March came in with a flurry of winter sports activities and a downpour of snow that canceled games and rescheduled tournaments in its wake.
Despite the weather, many area athletes participated in postseason events.
Clearview grad Chad Szalay and the Heidelberg College men’s basketball team defeated Capital in Columbus for the second time in 10 days to win the Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament. The Student Princes advanced to the NCAA Division III National Tournament for only the third time in their history. Their previous appearances were in 1983-84 and 1994-95.
Heidelberg lost to Ohio Wesleyan, 83-62, in the first round of the national tourney. The Student Princes finished 23-6. Szalay, however, completed a solid season, averaging 14 points per game and 14.8 ppg in conference games. The junior guard also finished with a team-leading 44 steals and shot 87.9 percent from the free-throw line.
Heidelberg’s indoor track team competed at the OAC Championships. Sophomore Julius Higginbotham of Elyria took first in the long jump (23-8). His triple jump of 44-2 1/2 was good for third. Higginbotham earned a spot in the NCAA National Indoor Championships, but did not qualify for the final round.
Avon Lake’s Mike Baraona and Berea’s Weston Lott were two of five Akron Zips named to the Mid-American Conference
All-Academic team.
Baraona is majoring in mechanical engineering and carries a 3.528 grade-point average midway through his junior year. He finished eighth in the 800 meters at the MAC Indoor Championships.
Lott, a graphics design major, was named to the 2007 Outdoor All-Academic team. He won the pole vault at the Akron Quad Meet and took fourth in the heptathlon at the conference meet.
Kent State junior wrestler Dan Mitcheff of Lorain qualified for his second straight NCAA wrestling tournament at 133 pounds.
Although Kent State’s All-American drought continued for the 22nd straight season, Mitcheff was able to win a match at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, which will be host the 2009 NCAA Division I wrestling tournament. In the first round, he beat Jeff Hedges of North Carolina-Greensboro, 6-2. He lost in the next round to fourth-ranked Joey Slaton of Iowa.
The Ohio University women’s basketball team pushed Miami of Ohio to the limit in the MAC Tournament title game, but the Bobcats lost 67-56 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland.
Vermilion native Allie LaForce played in eight games for the Bobcats (20-13) as a freshman this season. LaForce, a three-time
All-Lorain County player, is majoring in broadcast journalism at Ohio.
Four area athletes played for the Baldwin-Wallace women’s basketball team, which advance to the second round of the NCAA Division III National Tournament, falling to previously unbeaten Hope (Mich.) College. Senior guard Jessica Diaz and sophomore forward Sasha Samara of Amherst, freshman guard Ali Stack, a Firelands grad, and junior guard Addie Mental, an Olmsted Falls alum, helped the Yellow Jackets finish 27-3 overall.
They won the OAC regular season and tournament championships and hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney.

Think Spring

As winter sports played out, spring athletes headed south to train for the upcoming season.
B-W junior first baseman Caitlin Myor has been tearing it up in softball. The Elyria graduate hit a grand slam and drove in five runs against Wittenberg in an
11-2 victory. She has an OAC-leading four home runs so far, and was a weekly winner of the OAC Hitter of the Week.
Freshman Jessica Cantrell, a Midview grad, is Ashland University’s starting shortstop. The Eagles are 8-6 heading into Saturday’s game against Hillsdale (Mich.) College. She has started the team’s 14 games and has a .929 fielding percentage. She has 21 putouts and 31 assists against four errors.
Sophomore Jessica Burt of LaGrange has helped Cleveland State softball start 10-5. The Vikings will play three games in two days at home against Wright State this weekend. Burt, one of five Vikings to start all 15 games, has a .262 batting average, with three triples, nine RBIs and 10 runs scored. She has drawn seven walks and is 6-for-6 in stolen bases.
Akron’s baseball team enters a weekend series at Toledo today with an 11-8 record. The Zips are 10-7 away from home, and are coming off a 4-3 victory over Youngstown State on Wednesday.
North Olmsted native and St. Ignatius graduate Kevin Haas, who has started all 19 games, leads the team in batting average (.367) and is 29-of-79 at the plate. The middle infielder has at least a hit in each game. Defensively, he has a .933 fielding percentage with 35 putouts and 48 assists.
Berea’s Tom Farmer and Amherst’s Garrett Knoll each have made mound appearances.
Farmer, 0-2 in seven appearances, has struck out 12 against two walks in 81/3 innings. The junior right-hander has earned a save in four of the Zips’ 11 victories.
Knoll has also appeared in seven games. He has 13 strikeouts in 13 innings, and has held opponents to a .260 batting average. Knoll has surrendered three walks in 53 plate appearances.
Contact Matt Florjancic at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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