Musial running away with awards at Rice University
Burlington Central alum Clay Musial kicked off his senior collegiate cross country season in fine fashion.
Musial, who runs for Division I Rice University out of Houston, Texas, recently was named Conference USA male athlete of the week.
The Elgin native led all Owls runners with a fourth-place finish at the season-opening Norry Hersey invitational with a time of 20:27 in the 4-mile race. The Owls won the meet title, finishing ahead of the likes of Houston and Texas.
The C-USA weekly award is the first for Musial in his career. Musial earned a spot on the 2017 All-C-USA second team.
Rice is ranked fifth in the latest USTFCCCA South Central region rankings.
Allen earns player of the week honor: St. Edward product Dwayne Allen Jr. recently was named American Rivers Conference male athlete of the week and ARC offensive football player of the week.
In University of Dubuque's 21-10 win at Pacific, Allen Jr. ran for a 74-yard touchdown on the second play from scrimmage.
He ended the game with 37 carries for 228 yards (6.2 yards per carry) and 2 touchdowns.
Allen Jr. also recently ran 24 times for 106 yards and a touchdown in Dubuque's 27-18 road win over Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Allen scored on a 2-yard run with time running down in the second quarter.
Nolan at Cincinnati: Crystal Lake South alum Carly Nolan is a senior on the University of Cincinnati women's volleyball team. Through the team's first 12 matches, Nolan has played in 52 sets and has registered 55 kills (1.06 per set) on 165 swings. She has 18 setting assists, 15 service aces and 122 digs (2.35 per set).
Nolan was a unanimous first-team all-American Athletic Conference selection last year. Cincinnati was off to a 9-3 start through the beginning of the week.
Temple at Butler: Geneva product Pace Temple is off to a strong start as a wide receiver on the Butler University football team.
Through 3 games, Temple has caught 24 passes for 282 yards (11.75 yards per catch) with 2 touchdowns. Temple is averaging 94 receiving yards per game.
Against Youngstown State, Temple had 14 catches for 167 yards and a score. He also caught 7 balls for 85 yards and 1 touchdown. He caught 3 balls for 30 yards against Taylor University.
Fruendt hired at Missouri-KC: Batavia graduate Liza Fruendt recently was hired to the women's basketball staff at the University of Missouri-Kansas City after graduating from Missouri State last spring.
Fruendt was named to the MVC all-freshman team (2015) and was an all-MVC first-team pick in 2017 and 2018 and MVC scholar-athlete first-team pick in 2017 and 2018.
She scored 1,656 career points, good for seventh on Missouri State's all-time list. She also ranks in the top 10 all-time in field goals and 3-pointers. She is one of 5 players to score 1,500 points and record 400 rebounds and 200 3-pointers at the university.
Mattas at Northern Illinois: St. Edward's Michael Mattas is a junior on the Northern Illinois University men's golf team. Mattas saw action in the Huskies' first two fall tournaments.
At the Badger invite, hosted by the University of Wisconsin, Mattas finished with a total score of 225, which included rounds of 75, 74 and 76. He finished 9 strokes off the lead.
Mattas also shot a 228 for 3 rounds at the Northern Collegiate. He had rounds of 78, 77 and finished up with a 73 in helping the Huskies finish tied for seventh in the event.
Mattas won the 2015 Class 1A individual state title while at St. Edward.
Jakubowski at Creighton: Huntley graduate Taryn Jakubowski is now a junior midfielder on the Creighton University women's volleyball team.
Through the team's first 8 matches, Jakubowski had played 678 minutes (8 starts) and had 1 goal and 1 assist for 3 points. She had 25 shots and 6 shots on goal and converted on her only penalty kick attempt. Creighton was 3-5 to start the week.
As a sophomore, Jakubowski started all 18 matches and led the team in scoring with 5 goals and 1 assist for 11 points. She's a former all-Big East freshman team pick.
Cross at Cornell: Aurora Christian alum Devan Cross caught 1 pass for 8 yards in Cornell University's season opener at Delaware. The Yorkville product is a freshman this season.
Washington at Georgia Tech: St. Edward graduate Dominique Washington is a sophomore on the Georgia Tech women's volleyball team. To start this week, Washington had played in 13 sets and was averaging 2.23 kills and 2.00 digs per set for a Yellow Jackets team that was 11-2 overall and a perfect 10-0 at home thus far.
Off at College wants your help: Send information and/or statistics on Fox Valley-area athletes playing collegiately to Mike Miazga at mjm890@gmail.com. Fall sports submissions are encouraged.