College Achievers: Cary-Grove graduate a consensus football All-American
No sacks allowed …
West is the best
Western Michigan University offensive guard Addison West (Cary-Grove High School) became the first Broncos player to earn Associated Press first-team All-America honors. The 6-foot-3, 305-pound redshirt senior is a consensus All-American, also earning the honor by the Football Writers Association and the Walter Camp Foundation. An all-academic pick in the Mid-American Conference for several years and first-team all-MAC this season on the field as well as an Outland Trophy semifinalist, West played in every game the last three seasons.
Helping Western Michigan post the MAC’s top offense at nearly 29 points a game, he allowed no sacks this fall and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 1 offensive guard among Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams, ranked first in run blocking and pass blocking.
Army sophomore Paulo Gennarelli (St. Charles North) made Associated Press third-team All-America. Starting all 13 games, Gennarelli and his Black Knights linemates earned the Joe Moore Award as the top offensive line in college football. Army coach Jeff Monken, a familiar name to Illinois football fans, earned his second Eastern College Athletic Conference coach of the year award.
The champions
In Penn State’s 5-set win over Nebraska in the NCAA Division I women’s volleyball national semifinals, freshman libero Ava Falduto (IC Catholic) recorded 2 of the Nittany Lions’ 7 service aces. Entering Sunday’s championship match against Louisville, Falduto was among three Penn State players to see action in all 131 sets and eight to play in all 36 matches. She was tied for the team lead with 37 aces and fourth in digs with 296.
Penn State won the national title with a 25-23, 32-34, 25-20, 25-17 victory over Louisville.
Bebar III
Duke graduate soccer midfielder Hanna Bebar (Waubonsie Valley) made United Soccer Coaches second-team All-America, her third All-America honor including a 2022 first-team selection when she played at Harvard. Also an Academic All-American, Bebar scored 3 goals with 5 assists and was named to the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team after helping Duke (18-3-1) reach the semifinals. She was named team MVP at Duke’s team banquet.
Sibling rivalry
Junior Garrison Carter’s (Wauconda High School) game-high 26 points led Illinois Tech to a 72-71 victory over the Milwaukee School of Engineering on Dec. 7. Older brother Donovan Carter, a graduate student there, scored 14 points for the Raiders. The rematch comes Feb. 1 in Milwaukee.
In the pool
Defeating Massachusetts Institute of Technology 9-7 on Dec. 8 at California’s University of Redlands, which won the title, Augustana College finished third in men’s Division III water polo. Junior Stevan Rasic (Maine South) scored twice in the match and led Augustana with 78 goals on the season. MIT sophomore Kunal Rajadhyax (Stevenson) also scored 2 goals, and made the all-tournament team.
Out of the blocks
In his first collegiate track meet, Dec. 6 at the Chicago State Invite, Wisconsin freshman Patrick Hilby (Aurora Central Catholic) won the 600-meter run at 1 minute, 23.27 seconds. He placed second in the 400 at 50.52.
Two for Deedee
The Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference named Aurora University senior Deedee Colon Maldonado (East Aurora) its women’s cross country athlete of the year for a second straight year. Maldonado repeated as conference champion, missing the meet record by less than a second. She set the NACC 6-kilometer mark earlier in the season at Augustana. Never lower than third place in the league finals, Maldonado in her fourth appearance at the Division III national championship became the Spartans’ first two-time All-American.