Thought for the day: Tomorrow is Election Day. Get out and vote!
HEY Awards
The first Higher Education Yahoo honoree this week is the same as two weeks ago — Lycoming junior running back Blake Bowman of Tri-Valley.
Bowman was honored two weeks ago after scoring four touchdowns and rushing for 142 yards in a loss to King’s.
He is honored this week for scoring four touchdowns again (on runs of 12, 23, 19 and 31 yards) for the second week in a row, this time in a 44-20 win over FDU-Florham. Bowman is the only player in school history to ever accomplish that feat.
He also rushed for a career-high 281 yards, second most in school history, on 30 carries, and with two catches for 22 yards, Bowman finished the game with 303 total yards. He leads the Middle Atlantic Conference with 12 rushing touchdowns (and has 13 overall) and is two scores away from the Lycoming record for rushing touchdowns.
In addition to his HEY award, his performance earned Bowman the MAC Offensive Player of the Week award (his second) and a spot on the D3football.com Team of the Week.
Of course, you knew the streak had to end. In Saturday’s 48-7 loss to Widener, Bowman was “held” to 74 yards on 17 carries. He also caught two passes for 13 yards but was scoreless.
Joining Bowman on the MAC weekly award list (and the HEY list) is Lebanon Valley College freshman placekicker Marcus Brown of Pine Grove. Brown was named MAC Special Teams Player of the Week for the second time. He earned the award by kicking two field goals — a career long 38-yarder and a 29-yarder — as well as converting all six of his extra-point attempts in LVC’s 48-17 win over Wilkes. Brown is fourth in kicking scoring and seventh overall in scoring in the MAC.
Shippensburg redshirt freshman Richard Nase of Panther Valley was named the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division Defensive Player of the Week on Sunday after contributing to multiple school records in a 63-7 victory over Millersville.
The honor is the first weekly award for Nase, who who now ranks second in the PSAC with eight sacks this season. Nase led the Red Raiders with eight tackles — 4.5 tackles for loss, including 3.5 sacks. He also forced a fumble on one of the sacks (recovered by Millersville) and deflected a pass at the line of scrimmage.
Shippensburg set multiple single-game school records Saturday. The Red Raiders had 10 sacks, two more than the school record. SU had six sacks in the first quarter and nine by halftime. The 10 sacks by the Red Raiders are the most in a Division II game this season.
This past weekend was a big one in cross country and we’ll get to those results in a moment, but first HEYs go out to two cross country runners for earning conference honors.
LVC senior Kelsey Patrick of Tamaqua was named the MAC Women’s Runner of the Week for the fourth time this season after Patrick won Oberlin’s Inter-Regional Rumble individual championship, setting a course record.
The MAC held its cross country championships Saturday and Patrick earned All-MAC first-team honors by finishing fifth overall in a 164-runner field. Patrick is a former individual champion, and she led LVC to a fifth-place finish.
On the men’s side, Misericordia senior standout Mikael Hause of Mount Carmel finished ninth overall, earning first-team All-MAC status. Hause’s performance is just the latest in a series of outstanding finishes, including running the seventh-fastest time in school history and finishing 11th overall at the Paul Short Run earlier in October and breaking his own school record last month against Rowan. Hause is also a past MAC Runner of the Week and was Misericordia’s Wendy’s Male Athlete of the Month in September.
The final two HEY awards go to women’s soccer goalkeepers whose teams are playoff bound.
The first is Holy Family University’s Sienna Smith of Pottsville. Smith, a junior, was named to the CoSIDA/Capital One Academic All-District 1 first team, as selected by College Sports Information Directors of America East Region members. Her selection makes Smith eligible for the Capital One Academic All-America team.
Smith is a biology major with a perfect 4.0 grade-point average. In eight games this season (seven starts), Smith has a 1.69 goals-against average with three shutouts and 40 saves in compiling a 4-2 record. Career-wise, Smith has 14 shutouts, tied for third in program history.
