On Campus: Carly Chovanec, Brandon Bannon help UIS athletics to big spring

When Carly Chovanec and her University of Illinois Springfield softball teammates get on base, they let their legs do plenty of work.

“We’ve got a team of speedsters,” said Chovanec, a Crystal Lake South graduate. “It’s a good feeling knowing that if we get on base, we will most likely put on some pressure in some way, shape or form and cause some chaos.”

How much chaos?

The Prairie Stars have 144 stolen bases this season, which ranks fourth nationally. Chovanec leads the team and ranks second in the nation with 47 steals, which is more than 145 teams in NCAA Division II.

Chovanec and UIS (31-14) have used their running game to pile up the most wins in a single season since 2018 and clinched a spot in the Great Lakes Valley Conference postseason tournament by winning 11 of its past 13 games.

“We all think this is a pretty special team and we can do some cool things,” she said.

Though Chovanec said she never considered herself a base stealer early in her career, that changed when UIS hired Ryan Johnson two years ago as its director of strength and conditioning.

“He has a big focus on speed,” said Chovanec, who stole 16 bases in her first two seasons with the Prairie Stars. “I took it upon myself to take advantage of that and really develop my game. He’s really helped me.”

As the team’s leadoff hitter, Chovanec has sharpened her approach in the batter’s box as well, posting a .384 average with team-leading totals of 53 hits and 49 runs.

“I really like that outside pitch,” the left-handed hitting Chovanec said. “This year, I wanted to work on my inside pitch skills, being able to drive that pitch. I’m starting to get more comfortable, and that’s really helped me develop my game.”

While the UIS softball team is running away from opponents, the Prairie Stars’ baseball team is bashing opposing teams with 10.3 runs a game, the fourth-best total in D-II.

Junior infielder/catcher Brandon Bannon (Richmond-Burton) is doing more than his fair share for UIS, which has won 15 games in a row, the second-longest streak in school history.

“My approach is to hunt my pitch early in counts,” he said. “If I get a pitch I like, I take a hack at it. I’m not putting pressure on myself. I’m just playing loose and having fun.”

Bannon’s approach has produced a team-best .412 average, which is more than 100 points higher than last season.

Thanks to a team-leading 13 doubles, Bannon has scored a career-best 62 runs, which helped him break the school’s all-time record for runs scored this month with 162. Bannon credits the team’s powerful lineup, which has five players with 40 or more RBIs, with boosting his performance at the plate.

“When you have confidence in the other eight guys in the lineup, it takes pressure off of one individual,” he said.

At 33-6 and ranked No. 8 in the nation, UIS can lock up the GLVC Blue Division title this weekend at U. of Indianapolis. While winning the conference is a short-term goal, the Prairie Stars hope to ride their hot streak all the way to the D-II World Series in June in Cary, N.C.

“That’s something that we haven’t done in my four years here, but we’ve been close,” he said.

Speedy Schirmer: Marengo grad Finn Schirmer ran the second-fastest 100-meter dash time in Minnesota school history last weekend at the LSU Alumni Gold Meet in Baton Rouge, La.

Schirmer, a sophomore for the Gophers, took sixth place in the event, running a time of 10.28 seconds in a loaded field of competitors. He is now trailing teammate Kion Benjamin’s school record time of 10.25 from last season by only 0.03 of a second.

Schirmer’s time ranks seventh-best this season in the Big Ten Conference.

Aurora wins lacrosse title: Aurora University’s women’s lacrosse team clinched the regular-season Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference championship Wednesday with an 18-8 victory against Concordia Chicago.

The Spartans improved to 11-5 overall and a perfect 5-0 in conference play with the win.

Aurora has outscored opponents, 253-133, this season and has allowed opposing teams 200 fewer shots than the Spartans have taken thanks to a stingy defense.

Senior defender Nicole Fischer (Huntley) has started every game for the Spartans this season while fellow senior Joyel Edgecombe (Hampshire) has played in 15 games, starting three, on defense.

NCC record breaker: Dom Listi’s first at-bat Sunday for North Central College’s baseball team was a memorable one.

Listi, a junior outfielder from Prairie Ridge, tripled in the first inning of a 13-2 victory against Carroll University. The hit marked the 15th triple of his career, breaking the school record.

For the season, Listi is batting .368 with five triples and has scored a team-leading 50 runs for the Cardinals (26-8). North Central is ranked No. 13 nationally this week by D3Baseball.com.

Giese swipes record: Huntley grad Tiffany Giese, a senior softball player at Wisconsin-Green Bay, stole her 32nd career base last weekend against Youngstown State.

The steal broke Green Bay’s all-time record for stolen bases in a career.

This season, Giese is batting .370 for the Phoenix with a career-high 20 stolen bases in 21 attempts.

• Barry Bottino writes about local college athletes for the Northwest Herald. Write to him at barryoncampus@hotmail.com and follow @BarryOnCampus on Twitter.