Thanks to Huizinga, L-W East Having a Grand Time

The Lincoln-Way East baseball team blanked Shepard 7-0 on Wednesday as Dan Huizinga cleared the bases with a grand slam. The Griffins will face Reavis on Saturday in the Shepard Regional championship.

Brandon Bollman tossed a three-hit shutout for East.

North Side Story

Alex Eaton blasted a two-run homer in the first inning of Lincoln-Way North's 12-2 baseball victory over Shepard on Friday. A.J. Neufeld went 3-for-3 as the Phoenix (29-3) advanced to the title game in the Class 4A Homewood-Flossmoor Regional.

Boys Volleyball Playoffs

Lincoln-Way East dropped a three-set thriller to Marist on Friday night. The RedHawks rallied after losing the first game to take the sectional semifinal match 21-25, 25-21, 25-17. The Griffins earlier defeated Brother Rice 25-22, 27-25 in the Lincoln-Way East Regional title match. Nate Royer had nine kills and three digs.

Lincoln-Way North's season came to an end as the Phoenix dropped a 21-25, 23-25 decision to Providence in the Marian Catholic Regional title game.

Girls Soccer: Lightning, Vikings Deny Phoenix

The Lincoln-Way North girls soccer team saw its season come to an end on Wednesday in the Class 3A Mother McAuley Sectional at Brother Rice. Homewood-Flossmoor received goals from Kate Vendrely and Sammi Farkos to take a 2-0 lead which would prove to be more than enough as thunderstorms produced a lightning delay with 34:13 remaining in the second half. After approximately an hour delay, officials called the game official. The Phoenix finished 17-7-1.

Softball Teams Vie For Regional Titles

The weather has altered the schedule some this week, but Lincoln-Way East already has advanced to Saturday's Lincoln-Way East Regional title game as the Griffins had no trouble on Tuesday in the semifinals, beating Thornwood 10-0.

L-Way’s Senior All-Star Gymnasts Finish High School Careers

Lincoln-Way co-op’s Evan Hosman and Tyler Yost represented their high school gymnastics team for a final time last weekend as the two seniors competed in the inaugural John Brinkworth Senior All-Star Meet Championship at Niles North. The DuPage Valley Conference won the meet with a 167.15 points. Representing the Southwest Suburban Conference, Yost and Hosman helped the conference take eighth place with a 114.55 total.

The meet gave the two multi-event specialists a chance to compete as all-arounders. Hosman’s top scores came on still rings (9.3) and floor (9.1), while Yost’s came on floor (9.4), vault (9.15) and high bar (9.0). Hosman finished with a 50.50 and Yost had a 48.05.

Unfortunately, due to prior commitments, L-Way seniors Jake Gratkowski and Ryan Reif were unable to attend. Reif, the state champion on still rings, would’ve had to top Stevenson’s Mike Wilner, who posted an eye-boggling 9.95.

L-W East Coach Hegarty Celebrates 25-Year Old Record

These days, Wendy Hegarty is coaching the Lincoln-Way East girls cross country team and serving as an assistant girls track and field coach. But, a quarter of a century ago, she was making her mark as a track athlete at Providence Catholic in New Lenox where she left an impression that’s lasted 25 years.

Believe it or not, back in 1986 Hegarty set a school record in the long jump with a leap of 16-9 1/2. The record still stands in 2011.

“Those huge ad books from the Harvest Drive had blurbs on sports teams and clubs and my freshman year they had the girls track records listed,” she said. “I remember staring at that page and making that my goal.”

The page stated that Kelly Maloney had established a school record jump of 16-1 in a 1974, a year after an oil crisis raised the average gas price to 55 cents a gallon.

Hegarty broke the record during her sophomore year in 1985 with a jump of 16-8. She extended it to 16-9 1/2 in 1986, when gas still was only 93 cents a gallon, but is a little foggy on exactly when she did it.

“I’m pretty sure I jumped it to win conference my junior year,” she said. “Thanks for brining back the memories.”

Local Area Well Represented in Boys Tennis Finals

Lincoln-Way East senior singles players Kamil Cwikla and Jeremy Dancu and the doubles teams of Jeremy Falbo/Justin Dancu and Adam Corazzi/Jacob Stoiber continued their impressive season on Thursday in the IHSA boys tennis state finals at Hersey in Arlington Heights.

Cwikla beat Crystal Lake Central’s Tommy Nelson, 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (1), lost to New Trier’s Robert Stineman, 6-0, 6-2 and dropped a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 decision to Chicago F.W. Parker’s Alex Rachlin.

Dancu opened with a 6-1, 6-0 loss to Loyola Academy’s Lawson Barter and then fell again in consolation play 6-3, 6-0 to Metamora’s Will Koehrsen.

Falbo/Dancu opened with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Rockford Guilford’s Jack Alexander and Andrew Stovall but proceeded to drop a 6-7 (3), 1-6 decision to Effingham St. Anthony’s Cole Buehnerkemer and Hayden Esker. It was the lone loss, though, for the duo as they bounced backed to beat St Ignatius’ Nate Ryan and L.J. Maloney 6-2, 6-0 and Belleville East’s Christian Hamilton and Zach Fields 6-2, 6-4, in consolation play.

Corazzi/Stoiber came out slowly and never rebounded, losing to Urbana’s Alex Mestre and Edo Roth 0-6, 7-5, 3-6, in their opener. Their season ended with a 3-6, 3-6 loss to Charleston’s Alex Shick and Sean Hussey.

Lincoln-Way North senior Bo Beniac opened with a 0-6, 2-6 loss to Sandburg’s Eric Pontow on Thursday but bounced back in a consolation match to beat Robinson’s Branden Kurzeja, 6-2, 6-2. He couldn’t make it two in a row, though, dropping a 1-6, 3-6 decision to Minooka’s Brian Falvey.

The doubles team of senior Dave Smith and freshman Steve Hill opened up in fine fashion with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Highland’s Evan Duft and Colin Duft. They fell in their next match 3-6, 5-7 to Marist’s Matt Bisbee and Matt Krakowski but responded in consolation play by beating Chicago University’s Sam Frampton and Aneesh Kanakmedala 6-4, 6-0.

L-W East's Rotondi at State

Lincoln-Way East junior Tom Rotondi qualified in the 1600 with a 4:27.23 and is representing the Griffins in the Class 3A boys state track and field finals in Charleston this weekend.