Life has been pretty glum on the junior college sports front lately.
There's been one exception -- Jefferson College.
Jefferson had a big spring, going 44-11 and winning the Midwest Community College Athletic Conference title in softball and banging out a 43-22 record and going to the Junior College World Series in baseball.
"That's a pretty good May," coach Sam Carel said of the baseball team winning both the Region 16 (Missouri) and the South Central District title on the road to nab a spot in the 10-team World Series field. "It was a fun ride."
The Vikings had a bit more fun splash up on their spikes this week when whippet-like outfielder Tyler Hibbert was named to the National Junior College Athletic Association all-America team and four former players and one current Jefferson pitcher were selected in Major League Baseball's first-year player draft.
Hibbert, a freshman center fielder from Ontario, Canada, batted .428 as the Vikings leadoff hitter. He stole 36 bases and had 23 extra-base hits with 11 triples.
In the Monday-Wednesday draft, former Vikings standouts Matt Stites, Cody Fick, Jeremy Patton and Travis Henke all were selected. Also picked in the annual draft was Vikings pitcher Dane Gronewald.
The only player drafted off this spring's Jefferson roster was Gronewald, a 6-foot-4, 225-pound freshman lefty from Winfield. Gronewald was 6-2 with a 2.79 ERA for the Vikings and was picked in the 47th round by Atlanta. ...
In baseball's talent pool, the amateur draft is a wave machine. College and junior college rosters will be in flux for the next couple months as MLB signings force players and schools to rethink and rework plans they thought were set in stone. ... "June is a very busy month in this business," Carel said.
SUDDEN SAM: A long list of Festus Tigers likely are keeping an eye on the Cincinnati Red box scores this summer. One of the nice -- and lately one of the few dependable -- arms in the Reds' bullpen is Sam LeCure. LeCure derailed a powerhouse Festus team's bid for a state title in 2000. Then a sophomore at Helias, the righthander threw a 2-1 complete-game victory against the the Tigers in tbe Class 3A semifinals. Festus, 20-6, closed its tournament run and its season with a 3-1 loss against Francis Howell Central 3-1 in the third-place game. LeCure, who just turned 27, pitched Helias to back-to-back state titles in 2000 and '01. He spent three seasons at the University of Texas before signing with the Reds in 2005.
BEST OF BASEBALL: Take a bow, Hornets. Crystal City's 40-11 record the last two springs -- a mark that includes last year's run to the Class 2 state title -- is the best two-year record among Jefferson County baseball teams in a long while. The last time an area team reached 40 wins during a two-year stretch was nearly a decade ago. Festus won 42 games in 2000-01 and 45 games in 2001-02. Herky had a similar hot streak around the same time, winning 43 games in 1999-2000 and 44 in 2000-01. ...
Forty wins in two years is a terrific run for any program, but two seasons may not be the perfect measuring stick of a program. One player can impact two seasons (see the above note on Helias' consecutive titles with Sam LeCure on the mound) so let's bump the measurement to three years. Three years is a manageable stretch as far as our record keeping goes and it will measure the success of programs through the better part of two entirely different lineups. So, without allowing for any overlap from one three-year run to the next, the best three-year stretches since the start of the 2000s: Festus 65 wins (2000-2002), Herculaneum 59 (2000-02), Hillsboro 58 wins (2007-09), Festus 55 wins (2006-08), Crystal City 53 wins (2009-11), Windsor 52 wins (2003-05) and Windsor 50 wins (2006-08).
OUT OF SECKMAN, ON TO COLLEGE: Four-time state golf qualifier Dylan Saxner has committed to join the Missouri Valley College golf program next year. Saxner is one of the top prep players from the area. With a state title and a couple state medals on his resumé, Brent Bayer of St. Pius and later Lincoln tops the area list. Kyle Helms of Hillsboro and Truman State is on the list. Same for Katrina Choate from Summit and Drury. After those three, there's a pretty good argument to be made for Saxner. ... A contender for Suburban South Player of the Year honors, Saxner tied for 48th at this year's state tournament, shooting 82-81 -- 163, that put him eight shots from earning an all-state medal. ... Saxner's bid for a fourth trip to the state tournament was not as easy as some might have expected. He went into the last hole of the sectional tournament needing at least a par to grab one of the last state tournament berths available. Seckman coach Jason Malone didn't expect the pressure to rattle Saxner. "He's the best player under pressure I've ever seen," he said.
Another Seckman standout recently settled his college search. All-time Seckman wrestling wins leader Denny Kleinschrodt will hook on with the Mizzou mat program next year. A four-time state qualifier and three-time medalist, Kleinschrodt will be the second Seckman athlete and third Jefferson County wrestler on the 2011-12 Missouri mat program. Already at Mizzou are Jake Glore of Seckman and Todd Porter of Northwest, both of whom will be redshirt juniors next season. ...
Porter earned the Total Person Academic Excellence Award for his success in the classroom at the recent Missouri Wrestling Awards Program.
NCAA BOUND: Congrats to two NCAA Division I regional qualifiers and to two D-I national championship qualifiers. Brittany Borman of Festus will throw with discus and javelin at this weekend's NCAA championships. A junior at Oklahoma, Borman placed second in both events at the NCAA meet last year. Also penciled into the field for the national championship meet at Des Moines, Iowa this weekend is Bethany Buell of Rockwood Summit. A redshirt freshman at South Dakota, Buell vaulted 13-3½ at the NCAA West Regional to become the first South Dakota athlete to qualify for the national championships. ... Buell's story is one of the lead news items on the NCAA Women's Division I web page. ...
Precious Selmon of Crystal City and Alyssa Allison of Festus earned places in the West Regional at Eugene, Ore., but didn't qualify for the national meet. Selmon, now at New Mexico, qualified for the regional in the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump. Allison, running at Arizona State, ran the 1,500 meters at the regional.
