College notebook: Surprenant resigns at WIU, Spraker goes to Blue Jays spring training, Hawks’ Lewis in top 10 at nationals

The news came as a surprise on many fronts when it was released late last Friday afternoon that Danielle Surprenant was resigning as the Western Illinois University athletic director.

“We thank Danielle for her service to the University and for her leadership in Leatherneck athletics,” WIU President Guiyou Huang said in a press release. “We wish her well in her future endeavors.”

A Carthage native who played basketball at John Wood Community College and spent seven years in administration at Quincy University, Surprenant will step down officially March 18, but under a contractual agreement between her and the school, she will continue in her duties until a replacement is found.

Surprenant was put in charge of the Leathernecks’ athletic department on June 1, 2019, after serving the previous year as the interim athletic director. In April 2017, Surprenant joined the WIU athletic staff as senior associate athletic director for internal operations and senior woman administrator.

When Matt Tanney resigned as AD in 2018, Surprenant slid into that role and was eventually given the job full-time.

In nearly three years at the helm, Surprenant made two significant hires — bringing Rob Jeter aboard as the head men’s basketball coach in March 2020 and hiring Macomb native Myers Hendrickson to take over as the head football coach last December.

Prior to joining the WIU staff, Surprenant spent seven years at Quincy as the associate athletic director for compliance and internal operations and SWA. She had spent one year as the athletic academic advisor at Stony Brook before coming to Quincy.

Surprenant was an all-region performer at JWCC who finished her collegiate career at NCAA Division I St. Francis University in Loretto, Penn.

Her husband, Grant, is the athletic director and head girls basketball coach at Illini West High School and they have two kids who are becoming heavily involved in youth sports.

Blue Jays invite Spraker to spring training

Graham Spraker’s rise through the Toronto Blue Jays organization took another leap this week when the former Quincy University right-handed pitcher was invited to spring training.

A reliever who was named the Arizona Fall League’s Reliever of the Year, the 26-year-old Spraker is one of 12 non-roster internal invitees to the Blue Jays’ complex in Dunedin, Fla.

In the Arizona Fall League, Spraker posted a 0.00 earned run in 11.1 innings with 17 strikeouts. He allowed only six baserunners. The 6-foot-3 Spraker earned the save with a three-up, three-down effort in the Fall Stars Game and recorded the final three outs in the Solar Sox’s 6-0 championship game victory.

This came after pitching 42.2 innings with the Class AA New Hampshire FisherCats in which he put together a 2.74 ERA with 62 strikeouts, a 2-1 record and two saves.

Spraker was the ace of the QU staff in 2017 when the Hawks reached the NCAA Division II World Series for the first time in program history. He was a 31st round draft pick by the Blue Jays that June and has steadily moved up the organizational ladder ever since.

Hawks’ Lewis finishes in top 10 at nationals

Quincy University freshman thrower Paden Lewis finished in the top 10 at the NCAA Division II Indoor Nationals in the shot put last weekend at the Robert W. Plaster Center in Pittsburg, Kan.

Lewis, from Jefferson City, Mo., faulted on his first two attempts and hit 17.38 meters on his third try, which put him in ninth place. Davenport junior Isaiah Schafer won the national championship with a toss of 19 meters.

Lewis finished second at the Great Lakes Valley Conference championships with a toss of 17.84 meters. Missouri S&T junior Nathan Swadley, who edged Lewis for the GLVC title by .01 meters, finished sixth at nationals with a toss of 18.01 meters.

Hildebrand, Big Blue reach Sweet 16

Unity High school graduate Jordan Hildebrand helped the Millikin women’s basketball team reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III national tournament. The Big Blue, who went 23-7, lost 91-77 to third-ranked Hope College last week in Holland, Mich.

Hildebrand, a fifth-year senior, had 14 points and five rebounds in her final game.

Hildebrand averaged 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds per game this season, earning first-team All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin honors and third-team All-Region 8 from D3hoops.com. Hildebrand led the CCIW in field goal percentage, shooting 56.4 percent

Redbirds win MVC tourney, earn NCAA bid

A pair of coaches with Great Lakes Valley Conference ties have led the Illinois State University women’s basketball team to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.

The Redbirds beat Northern Illinois 50-48 in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship game at the TaxSlayer Center in Moline, Ill.

ISU associate head coach Jessica Keller is a Quincy University graduate and the women’s basketball program’s all-time leading scorer, playing for the Hawks from 2005-09. Keller was a three-time All-GLVC performer, a WBCA honorable mention All-American, ESPN Academic All-American and the GLVC Player of the Year her senior season. She is QU’s all-time leader in points (1,823), steals (324), free throws made (487) and free throws attempted (652).

Redbirds head coach Kristen Gillespie spent two seasons as the head coach at Lewis University, earning the GLVC Coach of the Year honor in 2016 and guiding the Flyers to a 51-12 record before being named the ISU coach in 2017.