Sports

West Carroll Sports Awards

West Carroll High School recently hosted a winter sports award night. The following awards were given out.

Boy's Basketball

MVP ­ Jaron Ferguson, Best Defensive Player ­ Justin Ferguson, Best Rebounder ­ Nathaniel Law, Best Free Throw Percentage ­ Seth Zickafoose, Most Improved Player ­ Jake Shepard

Girls Basketball

MVP ­ Katie Wiersema, Thunder Award ­ Jenessa Miller, Defensive Player of the Year ­ Ellen Schreiner, Pride Award ­ Liandra Baltierra

Wrestling

Most Pins ­ Cody Young, Scholastic Achievement ­ Brandon Colgan, Outstanding Wrestler ­ Phil Cassaday, Outstanding Underclassman ­ Payton Nevills, Most Improved ­ Tripper Carey, Tuff Award ­ Cody Young, Most Team Spirit ­ Brandon Colgan

H.S. Varsity Baseball

Erie-P'town - 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 - 6-6-1

West Carroll - 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2-6-2

LP: Adam Ferguson - 1 IP, 6 R, 3 ER, 5 H, 1 BB

2B: West Carroll: 1 (Talley)

HR: West Carroll: 1 (Justin Ferguson)

HCC Men's BB Finishes 7th in National Tourney

Following a close loss to Garden City in the opening round of the NJCAA Division I National Tournament, the Highland Community College men's basketball team claimed three straight wins. Highland won its third straight game on Saturday, defeating No. 4 Southwest Tennessee 97-87. The Cougars ended the season seventh in the national tournament.

Southwest Tennessee never led following an early 5-4 advantage. Highland forced the Tennessee team to play from behind most of the way. The Cougars owned a pair of 17-point leads in their national tournament finale.

Brandon Wood paced Highland with a team-high 24 points.

Eric Frederick helped to lead Highland with 23 points. Parrish West had 15 points for the Cougars. The two Highland players combined for 31 points in the first half.

Highland was on pace to score 100 points at the intermission, hitting for 50 points in the first half.

Sturtevant Helps Lead Carroll University Baseball Team During Spring Break Trip

The Carroll University baseball team returned from its annual spring break trip to Florida with a record of 6-2, giving the Pioneers their best start to the season in recent history.

Carroll earned double header sweeps over Finlandia University and Eastern Nazarene College while splitting a two-game set with Dominican University. The Pioneers picked up a single-game victory over Southern Vermont College in the season-opener and lost to Augustana College in another single-game affair.

The Pioneer bats were hot in sunny Florida, with 10 players hitting .300 or better on the trip (minimum of 10 at-bats), led by senior Jimmy Marlin's gaudy .600 average. Marlin finished the trip with team-highs in hits (15), runs scored (11) and tied fellow senior Andy Sturtevant for the team lead in runs batted in (10). Sturtevant, a senior third baseman/catcher, is an Eastland High School graduate.

Sophomore Justin Ahrens and freshman Matt Eschenbauch hit .545 and .500, respectively. Each drove in seven runs while Ahrens recorded a pair of round-trippers.

Sturtevant batted .409 in 22 plate appearances that included three doubles (tied with Luke Melms) and Carroll's only triple on the trip. Senior Chris Elliott continues to swing a hot bat as the 2008 all-Midwest Conference performer batted .375 with 10 runs scored and eight runs batted in. As a team, Carroll hit .382 while outscoring its opponents 81-71.

Carroll will return to action April 4-5 with a pair of double headers against Beloit College in the Midwest Conference opener. The two teams face off in Beloit on Saturday. April 4 then meet in Waukesha on Sunday, April 5. Both double headers are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. Carroll will play all of its home games in 2009 at Waukesha West High School, located at 3301 Saylesville Road.

Spring Turkey Updates

Random daily drawings continue for remaining permits for the 2009 Spring Wild Turkey Hunting season in Illinois. Applications for turkey hunting seasons must be submitted no later than three weeks prior to the start of the selected season (see season dates below). Hunters can print out and mail in an application or apply online through DNR Direct. Go to the IDNR web site at http://dnr.state.il.us.

Turkey permits available for recently reopened sites: Governor Quinn announced recently the reopening of seven state sites closed last year. As part of the process of reopening Castle Rock State Park, Hidden Springs State Forest, Moraine View State Park and Wolf Creek State Park, the IDNR is offering wild turkey hunters the opportunity to apply for spring wild turkey hunting permits on these state sites. Applicants should submit their application form or apply online through DNR Direct for these special hunt areas:

Castle Rock State Park in Ogle County (CRSP)

Hidden Springs State Forest, 1st and 2nd season in Shelby County (HSSF)

Moraine View State Park in McLean County (MVSP)

Wolf Creek State Park, 1st and 2nd season in Shelby County (WCSP)

Hunters should send the completed application and check or money order to the address on the application or apply online by Mar. 23 to obtain first-season permits. Applications for later hunting seasons need to be submitted three weeks prior to the start of the season selected (see season dates below). For a permit application form or a link to DNR Direct to apply online, go to the IDNR web site at http://dnr.state.il.us.

Spring Turkey Dates: The dates for the 2009 Illinois Spring Wild Turkey Season:

South Zone

Youth Hunt: March 28-29

1st Season: April 6-April 10

2nd Season: April 11-April 16

3rd Season: April 17-April 22

4th Season: April 23-April 29

5th Season: April 30-May 7

North Zone

Youth Hunt: April 4-5

1st Season: April 13-April 17

2nd Season: April 18- April 23

3rd Season: April 24-April 29

4th Season: April 30-May 6

5th Season: May 7-May 14

Watercraft Restrictions Removed on Several Rivers in Northern Illinois

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) today announced that it will remove the recreational boating restrictions it authorized last week on the Des Plaines River, DuPage River, Kankakee River and the Mazon River. Rising water levels and swift currents led to the department restricting recreational boating on sections of these rivers earlier in the month. IDNR has been monitoring the situation and believes conditions have improved to the point of being able to safely reopen these rivers to recreational watercraft.

However, the recreational boating restrictions are still in place on the Illinois River from mile marker 196 to mile marker 254.1 in Putnam, LaSalle and Bureau Counties. Recreational boating is still off limits in this area of the Illinois River until further notice. IDNR has authorization to designate restricted boating areas when navigation is deemed significantly hazardous. For more information about river restrictions, go online to the IDNR website at www.dnr.state.il.us.

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