Three Harper wrestlers named All-Americans
Nine Harper College wrestlers traveled to the Jacobson Exhibition Center in Des Moines, Iowa, last weekend for the NJCAA national tournament.
The Hawks scored 50.5 points and finished 13th out of the 40 teams in action. Fifth-ranked Iowa Central Community College won the national crown.
Three Hawks - Donte Winfield, Jacob Belllis and Chance Shea - earned All-America honors.
Bellis, a Bloomington native, earned that distinction for a second straight season. The 125-pounder lost his first match in the tournament after a first-round bye but rebounded to finish 4-2 and claim a seventh-place finish for the second time in a row.
After a 5-2 record at 285 pounds, Winfield finished fourth, the highest tourney placement for a Hawks wrestler. Winfield had a strong run through the consolation bracket.
Shea, the eighth-place finisher at 184 pounds, won his opening match. He later reeled off three straight wins, all by fall, in the consolation bracket to set up a match with LaVonte Perdue of Muskegon College (Mich.). Perdue topped Shea 14-6, sending him to the seventh-place match.
Blake Tisza, a consistent producer for the Hawks in the regular season, went 2-2 at 157 pounds. His wins came with a combined total score of 31-5.
Swinging into spring: Harper's softball team is already competing, at games played indoors at The Dome at The Ballpark. The Hawks have earned a 3-3 record to date. One of the losses came against top-ranked Rock Valley College, 13-0.
After splitting two tournament games, the Hawks captured a 12-0 win over Joliet Junior College.
So far, Harper has scored 28 runs and given up 40.
Courting progress: Harper's women's basketball team bowed out of the NJCAA tournament with a 68-54 road loss to Joliet Junior College in a Region IV quarterfinal last week. Joslyn Nicholson capped her one-year Harper career with 27 points, 6 rebounds and 4 blocked shots.
Freshmen Ashonte Sims (13 points) and Kim Herzog (4 points) also contributed for Harper (9-20). Le'royia Campbell led Joliet with 19 points.
The Hawks finished 22nd in the NJCAA in 3-point attempts per game (17.6) and 33rd in 3-pointers made per game (4.2).
Harper's nine wins this season more than doubles the total of victories over the previous two seasons combined.
And the award goes to: Harper basketball standouts Joslyn Nicholson and Davion Benton have both earned postseason awards.
Nicholson was named to the North Central Community College Conference second team. In 28 games this season, Nicholson led the nation in total points with 662. Her 23.6 average had her ranked sixth.
Benton netted two awards - second team All Region IV, and second team N4C.
Benton played in 30 games this season, averaging 13.7 points on 47.7 percent shooting along with 10.9 rebounds per game.