Warm future ahead for Winans

After being named an all-area guard for the second straight winter, Sarah Winans was praised by Prospect girls basketball coach Martha Kelly a few months ago.

Kelly pointed out that one of Winans’s top qualities was great court vision.

Now the four-year starting guard is eyeing a collegiate career in a much warmer climate.

Winans has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on a full athletic scholarship for Saint Leo University in Saint Leo, Fla.

Saint Leo is about 40 miles north of Tampa.

“I’m very excited to go to school in Florida,” said Winans, who led the Knights balanced offense with 11 points and 2 assists. “I’ve always thought it would be fun to live somewhere warm, so I’m really happy to have this opportunity.”

Winans plans to major in biology, eventually becoming a dental hygienist.

She visited the Saint Leo campus two weeks ago.

“I loved it,” she said. “The coach (Nikki Reese) is really nice, and the campus is beautiful. I think it’s a really good fit.”

Winan’s brother Mike played basketball at North Central College in Naperville.

As a freshman, Mike had a 32-point game on the junior varsity squad and averaged 15 points.

He re-fractured his kneecap sophomore year and struggled to recover the next two years playing sparingly. He was voted a team captain before the 2010-2011 season.

North Central was picked to finish sixth in the College Conference of Illinois Wisconsin this winter and ended up tying nationally-ranked Augustana for first place in the league.

Mike was a two-year letterman and two-year CCIW Academic All Conference. He will graduate in June with a marketing degree.

Baseball

Six members of Ilinois-Chicago (co-regular season Horizon League champions) have earned all-League postseason recognition.

Third baseman Jason Ganek (Hersey) and second baseman Matt Serna (Rolling Meadows) were selected for the All-Horizon League second team.

Serna was recognized for the second straight year and Ganek for the third consecutive season.

Serna led UIC and ranks fourth in the Horizon League with a .367 batting average, He also led the team and ranked seventh in the conference with an on-base percentage of .428. He led the Flames in hits (69) and runs (34) while making a team-high 50 starts for Mike Dee’s squad. He is currently riding an eight-game hitting streak and has reached base safely in 29 straight contests.

Ganek leads UIC in both home runs (7) and RBI (34), ranking in the top 10 in the conference in both categories, as well. He also led the Flames with 13 doubles and ranks second behind Serna in batting average (. 308), hits (53) and on-base percentage (.407). Ganek currently has 149 RBI and 232 hits, the second and fourth-highest outputs, respectively, in program history.

Junior Chris Hoffman (Conant) was named to the Horizon League All-Newcomer Team following his first season in the conference.

Hoffman, a right-handed reliever, ranked fourth in the conference with a 2.43 ERA and tied for third with 26 appearances. Hoffman is 4-1 for UIC and has allowed just 9 earned runs in 33⅓ innings of work.

Ÿ Carthage junior shortstop Kyle Pusateri (Schaumburg) was named first team all-College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin. He batted .323 with 3 home runs and 30 RBI.

Although he did not get much playing time his freshman year and redshirted his sophomore year due to shoulder surgery, Pusateri worked hard to rehab and came back strong to earn a spot on a baseball team full of talent.

Ÿ Concordia-Chicago’s Cam Stephens (Leyden) was named as a second-team Division III All-American at designated hitter by D3baseball.com. Stephens led the team through the 45-game season with a .453 batting average and a .691 slugging percentage.

Aviation

Western Michigan precision flight team, the Sky Broncos, finished in fourth place at the National Intercollegiate Flying Association championships at the Ohio State University Airport in Columbus, Ohio.

The Sky Broncos were among some 300 students from 30 colleges and universities around the nation vying for top honors at the NIFA Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference.

Among the Sky Bronco team members was Justin Guth (Palatine), an aviation science and administration major. Guth captured sixth in aircraft recognition and ninth as a pilot in the message drop event.

Softball

Washington University’s Claire Voris (Barrington) capped her senior year by being named to the 2011 Capital One Second-Team Academic All-America Softball Team.

Ÿ Central College (Pella, Iowa) senior pitcher Kiley Lythberg (Prospect) was a co-winner of the LeRoy Timmer Most Valuable Player Award. She was also named a first-team Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-American along with first-team all-Midwest Region honors.

Women’s track and field

Notre Dame sophomore Rebecca Tracy (Barrington) finished third in the 1500 meter run with a time of 4:25.64 at the Big East Track Championships at Villanova.

Men’s track and field

Michael Spain (Schaumburg), who had already won a national title at 10,000 meters for North Central, came home first in the 5,000-meter run as the Cardinals claimed their second straight outdoor national title.

With just under a lap remaining, Spain summoned his remaining reserves and bolted for the lead, moving back in front with 150 meters left and stormed away impressively to win by nearly two seconds in 14:41.15.

Ÿ Iowa sophomore Jeff Thode (Conant) finished sixth in the 1500-meter run with a time of 3:51.13 and seventh in the 5000 meter run with a time of 14:12.40 helping Iowa win the Big Ten Track Championships at the University of Iowa on May 15th.

Rowing

Senior co-captain Adrienne Darrow (Barrington) led the Williams College Women’s Crew to its sixth straight Division III National Rowing Championship at Lake Natoma in Gold River, CA.

Darrow, who was recently named a First Team Division III All-American by the Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association, was in the Williams I boat (of eight rowers and a coxswain) which finished first by seven seconds.

Williams’s second boat finished sixth to lock up the team championship.

Darrow was also named a Scholar-Athlete by the CRCA and will graduate next week as a three-time National Championship team member.

Illinois Magic

Marty Dello’s Illinois Magic will be hosting tryouts for summer travel basketball teams. Tryouts will take place on June 2 at SportsCity Academy in Woodstock.

For more information contact Dello at coachdello@martydellobasketball.com, or visistmartydellobasketball.com or magicbball.org.

Ÿ Please e-mail Sports Notes items to jleusch@dailyherald.com or FAX to (847) 427-1173.