Thought for the Day - If you're like me, you've got spring fever. Recall the words of American poet Richard Hovey (1864-1900), who wrote, "Spring in the world! And all things are made new!"
HEY Awards
A Hamburg High grad, now pitching Division I softball at the University of Massachusetts, is our first Higher Education Yahoo Award recipient.
Right-hander Tara Klee was named Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Week after the freshman went 2-0 with a 1.75 ERA recently. Klee held opponents to a .225 batting average, allowing only four hits and one run in five innings against Yale and pitching a complete-game 5-2 victory over Dayton. Klee is 3-4 in 10 starts, pitching two complete games for UMass (10-15).
- Pine Grove grad Nick Todero was named Spartan Shop Athlete of the Week for the Northampton Community College baseball team.
Todero is a sophomore middle infielder for the Spartans (13-2), who are ranked 10th in the country. He earned the weekly honor after he went 13-for-23 (.565) on the team's spring trip with two doubles, a triple and six RBIs. On the season, he's batting .429 with 16 RBIs, 13 runs scored and six stolen bases.
Also on the Spartan roster is another Pine Grove alum, sophomore 3B/OF Tyler Zimmerman, whose batting average in seven games matches Todero's .429.
HEY Elite Edition
Wilkes recently inducted 21 student-athletes into its second class of the Colonels Elite, including one local student-athlete, junior women's basketball player Kate Thomas of Blue Mountain.
To become a member of the Colonels Elite, one must have at least 60 credits and at least a 3.50 grade-point average academically, be of good moral character as determined by the athletic department and be an athlete.
Thomas has a 3.69 GPA with a major in marketing. She played in 25 games for the Lady Colonels, averaging 7.8 minutes and 1.8 points per game with 14 steals.
Track Talk
Former Tamaqua standout Allison Updike is back throwing the
javelin collegiately and is having immediate positive results.
Updike is a redshirt sophomore at Azusa-Pacific in California after having left the University of Georgia and taken some time off. Azusa-Pacific, a former NAIA college, is two years into a three-year path to NCAA Division II status and is also a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association.
Updike, who now lists her home as Herndon, Va., is an applied exercise science major. She wasted no time making her mark at her new school, throwing the second-best distance ever in program history (152 feet, 3 inches) at the season-opening Aztec Invitational, just 15 inches shy of the school record and in the top five of the D-II performance list.
Just one week later, Updike broke the record by 10 feet on her first throw at the Cal-Nevada Championships, uncorking a heave of 163-7. That throw is the second longest in Division II and in the top 20 at all levels, including Division I.
- Another Tamaqua grad, Lebanon Valley College sophomore women's distance runner Kelsey Patrick, recently set two ECAC-qualifying marks. The first came in the 5,000 meters when Patrick ran a 17:49.22 (just a half-second off her career outdoor best) at Princeton's Sam Howell Invitational. Running against a field of mostly Division I competitors, Patrick finished fourth in her heat and 30th overall.
At this past weekend's Bucknell Bison Classic, Patrick also qualified for the 1,500 meters, running 4:42.66, her season's best by five seconds.
- Also running at the Bison Classic was Bloomsburg's Vicki Davis of Schuylkill Haven, who improved her Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference qualifying time in the 5,000 meters by running a 17:28.84. Earlier, at the Crusader Classic, Davis also qualified for the PSAC championships in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, finishing first in 11:09.73.
Diamond Doings
Penn State redshirt sophomore Greg Guers, whose family hails from Shenandoah and whose parents graduated from Cardinal Brennan, is batting .261 and playing first base, outfield and designated hitter for the Nittany Lions (16-14, 4-1 in the Big 10).
Guers has started 29 games, is second on the team in RBIs with 18 and has a flawless 1.000 fielding percentage. Guers graduated high school from Germantown Academy and transferred to Penn State from the University of South Carolina Upstate.
- Nativity grad Brianna Kuperavage is a freshman playing softball at Marywood College (8-6). She's started six games and played in 13, batting .308. In a 12-1 win over Notre Dame of Maryland, Kuperavage was 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and two runs scored.
- Penn College sophomore Alexandra Brennan of Pottsville has started every game, playing shortstop, outfield and pitcher. She is batting .219, but is 3-of-4 in stolen-base attempts and has pitched 2.1 innings.
- Another sophomore, Cassie Lapotsky of North Schuylkill, leads the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia in innings pitched. Lapotsky, who had an outstanding freshman season, is finding the going tougher this season, as is her team. The team is 6-18, and she is 3-10 on the mound with a 5.88 ERA.
- At Wilkes, the softball team is also going through a rebuilding season with a 4-20 record. However, a sizable local contingent is acquitting themselves well.
Senior P/OF Alysha Bixler of Williams Valley leads the Colonels with four home runs and 16 RBIs while starting every game. Pitching has been tougher, where she is 2-8 with an 8.21 ERA.
Her younger sister, freshman C/OF Lacey Bixler, has 12 starts and is batting .258. Two other freshmen, OF Makenna Rushannon of Pottsville (5-for-5 in stolen bases) and P/IF Meghan Kisela of Blue Mountain (batting .250; 1-6, 6.13 ERA pitching) are also seeing significant starting time.
Catching Up
In the "missed items" department, Tri-Valley grad Tara Nahodil played in seven games this past basketball season for the NCAA Division I Virginia Tech Hokies. The 6-foot-4 freshman center averaged 2.1 points, 1.7 rebounds and 4.9 minutes per game, with two blocks, a steal and an assist.
(MacLaughlin's college column appears bi-weekly. To make contributions or comments, email Sports Editor Leroy Boyer at Lboyer@ republicanherald.com)