National signing day 2023: G-K championship trio commits to D-I schools at joint ceremony

GENOA – They’ve been high school teammates for four years, friends for much longer, and Wednesday they made their college choices official in a ceremony together.

Genoa-Kingston volleyball players Alivia Keegan, Hannah Langton and Alayna Pierce made their college choices official in a signing ceremony at the high school Wednesday evening.

“They are my best friends, so it’s really [calming] to be able to sign at the same time,” said Keegan, the team’s setter who signed her National Letter of Intent to play at Belmont. “We’ve played so many games together for so many years. I think little us would look up to this and be grateful that we were able to do this at the same time.”

Pierce, an outside hitter, signed with Tennessee Tech and Langton signed with Central Michigan.

The trio wasn’t alone. Kaneland honored 10 signees at a ceremony Thursday, including Leah Hayes, who will continue her swimming career at Virginia and Isabelle Strombes, who will play softball at Monmouth. Sycamore is honoring four four-year signees over the next week, including Lexi Carlsen, who committed to play women’s basketball for head coach and her mom, Lisa Carlsen, at NIU. Sycamore’s Kyle Hartmann (Western Kentucky for baseball) and Jacob Gramer (Youngstown State for swimming) also committed.

Pierce, Keegan and Langton helped the Cogs win a state championship last year. This year, they lost a sectional semifinal to IC Catholic, which still is alive for a state championship this weekend.

They have a combined 15 school records between them, pretty much every record for hitting (Pierce), setting (Keegan) and defense (Langton). The Cogs went 122-12 in their four years, including 37-2 this year. Before they came on board, the Cogs were 8-27 in 2019.

“It’s something that we all worked really hard for,” Langton said. “It doesn’t come easy, and it’s taken a lot of time and effort. It’s not something that can happen in a month or two months. This is years of training we’ve all put in and lots of hard work, money, time and energy. It feels really good to be here.”

Keegan said she liked the connection she had with the Belmont coaching staff. For Langton, she said Central Michigan felt like home.

“I wasn’t feeling homesick when I was there,” Langton said. “It was a place I wanted to go back to every single day. And that was something that set Central Michigan apart from other schools.

Pierce had committed to Tenneesse Tech more than a year ago and made it official Wednesday.

“It’s super exciting, and having my best friends at my side is more exciting,” Pierce said. “And knowing that we’ve all come to our dream is really fun. To make it official just feels really good.”

Other Kaneland athletes joining Hayes and Strombes in signing included Zachary Conrad (baseball at Elmhurst), Rosie Karl (volleyball at Aurora), Jackson Kottmeyer (baseball at Lewis), Danielle McCue (volleyball at Dubuque), Corrine Pugh (softball at Wisconsin-Platteville), Alex Schiefer (baseball at St. Xavier), Max Woodward (baseball at Morton), Mia Vassallo (volleyball at Wisconsin-Whitewater) and Parker Violett (baseball at St. Xavier). DeKalb did not report any signings.

Joining Carlsen in signing to continue their athletic careers included Sycamore classmates Grace Licthardt (volleyball at UW-Stevens Point), Laci Neece (volleyball at Truman State) and Brianna Chamoun (golf at Southern Arkansas). Also, Teague Hallahan will join former teammates Griffin Hallahan and Kiefer Tarnoki playing baseball for Lake Land Community College next year.