College Achievers: Batavia’s Buckley takes it to the house in Myrtle Beach Bowl
On the first play from scrimmage Friday in the Myrtle Beach Bowl in Conway, S.C., Western Michigan University junior running back Jalen Buckley, a graduate of Batavia High School, scored on a 65-yard run.
As seen on ESPN, Buckley’s sprint prefaced a landslide win for the Broncos, who beat Kennesaw State 41-6 to become the first team to win a Mid-American Conference title and a bowl game in the same season.
Buckley, who ran for 174 yards on only 8 carries, was named the player of the game, as Western Michigan (10-4) won its first bowl game since 2021.
The Myrtle Beach Bowl also featured sophomore safety Joey Pope’s (Glenbard West) 75-yard interception return for touchdown to open the second half scoring. Junior kicker Palmer Domschke (Neuqua Valley) converted 5 extra-point kicks.
With his 174 yards rushing on Friday, Buckley broke the 1,000-yard mark on the season, surpassing the threshold for the second time in his three full seasons. He has 28 touchdown runs in that span including 9 this season.
Buckley, whose younger brother, Jordan, is a freshman defensive end for the Broncos, finished strong with at least 133 yards rushing in three of his last four games. It helped Western Michigan finish on a six-game winning streak.
As on Friday in the Myrtle Beach Bowl, Buckley struck quickly in the MAC Championship game at Detroit’s Ford Field.
Less than two minutes into an eventual 23-13 Broncos victory, he scored on a 67-yard run and added a 64-yard touchdown run in the third quarter. Buckley ran the football 19 times for 193 yards. He was named offensive player of the game there, too.
Nice start
In her freshman season with the University of Kentucky women’s volleyball team, Georgia Watson (Huntley) was part of something special. The 6-foot-3 outside hitter was on a team that on Sunday played for a national championship. The No. 1 seeded Wildcats faced No. 3 Texas A&M after Kentucky survived Thursday’s five-set match over another third seed, Wisconsin.
Another freshman, Wisconsin’s Addy Horner (St. Francis), played in the last three sets of that NCAA semifinal contest against Kentucky. Horner finished second on Wisconsin with 398 assists, and fifth in aces with 19. The Badgers also rostered Aniya Warren, a freshman libero out of Benet Academy.
Congratulations
Waubonsee Community College cross country coach Eric Baron was inducted into the St. Charles Hall of Fame this fall. Also the former boys track and field coach at Kaneland High School, Baron starred in both track and cross country for St. Charles High School before graduating in 1988. (He still holds the Saints boys freshman mile record at 4 minutes, 30 seconds, according to Waubonsee.) Baron then excelled in both track and cross country at Eastern Illinois University, where he was named most valuable athlete in both sports in 1992.
Kaneland’s head track coach from 2006-16, Baron led the Knights to Class 2A runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2014. Previously as a Knights assistant, he won the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association’s vaunted Dave Pasquini Award for assistant coaches. As a head coach Baron directed eight individual state champions and 49 medalists.
Moving to Waubonsee in 2022, Baron in 2024 led the women’s cross country program to a regional title. On the men’s side he coached a freshman, David Valkanov (Kaneland), to a ninth-place finish at the NJCAA Division II Nationals, the best finish ever for a Chiefs runner.
Baron is slated to enter Kaneland High School’s athletic hall of fame in 2026.
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If you know of any student-athletes doing good things on or off the field in college, let us know by email at doberhelman@dailyherald.com.