College Achievers: Mascari shooting lights out from beyond the arc
Mitch Mascari (Geneva High School), a 6-foot-5 graduate student and guard at Drake University, is shooting the lights out from the 3-point arc.
Going into Sunday’s game at Bradley, Mascari had made 76 three-point baskets, which entering Feb. 14 was ranked 22nd in NCAA Division I in a tie with four other players including Davidson sophomore Bobby Durkin (Glenbard West).
Mascari, though, was fourth in the nation in 3-point field goal percentage. He made them 45.78% of the time — slightly higher than Yale senior John Poulakidas’ (Neuqua Valley) 45.38%, who was fifth nationally.
Miami (Ohio) sophomore Kam Craft (Buffalo Grove) was 19th at 43.20%. Poulakidas also ranked 10th in the nation in free throw percentage at 90.77% (59-65).
Mascari is averaging 11.2 points and is second on his team in minutes played for Drake, which at 23-2 received votes in last week’s Associated Press poll. He was third on the Bulldogs in assists and led the team in free throw percentage at 87.5%.
Mascari’s 3-point percentage this season is actually a bit lower than last season. At Division II Northwest Missouri State University in 2023-24 he made 82 of 171 attempts, 48.0%.
As reported by KCCI in Des Moines, Iowa, Mascari had a finance job lined up in Chicago when last April former Northwest Missouri State coach Ben McCollum called and said he’d been hired by Drake. Coaxed back into action, Mascari was one of five Northwest Missouri players to follow their coach to Drake.
Mascari finished at Northwestern Missouri State as the second Bearcat to earn Academic All-America honors, and ranked No. 2 in free throw percentage, at 87.7%.
Getting up there
Ohio State sophomore Nicole Grimes (Benet Academy) is making leaps in pole vault for the Buckeyes’ women’s track and field program. A two-time all-state vaulter and three-time East Suburban Catholic Conference champion, on Feb. 7 Grimes vaulted a season-best 3.80 meters (12 feet, 5½ inches) to win the open division at Ashland University’s Jud Logan Light Giver indoor meet. At Ohio State she’s got a senior and a junior ahead of her in vault, both 13-footers, but on that day Grimes had the top mark.
The first
On Feb. 7 at Lakeland University in Plymouth, Wis., Aurora University won the inaugural Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Challenge, the men’s wrestling dual championship. The Eagles handled Concordia, Wis. 45-6 before beating Milwaukee School of Engineering 23-16 for the title. Senior Cam’Ron Harper (Wheaton North), wrestling at 285 pounds for Aurora, junior Ashton Massaro (West Aurora, 149), and sophomore Jake Penzato (St. Charles East, 141) all went 2-0 to help secure the title.
Dig it
Ball State graduate student Lukas Pytlak (Lake Zurich) has helped the Cardinals’ men’s volleyball team (9-4) get off to a good start. They were ranked ninth by the American Volleyball Coaches Association before its 3-2 loss Friday to No. 14 Lewis University. The 6-foot-2 libero was among Ball State’s leaders in digs and assists.
In the Valley
The Ohio Valley Conference on Feb. 7 named Western Illinois University junior track and field athlete Robert Perry (Burlington Central) its student-athlete of the week. A member of the OVC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, Perry sliced his indoor time in the mile to a personal-best 4 minutes, 20.20 seconds earlier this season at the University of Iowa’s Hawkeye Invite.
Loyola University graduate student Emma Watcke (Hinsdale Central) won the women’s mile at the Hawkeye Invite. She ran it in 4:47.02.