West Aurora will welcome four into Hall of Fame
West Aurora High School will be holding its 21st annual Sports Hall of Fame induction night this coming Friday.
The induction ceremonies will be held in between the sophomore and varsity basketball games (around 7 p.m.) when West Aurora hosts Wheaton Warrenville South.
There will be a community reception to honor the four inductees from 5-6 in the faculty dining room at the high school.
Danny Iniguez, class of 1992, is the first soccer player to be inducted. While at West Aurora, he was voted all-conference three straight years and was named to the All Sectional Team. He earned scholarship to Northern Illinois University, where he played one year before transferring to Aurora University. At AU, he started every game for three years and received all-conference honors all three years.
Danny has been employed at Dreyer Medical Clinic in Aurora for the past 10 years. He married his high school sweetheart, Erika Ugalde, who played soccer on the West girls' team. They have two daughters.
Kirstine Jensen, class of 1992, was a four-year varsity letter winner in volleyball. She made the All Conference team three times and won team MVP twice. In her senior season, she captained the team to a 27-10 record and a sectional final berth.
She attended Ohio State University and led the Buckeyes to the NCAA Final Four in her junior year. She is currently an assistant coach at Northern Illinois and lives in Sycamore.
David Lee, class of 1984, was known for his shot-making, ball-handling, and tenacious defense on the basketball team. He helped lead the Blackhawks to a third place state finish in 1984.
He attended Bemidji State University, where he set multiple school record, including points and free throw percentage.
David is now a teacher and basketball coach in Hayward, Wisconsin, where he lives with his wife and three daughters.
Bob Plaskas coached baseball from the program's inception in 1969 to 1976 and got the teams off to a fast start. He compiled a career record of 112-73-2. His teams won 6 regional titles, 4 sectional titles, and finished in the top five in the in four straight years, still a state record.
After ending his coaching career, Bob taught at West until 1979, when he became athletic director at Oswego High School. He retired in 1999 and lives in Oswego with his wife, Margaret.
College commitments
Gielke decides: Aurora Christian offensive lineman Garrett Gielke has decided to play football at the alma mater of his coach, Don Beebe.
Gielke will sign his letter of intent today at Chadron State in Chadron, Neb.
Chadron State is one of the best Division II colleges in the country.
Other area athletes signing letters of intent today include St. Charles East soccer players Ellen Bartindale (Notre Dame), Catherine Doyle (Northwestern) and Kara Nitti; and Geneva's Michael Mayszak (football, Truman State), Sarah Sroka (soccer, Northwestern) and Brianne Santacaterina (soccer, DePaul).
Women's basketball
Aurora 68, Alverno 44: With a convincing home win, Aurora (10-10, 8-5) got back .500. Meagan Re scored a game-high 14 points and Kim Voiles had 13 points, six rebounds and four assists.
Prairie State 56, Waubonsee 49: Ashlee Jones scored 27 points for Waubonsee on 11-of-18 shooting, but the Chiefs were outrebounded 44-26. They dropped to 5-18 overall and 1-7 in the Skyway Conference.
Boys basketball
Lake Park 55, Wheaton Warrenville South 47: As the season has gone on with his young team, Lake Park boys basketball coach Cray Allen has been stressing one key word: Finish.
In Tuesday's 55-47 nonconference win over Wheaton Warrenville South, that message was finally received.
The Lancers (7-14) have had problems all season taking care of business in the fourth quarter. But Tuesday Lake Park hit 9 of 10 free throws down the stretch, showing the maturation of a young team as regionals approach.
"We always say, finish, finish, finish," Allen said. "We've been up at the half probably half of our games. We just had some young kids that didn't know what to do in terms of finishing games at the varsity level."
It was not always easy for the Lancers, however. Wheaton Warrenville South (12-9) took only its third lead of the game with 6 minutes, 7 seconds left in the fourth, 38-37 on a Derek Babb driving layup. But Lake Park responded with a 9-0 run, fueled by two field goals from sophomore Matt Drufke.
"They played really well," WW South coach Mike Healy said. "I thought Lake Park played a little more intelligent, got us in transition. Our kids kept battling, but we made too many mistakes tonight."
A Drufke lay-in with 1:40 left made it 46-38 Lancers. The Tigers' Byron Given drilled a 17-footer, Kendrick Perry blocked a shot on the other end, and Babb converted a three-point play to slice the lead to 46-43 with 52 seconds left.
After two free throws from Lake Park's Danny Baylis, Dane Olson hit a dramatic 3-pointer in the corner with 40 seconds left to cut the lead to 48-46.
"It was kind of déjà vu of every game this season," Drufke said. "You've got to have confidence and hit your free throws."
That is exactly what Drufke and the Lancers did. Drufke, an early-season varsity call-up, did his share. He scored 8 of his team-high 15 points in the fourth quarter, including 4 of 4 from the free-throw line in the final minute.
"I saw the kid as a freshman and I knew that he knew the game," Allen said of Drufke. "He's definitely going to be a player for us. He'll be one of those kids where maybe his stat line isn't great, but he'll get you a lot of wins with things you may not recognize."
Mike Pavone scored 14 points and Baylis 10 to join Drufke in double figures for the Lancers. Perry led Wheaton Warrenville South with 15 points and 4 blocked shots off the bench. Given added 12 points and Babb 10.
-- Paul Johnson
Glenbard West 62, Addison Trail 49:ŒHaving squared off twice already against Addison Trail this season, Glenbard West's boys basketball team knew exactly where its advantage lay.
The Hilltoppers went right to work exploiting their superior size in the post, dominating on the glass early and often in Tuesday's 62-49 victory in Glen Ellyn.
Glenbard West (13-9) jumped out to a 16-5 lead after one quarter of the West Suburban Conference crossover game, fueled strongly by its performance on the boards. The Hilltoppers outrebounded Addison Trail 12-3 in the first quarter and 17-6 in the first half.
"It's always important to get off to an early start. Coach (Tim Hoder) gives us things we need to work on in the game and things we need to get after and take advantage of, and our size was our advantage tonight," center John Shurna said. "We wanted to take full advantage of that, and when we've got Chris Watt banging down low and myself, and Shane Bryant and Bryant Venson hitting 3s, it opens everything up."
The Blazers (3-17) countered their disadvantage underneath the basket by sinking their shots in the second quarter, going 7 of 11 from the floor and cutting the Hilltoppers lead to just 6 points at halftime.
Addison Trail's energy and willingness to claw back surprised no one on the Hilltoppers sideline.
"Addison Trail is a team that is going to fight to the end, and you've got to give them credit," Shurna said. "They're going to keep battling with you till the clock hits 00:00, so we knew we had to keep it going."
Shurna's follow-up dunk with 2:00 remaining in the third quarter gave Glenbard West a 43-32 lead, part of the 6-8 senior's 11 third-quarter points.
"I felt good, but I wasn't overly confident," Hoder said of the 11-point lead. "I didn't think we were done. I knew they were going to keep playing all the way through, so I needed to feel a little bit more than 11 points to be real confident."
Sure enough, the Blazers got within 4 points of Glenbard West in the fourth quarter before eventually running out of gas.
"I told our guys, 'Think of all the opportunities we had. We had four or five contested layups that we could have finished that would have made a 6-point game a four-point game,' " Addison Trail coach Brendan Lyons said. "When push came to shove, a lot of their guys stepped up and made plays they had to do, and we didn't."
-- Matthew McClarey