College Achievers: Wheeling’s Torres moves up in Ohio Valley and Eastern Illinois records
Brenda Torres, a junior at Eastern Illinois University from Wheeling High School, on Friday placed second at the 47th Ohio Valley Conference women’s cross country championship at EIU’s Tom Woodall Panther Trail in Charleston.
Torres’ time on the 6-kilometer course was 21 minutes, 4.24 seconds, about seven seconds behind Nova Ojutkangas of Southeast Missouri.
Torres’ time is the second-fastest in EIU women’s cross country history over six kilometers, about a second behind the Panthers’ all-time mark and an improvement on Torres’ time of 21:13.19 she ran Oct. 17 at Bradley’s Pink Classic, which had been ranked third. Entering the season Torres was No. 3 on the all-time list after running 21:20.25 at the 2024 NCAA Midwest regional.
That Pink Classic result made Torres the OVC female runner of the week for the third time this season. Friday’s race earned her a second OVC first-team all-conference finish in cross country after placing seventh at the meet last season. In track and field, she won the OVC 1500-meter run as a freshman.
Brenda Torres is not related to former Wheeling High School superstar runner Jorge Torres, Wildcats girls cross country coach Alex Brown told the Daily Herald.
Top grapplers
Also on Friday the Big Ten Conference announced its list of male wrestlers to watch this season. The 28-man group included Iowa senior Mikey Caliendo (Batavia) and Ohio State redshirt sophomore Ethan Stiles (Conant). A state champion at Batavia, Caliendo, 81-14 overall in college including two seasons at North Dakota State, went 24-3 last season at 165 pounds and placed second in both the Big Ten and in the NCAA finals, losing each time to Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink (who returns). Stiles, a three-time state champion at Conant, transferred to Ohio State after going 17-8 and earning All-America honors with a sixth-place finish as an Oregon State 149-pounder. In 2023-24 Stiles went 15-3 as a true freshman at Nebraska before redshirting.
On a juggernaut
Leyna Yonehara (Geneva) is a sophomore defender and midfielder with the Illinois Tech women’s soccer team. Yonehara has started all 18 games for a Scarlett Hawks squad that has gone 16-1-1 this fall overall, and won the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference with an unbeaten 12-0-0 record. Entering its NACC Tournament opener on Sunday afternoon, Illinois Tech had outscored its opposition 81-8.
Mimi and Kiki
Another women’s soccer player, junior defender Mimi Van Zanten (Stevenson), has started 11 of the 12 games she’s played this season for Florida State, currently ranked No. 8 in the country at 10-2-3. (No. 36 on Top Drawer Soccer’s Top 100 Preseason Players list, Van Zanten missed several games in September.) Playing all 90 minutes in three of the Seminoles’ last five games, she’s got 4 assists on the season entering Florida State’s first-round Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament game Sunday against Virginia in Tallahassee. Last season Van Zanten scored 4 goals with 2 assists as a sophomore in 20 starts.
A member of the Seminoles’ 2023 national championship squad, Van Zanten is the younger sister of Kiki Van Zanten, a midfielder with the Houston Dash of the National Women’s Soccer League. Kiki Van Zanten made the ACC first team in 2023 as a graduate student and is a member of Jamaica’s women’s national team.
Another Van Zanten sister, Brianna, played for Case Western Reserve from 2018-21 and is a part-time coach with the Chicago Rush North soccer club.
Soph slugger
Though it came after a four-set loss in women’s volleyball, Virginia Tech middle blocker Isabella Mishler (Schaumburg) got a shoutout from the Hokies’ publicity folks after a match Oct. 12 at Notre Dame. “Mishler Shines,” they said, after the 6-foot-3 sophomore recorded a team-high 6 blocks with 9 kills against the Fighting Irish. Mishler posted a .533 hitting percentage and added 3 digs and 2 aces. Three days later against Virginia she tied her season-high with 14 kills.