L-Way E. athletes make selections

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FRANKFORT -- Ron Revord, Myles Scott-Stirn and Nate Troester all have been key reasons for the success of Lincoln-Way East High School's boys cross country team the past few years.

At the 2007 state meet, all three earned all-state honors while helping the Griffins to a ninth-place finish. The year before, they all were members of a seventh-place squad.

Now the three seniors hope to enjoy more success at the next level after they made their college choices known at a signing day ceremony this week at school.

They were joined by 11 other athletes in four sports who announced what schools they will be headed to in the fall.

Troester and Revord will continue their educations and careers at the University of Illinois, while Scott-Stirn will do the same at Southern Illinois.

"The three big things for me are that guys on the team are really nice, I like the coach a lot and you can't go wrong with the great academics," Troester said. "It will be nice to have Ron as a teammate and there are some other kids from the area who will be going there, too."

"I like the great academics there and they have a great recruiting class with 7-8 all-staters, so I'm looking forward to running there," Revord said. "It's always nice knowing a few people on the team and a lot of the recruits are from the area, so it will be an easy transition."

"The running has been doing fantastic the past few years and I like the coaching program and it seems to work for me," Scott-Stirn said. "But the beautiful campus is what I really fell in love with, and I was there in the winter. It seems to be all coming together pretty well."

Zach VanSwol, who earned all-state honors the past two years in the 500 freestyle for East's top-10 boys swimming teams, will attend school and compete at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

"I'm really excited about going to UIC," VanSwol said. "It's a good school for my major, biology, and I got to swim there during the summer and I liked the guys on the swim team. That was a big factor. I visited a couple of other colleges out East, but liked UIC the best."

Several members of East's successful football program also made their choices known. Dan Giordano (University of Cincinnati) and Blake Hammond (Western Michigan University) already had signed letters of intent.

The program's all-time leading rusher, Dan Cebula, will be the latest Griffin to attend Drake University, while Nick Pecho joins many former East players at Saint Xavier University.

Glen Bilina is headed to Augustana College in South Dakota, Kyle Houlahan is going to North Central College and Austin Zenere plans to join Hammond by walking on at Western Michigan.

"Knowing some guys out there really helped since I knew more about Drake and thought that it could be an option," Cebula said. "I had a good time when I went on my visit and enjoyed the experience. I wanted a top-rated school where I could play a high level of football."

"I liked the people, the environment and the coaching staff in their football program," Bilina said. "Football's pretty big out there and they have a good program. When I went out there, it just seemed like it was the right fit for me, even though it's a little far away from here."

"I'm extremely happy to be going to North Central," Houlahan said. "It's nice and close and a lot of my family can watch me. A lot of the lifting and practices will be like they were at East, so I think I should fit in really well."

"I'm looking forward to going to Western Michigan," Zenere said. "I'm rooming with Blake, so we have a few kids from around here going there. I know that walking on will be pretty hard, but I'm looking forward to it. I have a feeling I can do it, so I'm going to give it a shot."

Two softball players, Jessica Iversen and Lindsey Thielmann, and a baseball player, C.J. Sandmann, also announced their college decisions.

Sandmann will attend Indiana Wesleyan University, Thielmann is headed to St. Mary's College of Notre Dame and Iversen will go to the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

"It was great to meet the team, watch a practice and spend a night there," Thielmann said. "You get the best of both worlds since you're close to Notre Dame, but you're at a small school with small classes. I fell in love with it right away and knew that I was going to go there."