Prospect's O'Grady will take next step at Saint Mary's

The bell has rung for Julia's O'Grady's final track and field season.

And when it's over, the next step for the Prospect senior will be running for the Belles.

O'Grady has signed a letter of intent to run for Saint Mary's College, located just across the street from Notre Dame University and its famed Golden Dome.

In the eyes of her cross country coach Peter Wintermute, O'Grady has been one of the Knights' golden girls the past four years.

"She is an amazing kid," said Wintermute, who watched O'Grady compete for three Mid-Suburban League championship cross country teams and two state qualifying teams.

O'Grady, a two-time all-conference runner, placed 18th as a junior and 11th as a senior in the IHSA state meet.

"Julia is a one-of-a-kind athlete," Wintermute said. "And I am grateful for the opportunity to have coached her the past four years."

Her time of 18:39 ranks eighth all time on Prospect's home course and she has the Knights' record time (18:58 in 2016) at the Niles West Invite.

O'Grady was recently part of Prospect's 4x800-meter relay team that finished third (9:28.73) out of 12 teams at the Illinois Top Times meet at Illinois Wesleyan. The top three teams were separated by 0.67 of a second.

"Julia's growth as an individual and athlete has been truly amazing," Wintermute added. "And she is a big part of the successes our school and programs have had over the past four years."

Boys track

Rolling Meadows High School senior Joe Boyer chased down a 45-year-old school shot put record when he finished second at the Illinois Top Times meet at Illinois Wesleyan in Bloomington.

The Illinois State recruit's throw of 61 feet, ¼ inch eclipsed 1974 state champion John Sloan's long-standing indoor best of 59-10½.

Boyer placed third in the discus and shot put at the 2018 MSL East boys meet and he finished sixth in the shot put and posted a personal-best at the 2018 Mid-Suburban League championship. He finished second in the shot put at the 2017 Mid-Suburban East boys championships.

Softball

Illinois Wesleyan senior Julie Josten (Fremd) is batting .353 with an on-base percentage of .463. The Titans, who have finished seventh, fifth and second in the Division III tourney in Josten's first three years, are ranked No. 4 and stand at 10-3.

Titans freshman first baseman Colleen Palczynski (Prospect) is batting .281.

• Wisconsin-Oshkosh freshman Grace Stevens (Fremd) produced a walk-off base hit to give the Titans a 6-5 win over St. Olaf College (MN.)

Stevens, whose big hit came with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, went 2-for-3 in the game with a double, a walk and 2 RBI.

Titans sophomore center fielder Katie Fontanetta (Buffalo Grove) was 1-for-1 in the game with 2 sacrifices and a stolen base.

• Saint Mary's College (IN) senior outfielder Krystal Harris (St. Viator) is off to a solid start for the Belles, hitting .306 in 15 games with the third most hits (11) on the team. The lefty outfielder is a captain for the Belles.

Women's lacrosse

North Central junior midfielder Christina Truver (Fremd) was selected as a College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Women's Lacrosse Player of the Week.

She totaled 7 caused turnovers, 19 draw controls and 25 ground balls for the Cardinals. She recorded 2 caused turnovers, 7 draw controls and 12 ground balls against Birmingham-Southern, 1 caused turnover, 6 draw controls and 6 ground balls against Johnson & Wales, and 4 caused turnovers, 6 draw controls and 7 ground balls vs. UW-River Falls. Truver also contributed offensively with 8 goals and 6 assists.

• Augustana's Emily Lucnik (Schaumburg) scored twice in the first half when the Vikings took a 7-2 lead over Adrian, which won 14-13 in overtime.

Men's hockey

American National's Brennan Kapcheck of Mt. Prospect got the game-winning goal in a 2-1 first-round victory over St. Cloud State, the No. 1 seed in the tournament and nationally.

Notre Dame's Bobby Nardella of Rosemont got the game-tying goal against Clarkson to force overtime. Nardella then got an assist for the game winner.

Men's volleyball

Augustana sophomore Matthew Schiferl (Wheeling) leads the Vikings with 217 digs.

Baseball

Valparaiso freshman pitcher Zach Fricke (Buffalo Grove) made his first collegiate start (5-1 loss to Purdue) and allowed only 1 earned run in four innings.

Fricke blanked the Boilermakers in the second and third innings, including a 1-2-3 third.

He would have had another scoreless inning in the fourth, but a two-out error extended the inning and allowed the two unearned runs to score.

Fricke was lifted after four innings, allowing only 3 hits and striking out three.

• Augustana junior pitcher Chris Refka (Palatine) is 1-1 with a 4.12 ERA from a staff-high four starts.

• Lewis University senior Brandon Post (Elk Grove) belted a solo home run in the Flyers' 7-5 nonconference loss to Purdue Northwest. It was one of 3 homers by the Flyers in the nonconference game. Post is leading Lewis (9-14) in batting average (. 404), hits (36), runs (25) and homers (3).

Men's basketball

Bucknell sophomore Jimmy Sotos (Conant) played in 31 of 33 games as the lead point guard, missing two games due to injury. He averaged 8.2 points, 3.9 rebounds and 6.1 assists.

Sotos led the Patriot League and ranked 18th nationally in assists. He is only the second Bucknell player to win the Patriot assist title, joining Darryl Shazier who did it twice (2008-09, 2010-11).

Sotos' 6.1 assists were the most by a Bison since Mike Joseph averaged 6.3 apg in 1989-90. It was only the fifth time in program history that a player logged 6-plus assists (Joseph twice, Chris Seneca twice).

Sotos' 189 assists were the third most in team history, behind only Seneca's 197 in 1986-87 and 191 in 1985-86. The total was also the seventh highest in Patriot League history.

Congrats to Fremd

The winner of the fifth annual IHSA Class 3A/4A Student Section Showdown on Saturday, March 16, was Fremd High School.

It marked the first Student Section Showdown victory for the group affectionately known as the Army of Darkness.

Representatives from each of the Class 3A/4A finalists - Fremd, Hersey, Lyons and Sandburg - were on hand at the boys basketball state finals at the Peoria Civic Center's Carver Arena, where the winner was revealed at halftime of the Class 3A championship game.

The Student Section Showdown entries were judged by the IHSA Student Advisory Committee, which graded each submission based on categories that include sportsmanship, spirit, student body participation, and the originality of cheers.

• Email Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com