College Achievers: Libertyville grad Tarello a winner on faceoffs
Lewis University men’s lacrosse player Domenic Tarello (Libertyville High School) is picking up where he left off last season as a Great Lakes Valley Conference first-team all-conference pick and the league’s specialist of the year for his work on faceoffs.
The senior forward, a three-time recipient of Lewis’ Delahanty Award recognizing student-athletes’ work in the classroom, twice this season has been named GLVC defensive player of the week. Early this month Tarello also was named to the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association Division II Team of the Week. In a 23-2 win over Tiffin, Tarello won 11 of 12 faceoffs, scored a goal, and picked up 4 ground balls.
Entering Saturday’s game against Alabama-Huntsville, Tarello had won 99 of 139 faceoffs for a .712 percentage that ranked fifth in the nation in Division II.
Also in lacrosse, earlier this month Lucas Pacer (Wheaton North), a freshman long-stick middie at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., was named the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference defensive player of the week. Pacer forced 8 turnovers and gathered 7 ground balls in a 14-2 win over Midland. After seven games, Pacer leads the Trojans in both categories, forcing 13 turnovers and collecting 24 ground balls.
About a month ago, Michigan State senior Gabrielle Stephen (Bartlett) earned Big Ten Conference gymnast of the week. On March 17 she was named as a first-team all-conference selection. She’s won 11 event titles this season and is tied with teammate Nikki Smith at 23rd nationally in all-around scoring. No. 9 Michigan State entered the Big Ten Championships this past weekend at the University of Michigan, seeking to defend its 2024 title. The Spartans won in 2024 by a tenth of a point over Minnesota on the final routine — Stephen’s anchor slot on balance beam.
Bowler Amanda Kouros (Lake Zurich), a sophomore at Indiana Wesleyan, earned first-team all-conference honors in the Crossroads League.
At the women’s Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis, another Lewis University athlete, junior Denise Hernandez (Naperville North), earned first-team All-America honors with a second-place long jump of 6.23 meters (20 feet, 5¼ inches), a personal-best. The GLVC champion led the event after her first two jumps before Minnesota State’s Adeya Brewster passed her in the third round at 6.33 meters (20-9¼).
Though we previously highlighted Villanova freshman Dan Watcke (Hinsdale Central), we’d be remiss not to note his fifth-place finish in the 800-meter run at the Division I men’s national indoor meet. Watcke ran it in 1 minute, 47.22 seconds but his time of 26.69 seconds over the final 200 meters matched the best of the field as he surged from the back of the pack into fifth. This season Watcke ran four of Villanova’s fastest indoor 800 times in history, including the two fastest.
At the Division III meet in New York, Monmouth College senior Shane Anderson (St. Francis) placed third in the men’s weight throw with a school-record launch of 20.02 meters (65-8¼). It was the best finish by a Monmouth athlete since 2018. Achieving the third-place throw on his final attempt in finals, Anderson broke the program record he’d set the week before, an even 20 meters, at the Wartburg Last Chance Qualifier.
Also in Division III, Aurora University senior Deedee Maldonado (East Aurora) finished sixth in the women’s mile run, at 4:52.06. The top eight runners all surpassed the facility record at the Golisano Training Center. Maldonado also placed 10th in the 3000. Previously, at the Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference indoor meet, Maldonado was named female track athlete of the meet after winning the 800, the mile, the 3,000-meter race, and the 5,000.