Barrington's Saile excited for opportunity at Colorado Springs

From the high 90s to the low 70s.

No, we're not talking about the weather temperatures dropping from summer to fall.

Incredibly, these are the golf scores for Samantha Saile from her freshman year at Barrington to her senior season when she helped the Fillies to second place in the Class 2A state finals held in Decatur in October.

She'll now go from those high 90s to playing near the mile high city.

Saile signed her national letter of intent last week to play for the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, just an hour away from Denver.

Not bad for a young girl who wasn't even planning on playing collegiate golf heading into her senior year.

However, due to her steady improvement, Saile began getting interest from D-II and D-III schools.

That made her realize she had a shot at playing higher level college golf.

After hours of research and effort, she narrowed down her search to Regis University in Denver and UCCC.

Saile just felt like UCCC was home and eventually committed to the Mountain Lions.

Saile spent last summer caddying at The Grove and worked as an intern at Pinecrest Golf Club. Whenever time permitted, she was out on the course playing the game.

As a result of her success on this year's team (she scored the Fillies' fourth best score in Decatur), the Chicago District Golfer Magazine and the CDGA named her one of the most improved women golfers in the state. She went from an index of 12.2 on Jan. 1 to a 4.6 on Oct. 15.

Today, she is continuing the hard work that got her this far and is now enrolled in the TPS Elite training program.

Saile has an identical twin sister and two brothers. In fact, the reason she started playing golf her freshman year was because she wanted to be able to play with her brothers and her father, Tor.

And they all couldn't be more proud of Samantha, who went from the local links to the collegiate level in a matter of four years.

Piggott to hall

Fremd baseball coach Chris Piggott was recently inducted to the Stevenson High School Sports Hall of Fame.

One of the finest athletes in Stevenson history, he was a major part of several milestones in Patriot athletics.

The 1992 graduate was a three-sport star in baseball, basketball and football.

He was named all-state in football during junior and senior seasons and earned all-state baseball honors as a senior.

Piggott led Stevenson to its first IHSA boys basketball supersectional title and state finals appearance as a senior and he was a member of the first Patriot football team to win a game in the state playoffs.

Although selected in the 35th round of the Major League Baseball draft in 1992, he chose to attend Creighton University where he was a four-year letter winner for the Blue Jays.

He earned All-Missouri Valley Conference honorable mention in 1994.

Piggott began his coaching career in 1997 as an assistant baseball coach at New Trier High School and served on the Trevians' staff for five seasons (1997-2002). New Trier won the IHSA Class 4A state championship in 2000 and finished second in 1999.

Piggott has directed the Fremd baseball program since 2002 and was inducted into Lake County High Schools Sports Hall of Fame in 2011.

Anyone who was at Lake Zurich Class 7A quarterfinal a few weeks ago will not soon forget the catch that Chris' son James made for the Bears' only TD against Willowbrook.

James went up for a terrific one-handed grab while on the run in the middle of the field and with two defenders in pursuit for a 55-yard TD reception from Jack Moses.

Men's basketball'

Bucknell University junior guard Jimmy Sotos (Conant) became only the 13th Bison to hand out 300 career assists in an 89-69 loss to Rider. He had 10 in the game, marking his third double-digit assists game of his career.

Sotos also scored Bucknell's final 10 points and put in 20 of his game-high 23 points in the second half to help the Bison rally past Albany 65-64.

• Wright State freshman guard Trey Calvin (St. Viator) scored a career-best 15 points with three 3-point baskets, 2 rebounds and 2 steals to lead the Raiders in an 84-77 loss to visiting Indiana State.

Calvin's layup tied the game at 73-73 with 33 seconds remaining in regulation.

Women's basketball

Army sophomore guard Alisa Fallon (Maine West) was named the Patriot League's Player of the Week.

Fallon registered a career-high 22 points in the Black Knights' double overtime win over Fairleigh Dickinson.

She shot 7-of-13 from the field and was 7-of-7 from the free-throw line.

Fallon came up with some clutch free throws down the stretch, connecting on pair which tied the contest near the end of regulation and near the conclusion of the first overtime.

In a loss to Texas Christian, Fallon registered her first career double-double, finishing with 13 points and 10 rebounds. It was her fifth straight double-digit scoring game.

She averaged 17.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and a .500 field-goal percentage from field goal range.

• Elmhurst College freshman Lily Greifenstein (Rolling Meadows) recorded 12 points with a pair of 3-pointers and 5 assists in a 66-49 loss to Carthage College 66-49 in the College of Illinois & Wisconsin Conference opener.

• Please send Sport Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com