North Central Cardinals’ Svienty earns national NCAA honor
On Jan. 15 during the NCAA Convention in Nashville, Tenn., North Central College graduate student Emerald Svienty (Hersey High School) was named the 2024 Division III LGBTQ Student-Athlete of the Year.
Svienty was the individual champion at last fall’s College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) cross country meet, and went on to place 10th nationally. In 2023 Svienty placed third at the national championship, one of four All-American finishes spanning cross country and track and field, along with six CCIW individual titles.
Svienty, a transgender student-athlete, also has earned College Sports Communicators Academic All-America first-team honors. In February 2024 the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association awarded Svienty as its Division III Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
The NCAA release noted that Svienty has had an “active voice in conversations about LGBTQ+ rights and inclusion,” through social media, podcasts and conversation.
“In finding and being who I truly am,” Svienty told the NCAA, “I was able to succeed even more in my sport. The more that I was myself, the better I felt and the better I competed.”
Going the distance
The Great Lakes Valley Conference on Jan. 15 announced its men's and women’s track and field athletes of the week. Lewis University junior Denise Hernandez (Naperville North) earned the distinction for women’s field athlete after soaring 6.03 meters (19 feet, 9½ inches) in long jump at a Jan. 10 dual meet with Purdue Northwest. As of Jan. 17 that mark, an NCAA provisional-qualifying distance, led GLVC athletes and ranked third in Division II. Hernandez also won in triple jump with another personal record that led the GLVC, 11.51 meters (37-9¼) on her first attempt.
Taking it for the team
Audrey Hetman (Warren), a freshman defender on the St. Michael’s College women’s hockey team in Vermont, was included on the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance weekly honor roll for the week ending Jan. 12. Hetman, out of the Milwaukee Junior Admirals program, blocked 14 shots in the Purple Knights’ first four games in January. She absorbed 8 in one game, and after Friday’s game against St. Anselm had blocked 46 shots in 21 games.
High prospects
Another Warren graduate, Wisconsin freshman infielder Hannah Conger, was named to Softball America’s Freshman Watch List on Jan. 14. Conger earned all-state, all-North Suburban Conference and Daily Herald Lake County All-Area honors with the Blue Devils.
New standard
Tsvet Sotirov (Rolling Meadows), a 6-foot-9 redshirt freshman on Northern Illinois University’s men’s basketball team, made four 3-pointers and scored his college high of 13 points in the Huskies’ 84-69 loss to Miami of Ohio on Jan. 14 at the Convocation Center in DeKalb.
Big right-hander
Ben Harris (Prairie Ridge), a starting pitcher for Georgia Gwinnett College, was among 17 players named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Preseason Baseball All-America Team. A second-team NAIA All-America selection in 2024 and the returning Continental Athletic Conference pitcher of the year, the 6-foot-4, 196-pound right-hander went 11-1 with a 2.67 earned-run average and struck out 102 batters in 91 innings pitched.
Next-door neighbors
Familiar names just outside Daily Herald turf …
Northwestern junior forward Nick Martinelli (Glenbrook South) scored 25 points in a loss to Michigan State on Jan. 12, the first Huskies forward with five 25-point games since Glenbard West graduate John Shurna did it six times in 2011-12.
In preseason player assessments, Softball America ranked Miami (Ohio) senior outfielder Jenna Golembiewski (Marian Central Catholic) the No. 10 player nationally and a preseason first-team All-America selection. She earned All-America honors as a junior in 2024 after a 28-home run season.