The second honor goes to St. Joseph’s senior keeper Allison Ebling of Blue Mountain. Ebling set the program record for career victories when she won her 23rd game in a 3-0 win over St. Bonaventure. It was Ebling’s 11th win of this season for the 13-6-0 Hawks. Ebling has an outstanding 0.80 goals-against average and seven shutouts. St. Joe’s is the third seed in the A-10 Championships.
Cross country crush
Back to the MAC Championships. On the women’s side, Patrick’s teammate senior Alyssa Keich finished 29th overall and was LVC’s third finisher.
Widener seniors Taylor and Brianna Englert, both of Pottsville, finished 58th and 61st overall, and fifth and sixth on their team. Wilkes sophomore Michelle Brenneman of Schuylkill Haven was 93rd overall and sixth on her team. Lycoming junior Jordyn Reilly of Blue Mountain ran a career-best time and finished 99th overall and seventh on her team. Also competing were Misericordia (which won the women’s title) behind sophomore Lauren Hause of Mount Carmel and Lycoming senior Anna Summers of Shamokin.
• The Lipscomb women’s cross country team captured its fifth consecutive Atlantic Sun Conference championship in Jacksonville, Florida. Sophomore Paige Stoner of Pottsville was named to the All-Conference second team, as she was Lipscomb’s eighth finisher, 11th overall and one of nine Bison women’s runners to finish in the top 14.
• The Landmark Conference held its championship this past weekend and the Susquehanna men finished second. Finishing 20th overall and fourth for the Crusaders was junior Justin Skavery of Mount Carmel.
• In the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Championships, Bloomsburg junior Jake Plachko of Pottsville was the Huskies’ third finisher and 66th overall, while freshman teammate Tom Moser of Mount Carmel was the fifth Huskie finisher and 76th overall.
Notables
• Kutztown senior wide receiver Anthony Kelly of Pottsville has moved into eighth place on KU’s all-time career touchdown catch list. Kelly caught his 19th career TD with a 10-yard reception in KU’s 34-20 win over Lock Haven. He has 18 catches for 228 yards and four TDs this season.
• In LVC’s 28-21 loss to Delaware Valley, Dutchmen freshman fullback Ryan Fink of Schuylkill Haven scored two touchdowns, sophomore linebacker Tom Gallagher had a team-high nine tackles and an interception and sophomore wide receiver Michael Gaval of Mahanoy Area tried his hand for the first time as a kick returner, returning five kicks for 106 yards, including a 45-yarder that set up a fourth quarter scoring drive.
• Millersville volleyball senior middle hitter Emily Kaledas of Nativity recorded 10 kills in a 3-0 win over Elizabethtown. Kaledas is second on the team in blocks with 44 and fourth in kills with 109.
• The Mets-Royals World Series isn’t the only Fall Classic. Bucknell holds the Bison Fall World Series each year, an intrasquad best-of-5 series. Sophomore catcher/first baseman/DH Aaron Fritz of Minersville distinguished himself in the series. He was the second-leading hitter on his team, and third overall, batting .357 with a double, triple and three RBIs. Fritz’s on-base percentage was .500 and his slugging percentage .571.
• Collegiate swimming has begun. In some early results, LVC sophomore Ian Lloyd of Millersburg, a former Schuylkill League swimmer, took first in the 200 IM and second in the 200 butterfly individually, and swam legs on the victorious 200 freestyle relay and the second-place 200 medley relay teams in a meet against Arcadia.
• Millersville junior Marina Barrineau of Blue Mountain was second and qualified for the PSAC postseason in the 50 freestyle. Barrineau was part of the winning 400-yard freestyle relay team, as the Marauders won 11-of-14 events against Lock Haven.
(MacLaughlin’s college notebook appears biweekly during the collegiate calendar. Send items to him in care of Sports Editor Leroy Boyer at Lboyer@republicanherald.com.)