Wallace makes waves with selfless play

Redshirt senior Kelly Wallace of the Northeastern University women’s hockey team has been nominated for the BNY Mellon Wealth Management Hockey Humanitarian Award.

Since 1996, the prestigious award has been given annually to college hockey’s finest citizen, defined as someone who gives back to his or her community in the true humanitarian spirit.

Wallace, of Libertyville, is one of 18 student-athletes (male and female) on the list.

She is actively involved in community service initiatives at Northeastern and in the Greater Boston area.

Wallace currently serves as the president of the Northeastern Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and has helped organize numerous on-campus activities aimed at giving back to the community.

Among her many charitable endeavors, she has helped raise money for the Husky Wish Gift and led the CAA Food Drive in collecting nearly 1,000 pounds of food for the Greater Boston Food Bank.

Wallace also conducted the annual Northeastern toy drive, administered the CAA Red Cross annual blood drive and personally donated to the Toys for Tots holiday gift drive.

She is the on-campus ambassador for Team IMPACT and has worked extensively among the Hockey East schools to increase participation of the program at other institutions.

In addition, Wallace has worked closely with the Mandi Schwartz Foundation, the You Can Play Project, Playworks Metro Boston and the Mayor Tom Menino Youth Council Fitness Challenge.

She is looking to become Northeastern’s third Humanitarian Award recipient after Chanda Gunn (2004) and Missy Elumba (2009). Northeastern is one of just three schools across Divisions I, II and III to feature multiple winners (Boston College, Yale).

The list of 18 nominees will be whittled down to five finalists, who will be announced this month.

The 2014 recipient will be chosen from the group of finalists and honored at the 2014 Men’s Frozen Four on Friday, April 11 in Philadelphia, Pa.

Women’s basketball

Augustana freshman Olivia Mayer (Libertyville) put up 11 points with 4 assists and 2 steals in a 97-85 loss to host North Central in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin game.

Men’s basketball

Augustana’s Griffin Pils (Libertyville) scored 11 points in the Vikings’ 76-70 loss to visiting Wheaton.

타 Washington University in St. Louis senior forward Chris Klimek (Fremd)was selected to the D3hoops.com Men’s Basketball Team of the Week.

Klimek earned the honor for the first time in his career.

He averaged 24 points and 12 rebounds as the Bears remained unbeaten in University Athletic Association play with a pair of road wins. He scored 26 points and pulled down a career-high 18 boards to propel the Bears to a 77-64 win at Case Western Reserve University Friday in Cleveland.

Klimek followed that up with 22 points and 6 rebounds in a 94-81 win at Carnegie Mellon. Klimek shot 61.5 percent from the field (20-32) in the two wins.

Klimek, who also earned UAA Athlete of the Week honors, is averaging a team-best 16.4 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. He is 57 points shy of becoming the 21st member of Washington’s 1,000-point club.

Soccer standouts

Barrington seniors Carrie Madden (Marquette) and Nicole Niro (Auburn) sign their letters of intent on Wednesday at Barrington High School.

They have played for the Eclipse Select ECNL Team since age 12 and have been ranked in the top 100 nationally of their graduating class.

Eclipse Select has held the No. 1 overall club rank during their seven years with the club.

In addition to club soccer, Madden and Niro are members of the National Honor Society.

Madden plays on coach Babbi Barreiro’s 16-5 girls basketball team while Niro played club volleyball and competed for the Barrington lacrosse team. Niro is on the student council supporting many activities.

Relay For Life

The Relay For Life of Mt. Prospect/Wheeling will hold its kickoff event on Friday at Prospect High School during the Prospect-Wheeling sophomore and varsity basketball games from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Registration will be available for teams and individuals for this year’s Relay For Life event, which will be held May 16-17 at Prospect High School.

There will also be T-shirts for sale, as well as raffle prizes, a 50-50 raffle, and a pre-game ceremony honoring cancer survivors.

Relay For Life is the signature fundraising event of the American Cancer Society. For more information contact Dave Jacobson, Prospect High School Service Learning Coordinator, at (847) 718-5230 or david.jacobson@d214.org.

Fitting Friday For Frisk

Many schools across the state celebrate ‘Pack the Place,’ a night in which school officials try to fill their gyms for one boys and one girls basketball game by means of promotions of their own design.

Former Daily Herald assistant managing editor/sports Bob Frisk was the creator of ‘Pack the Place’ back in 1988.

So how appropriate was it that Prospect’s ‘Pack the Place’ was on Friday, the same night Frisk was honored as one of the first four recipients of the IHSA Distinguished Media Award?

It should be noted that Frisk, who worked for more than 50 years at the Daily Herald, was also the creator of the column you are reading.

Congrats again, Bob, on the well-deserved honor on Friday night.

타 Frisk’s IHSA recognition was also mentioned by veteran Daily Herald writer Mike Spellman in his Friday ‘Scorecard.’ Congrats also to Mike, a former St. Viator all-star catcher, for his Super Bowl pick. He was one of the few Chicago print media members to select Seattle as the winner.

타 Incidentally, on that same night Frisk was honored, coach Ashley Graham guided the Prospect girls basketball team to its first 20-win season in ten years.

The last time Prospect won 20 games was in 2004 under coach Mike Nocella, now the Hoffman Estates head coach.

The standout on that 24-6 Knights team in 2004 was Gabrielle Cottrell-Lovin, Prospect’s second all-time leading scorer.

Cottrell shared the Daily Herald all-area captain award with two others that season — Fremd’s Ali Ridge and guess who?

Buffalo Grove’s Ashley Sandstead — yes now Ashley Graham.

타 Please email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com.