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[JULY 16, 2001]  Nine-year-old Whitney Siltman from Middletown won a first-place finish in the junior dragster event at Havana this weekend. This puts her into first place in points by two points above Matt Harring.

She is running a homemade junior dragster named Mommy Said No.

Dad, Mike Siltman, says, "We are having an absolute ball doing it."

College volleyball

LCC signs four volleyball stars

[JULY 11, 2001]  Lincoln Christian College is proud to announce that Amanda Cole, Lauren Cox, Christen O’Malley and Bethany Scheel have signed national letters of intent to play volleyball.

Amanda Cole is a 5-foot-11 middle blocker from Streator Woodland High School. Cole was selected to the Midstate all-conference first team, received the killer award the last two years and was named team MVP.

Lauren Cox is a 5-7 setter from Roseville High School. Cox was selected to the bi-county all-conference first team, was named team MVP and was the Review Atlas Player of the Year. Cox holds all Roseville High School records for assists and assist attempts.

Seneca High School’s Christen O’Malley has signed her national letter of intent to play volleyball at LCC. O’Malley, a 5-10 outside hitter was selected MVP of the I-8 Conference, was team MVP and led her team to the sectional finals for the first time in school history.

Bethany Scheel is a 5-10 outside hitter from Belle High School in Bland, Mo. Scheel was selected to the first team all-district, first team Gascanade Valley all-conference and was also conference MVP.

"This is possibly the best recruiting class in the 11 years I have been at LCC," said head coach Kevin Crawford. "I am expecting the incoming freshman to have an immediate impact on our program," he added.

The Angels are coming off a season that was capped by their fifth consecutive trip to the NCCAA national championship tournament. LCC finished the 2000 season with a 30-9 record.

[LCC news release]

[to top of second column in this article]

College basketball

Bates to Northern Illinois

[JULY 10, 2001]  Eugene Bates, a mainstay on the Lincoln College basketball team the past two years, has signed to play for Northern Illinois University at DeKalb. New coach Rob Judson, a former assistant at the University of Illinois, has added Bates to the fold.

At Lincoln College, Bates averaged 15.2 points per game as a sophomore, scoring 501 points in 33 games. He made 189 of 322 shots from the floor and added 123 of 208 at the foul line. B.J. McCullum, head coach of the Lynx, also got a lot from Bates in the guard position, as he contributed 121 assists and pulled down 216 rebounds.

As a freshman for coach McCullum, Bates averaged 8.4 points per game. He scored 269 points in 32 games, contributing 114 assists and pulling down 171 rebounds.   

The Lynx were 26-7 this past season and 25-7 the previous year, with Bates playing an instrumental role.

[Bill Martinie,
Lincoln College sports information director]

[JUNE 21, 2001]  We were able to reach Lincoln American Legion baseball coach Mike Thornton at his office. What follows is a brief interview that we had with him concerning the rest of this summer’s season…

A: We are 1-6 but should be 5-2. We’ve been competitive, and we’re hangin’ in there. We’ve got eight guys back from last year. Primarily, the bulk of them are from Lincoln, but we fill in with guys from the area. The eight back from last year are solid. I think we’ll be OK. Once we get a few wins under our belts, I think we could get on a roll.

A: Well, it’s different every day. We use a different lineup every day. We’re moving guys around here and there and seeing who can do what and what we’re going to be comfortable with. We’ll do that until the tournament at the end of the season, and by then we’ll have things pretty well solidified.

A: I hope I don’t leave anybody out. Korey Davis is from Elkhart. The Lincoln kids are Chris Phillips, Andrew Bartman, Justin Dedman, Aaron Mattson and Nick Bay. Matt McQuality is from Williamsville and Tyler Hendrickson is from Athens.

A: Yes, they did. They really did well with them. I’m not displeased with what we’ve got at all. I think that we’ve got a pretty well-rounded ball club.

A: Korey Davis has been a standout! He just jumps out at you. I like the way he conducts himself. He is very businesslike. He goes out there and does his job. He is steady and good. He doesn’t try to be too flashy, he’s just confident in himself.

A: Andrew Bartman as much as anyone. Korey kind of leads by example and Bartman’s kind of a yell guy. I guess you’d call him a rah-rah guy. It’s not that the rest of the guys aren’t or don’t; it’s just that those two make their presence felt. It’s hard to miss them.

A: It will be OK once we get some consistency. We played several games in a row, and now we’ve been off since last Thursday … well, we did play on Thursday. But, we’ve had two games postponed on us Saturday and another one postponed on us tonight! So, we’re playing Wednesday and Thursday, and we’ve got a doubleheader on Saturday. Next week we’ll jump right back into the schedule of having three games a week again. We’ll have to see where we’re at, at that time.

[to top of second column in this article]

Q: Who will be some of your starting pitchers, and who will be your closers?

A: They’re all pretty good and pretty consistent. Phillips had a good high school year and so did Davis. Michael Martin went out a week ago Sunday and held Danville, a perennial power, to just three runs over nine innings. He did an outstanding job that day. He was very impressive. I’ve had Andy Knopp in a couple of times as a closer in the eighth and ninth innings, and he has been impressive in that role. He comes in and just throws strikes. He won’t walk people. If you don’t walk anybody, you’re going to be successful. At least you’ve got a better chance of being successful. Other than that we’ll probably try them all. Ryan Williams is a pitcher, McQuailty is a pitcher, Matt Gleason is, and of course Phillips. There are several of our players that are pretty good hurlers. It may get done by committee as much as anything else. We have a pitch count on all of them. When it gets up to about 80, you start looking real close and take it from that point. If they get in trouble after that point, you go and get ’em. I’m not going to burn somebody out. On a nice warm day you can sometimes throw over 100 pitches, but other days they just can’t.

A: It’s worked well. We’ve sat down and talked several times and traded notes. We’re definitely on the same page.

A: He’s certainly working hard at it!

A: Again, Davis. He’s been ripping the cover off the ball. Danny Schick has hit well. Blake Schoonover has been hitting the ball on the nose.

A: We usually play Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m., with Tuesday and Thursday games usually at home, out at the Rec. Then we play Saturdays, and we’ve got a couple of Sundays thrown in there, usually at 11, noon or 1 o’clock.

A: We had 38 originally scheduled, but we’ll probably only get in 34.

A: I think that we will do real well, once we get it rolling. No excuses, but the reality — some of our guys hadn’t played in three or more weeks. Our timing was off just a bit, but now it’s coming back.

On behalf of the LDN, we certainly wish the Legion baseball teams and all local summer baseball and softball teams the best of luck!

[Jeff Mayfield]

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