College Achievers: National honor concludes Buffalo Grove runner’s season at Harper
On Jan. 30, the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association named Isabella Wojciechowski (Buffalo Grove High School) its 2024 National Junior College Athletic Association Division III women’s cross country scholar-athlete of the year.
Along with compiling a 3.61 grade-point average at Harper College, Wojciechowski was runner-up at the NJCAA DIII Women’s Cross Country Championship in Mechanicsville, Va., leading the Hawks to a second-place team finish. She ran on Harper’s 2023 national championship team as a freshman.
The runner-up finish and scholar-athlete award capped a season that saw Wojciechowski earn first-team All-America, win the Central Region title, and earn USTFCCCA national collegiate athlete of the week four times. She was Harper’s MVP and Most Improved Runner, having placed 44th at the 2023 national meet.
Wojciechowski is on Harper top-10 lists for five track events and two in cross country. Her 5,000-meter time of 18 minutes, 55 seconds at the 2024 cross country regional follows only former Harper teammate and 2023 national champion Lilly Alberts, who won the scholar-athlete award a year ago.
In the spring of 2024, Wojciechowski won the 5000-meter run and placed second in the 10,000 at the NJCAA Division III women’s track and field championship.
As a goal of junior college athletics is to prepare and advance athletes to the next level, Harper College also earned a bittersweet victory. Before the second semester the prospective nursing major transferred to Olivet Nazarene University in Bourbonnais, an NAIA school from which she received academic and athletic scholarships.
Landmark achieved
On a steal and layup in the first half of the University of Northern Iowa’s 83-69 win over Bradley on Feb. 2 in Iowa City, Panthers junior swingman Ben Schwieger (Waubonsie Valley) eclipsed 500 points in his college career. Schwieger had scored 290 points at Loyola, where he played for two seasons before coming to UNI. Leading the Panthers in minutes played through 24 games, Schwieger was averaging 9.5 points and 4.4 rebounds.
Preseason picks
The Big Ten Conference announced a list of 51 softball “players to watch.” They included Michigan State freshman pitcher and utility player Jacey Schuler (Antioch) and Michigan senior pitcher Lauren Derkowski (York).
Schuler, the three-time honorary captain of the Daily Herald Lake County All-Area softball team, went 23-4 with a 1.54 ERA on the mound last season for Antioch, striking out 321 batters in 172 innings. She also hit .523 with 11 home runs and 44 RBI.
Derkowski, York’s 2020-21 senior female athlete of the year, comes off a first-team Big Ten season in which she finished 19-10 with 3 saves, recording a 2.29 ERA and 222 strikeouts. The 2024 Big Ten Tournament’s most outstanding player, Derkowski the prior season became the first Michigan pitcher to throw no-hitters in consecutive starts.
It’s a first
Illinois Wesleyan University’s men’s volleyball program, in its fifth season, earned its first victory against a top-20 team with a five-set win over Dominican University. Dominican was No. 19 in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Feb. 4 Division III poll. Freshman Gavin Rohlwing (Barrington) helped secure the takedown. The Titans’ 6-foot-4 middle blocker registered 11 kills and a team-high 5 blocks.