid-American Conference regular-season and tournament titles, she’s in the program’s top four in goals, assists and points. She owns the record of 84 games played.
Reichard became the second NIU athlete named MAC gymnast of the year, in 2009 as a sophomore. She was the program’s first to win conference titles in two events, sharing the title on parallel bars in 2008 and on balance beam in 2009.
McCullagh, 2006 MAC player of the year as a senior, owns NIU’s record of 1,936 kills and ranks fourth with 496 blocks. She was NIU’s first woman to earn American Volleyball Coaches Association All-America honors, honorable mention in 2006.
And in Naperville …
North Central College also is holding hall of fame inductions, on Saturday in conjunction with its homecoming.
Among the six individuals and five teams to be inducted is track and cross country star Amanda Laesch Spain (Wheaton North), who graduated in 2011.
As Amanda Laesch, she earned five All-America awards in her senior year alone, and helped the Cardinals win seven College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin team titles. She set five program records, including the current 5,000-meter mark.
A nice move by the college, it also is inducting longtime photographer Steve Woltmann, of Lisle. North Central athletics’ main photographer since 1980, he’s covered more than 4,000 Cardinals events and 111 of the school’s 140 hall of famers.
Incidentally, coach Brad Spencer’s (Naperville Central) unbeaten and No. 1-ranked Division III football team hosts North Park at 6 p.m. Saturday.
Quarterback Luke Lehnen, the 2023 Gagliardi Trophy winner as Division III player of the year, will attempt to throw a touchdown pass in his 50th straight game. Spanning all divisions of college football, he set the mark for most consecutive games throwing a touchdown pass, 47, on Sept. 28 in a 49-9 win over St. Louis’ Washington University.
He’s thrown for a touchdown in every one of his college games.
Successful mulligan
On Oct. 3 at the Ivanhoe Club in Mundelein, Downers Grove’s Greg Seelinger and partner Glenn Przbylski successfully defended their 2023 title of the Chicago District Golf Association Senior Amateur Four-Ball Championship, 5 and 4 over George McGuire and Joseph Guin.
According to the CDGA’s Casey Richards, Seelinger and Przbylski played a practice round at Ivanhoe the prior Saturday. They were paired with Guin, of Hawthorn Woods, a club member “who showed them the lay of the land.”
The close score showed it was still no gimme.
doberhelman@dailyherald.com