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Buffalo Grove’s Santiago continues to make waves at Southern Illinois

A regular in this space last school year is back making a splash …

MAC champ starts strong

Southern Illinois University swimmer Alex Santiago (Buffalo Grove High School) has started his senior season a lot like how his junior year went, with record-setting efforts.

In the first day of the A3 Performance Invitational last week at the Salukis’ Shea Natatorium in Carbondale, Santiago set a new Missouri Valley Conference record in the 50-yard freestyle at 19.65 seconds. The prior record of 20.14 was set in 2001. He also helped set a new MVC record in the 200 freestyle relay.

On Nov. 15 at the A3 Performance meet, Santiago helped Southern Illinois set another MVC record, in the 200 medley relay at 1 minute, 27 seconds. He was named male swimmer of the meet.

Santiago started at Southern Illinois as an unrecruited walk-on, and last season won the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle races at the 2024 MAC Championships and was named swimmer of the year.

Making headlines

The Daily Herald headline on Nov. 10 read that “Geneva native Santos rallies Dayton past” Northwestern in men’s basketball.

Nate Santos, a 6-foot-7 senior forward at the University of Dayton, played basketball at Geneva High School his first two years before transferring to the Loomis Chaffee boarding school in Windsor, Conn. He weathered a serious knee injury, COVID, and reclassified to the Class of 2021.

He played two seasons at Pittsburgh before transferring to Dayton as a junior, where last season he started all 33 games.

In early October, Atlantic 10 coaches and media named Santos a preseason first-team all-conference pick. He scored 16 points to help the Flyers beat Northwestern 71-66 despite 26 points by Nick Martinelli, a junior out of Glenbrook South.

Unbeaten? It’s a snap

No. 16 Army West Point (9-0) will enter its Nov. 23 football game in the Bronx against No. 8 Notre Dame as one of four remaining unbeaten FBS teams in the country.

Sophomore Owen Walter (Prospect), a football and basketball player in high school, serves as the long snapper for the Black Knights. (We recently mentioned Army offensive guard Paolo Gennarelli, out of St. Charles North, after he won a national award for his blocking.)

The 6-foot, 222-pound Walter has played in all nine games for Army and has made 2 tackles. A long snapper’s job is best appreciated when it goes unnoticed in the execution of special teams: Army’s punter, James Wagenseller, is averaging 42.1 yards a punt without a block; kicker Trey Gronotte is 5 of 5 on field goals and 41 of 41 on extra points.

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