Klein fast becoming one of Horizon League's top scorers
The college basketball season is winding down just as the spring sports are beginning to bloom. Here’s a quick update of some area athletes.
Basketball
• Kailey Klein continues to make a big impact on the Division I level for Cleveland State University, and coming on like a wild fire. She leads the Lady Vikings in scoring with 10.2 ppg, marked by an 18.9 clip the last seven games. She is averaging 16.0 ppg in Horizon League play, fifth best overall.
The Cherry Comet had the best game yet of her already outstanding young career when she poured in 33 points, eight rebounds and four assists to lead the Lady Vikings to a 77-74 win at Detroit on Feb. 10. She added a pair of steals and a block, while not making a single turnover in 38 minutes.
In CSU’s last game, Klein scored all 16 of her points in the second-half in a Feb. 17 loss to Horizon leader Green Bay, ranked 25th in the country.
“Kailey’s great at going to the basket hard and making a good read as to what the defense is doing,” CSU coach Kate Peterson said. “When she shoots the ball well from the three-point line like she did today, she’s really tough to guard.”
The Lady Vikings (7-19) host Youngstown State at 2 p.m. today. All CSU games are broadcasted on the Internet at www.csuvikings.cstv.com/sports.
• Katie Carls and the St. Francis Saints travel to Purdue University at Calumet, Ind., Saturday to play their regular season finale. The Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tourna-ment starts Tuesday in Joliet. Carls, a freshman point guard from Spring Valley (St. Bede), started for the Saints first 28 games, averaging 6.7 points and a team-high 3.4 assists. She did not start in Tuesday’s 79-63 loss to league leader St. Xavier, but maintained her average of 23 minutes.
Track
Augustana College Vikings were ranked 10th in the first NCAA Division III indoor poll. Four reasons hail from Bureau County — senior Jake Taylor of Spring Valley, sophomores Evan Holsch-bach, Jeff Scoma and Alex Hartz of Princeton and junior Wes Jackson of Mineral.
Holschbach was second in the 300 meter event with a time of :36.87 in the Feb. 2 Augustana Invite, and sixth in the 200 meter (23.12) in the Feb. 9 Warhawk Classic in Whitewater, Wis. He’s clocked Augie’s top times in all sprints this spring.
Also in the Augie Invite, Scoma placed seventh in the 55 meter hurdles in :08.11 and Jackson was third in the pole vault at 14-4.
Taylor had a PR of 9:51 in the 3K in the Jan. 27 Midwest Invitational at Monmouth College. He liked it so well, he repeated that time on Feb. 2 in the Augustana Invitational.
Laura Luloff and the Augie women, along with the men’s team, will compete in the CCIW Indoor Meet in Bloomington on Saturday.
• Princeton’s Scott Ho-ward, a sophomore pole vaul-ter for the University of Wis-consin-Platteville, tied for second out of 29 vaulters with a jump of 14-9, in the Jan. 27 UW-Whitewater Invitational. He just missed his first attempt at 15-4. He later cleared 14-10 at the UW-Oshkosh Invite.
• LaMoille’s Michelle Schallhorn, a freshman at Western Illinois University, placed ninth in the 20-pound weight throw with a throw of 42-9, a personal best in the Feb. 17 Prairie Fire Invita-tional at Knox College in Galesburg.
• Princeton’s Nate Blazier is a three-year letter winner as senior pole vaulter for Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis.
Tennis
• Senior Greg Bouslog of Princeton plays his final season for the Fighting Scots of Monmouth College. He is 2-1 in singles play and 2-0 in doubles with Jared Kunkle of Dunlap.
Softball
• Princeton’s Dawn Nissen returns for her senior season of softball for the Central College Dutch, with three varsity letters under her belt, as the 2007 co-captain and short stop. She batted .364 with 11 RBI in 2006 for a Dutch team that finished third in the Iowa Conference tournament, which earned them their 20th NCAA tournament bid in the last 21 years.
The Dutch return 11 letter winners from last year’s 33-13 squad. Central opened its season Friday at the Louisiana College Invitational in Pineville, La.
If you have information on area college athletes, you e-mail to khieronymus @bcrnews.com.
