Mincks earns first team honors

The postseason awards came rolling in for a number of area athletes, as the Southeast Iowa Super Conference announced its All-Conference teams.

As featured in Thursday?s edition of The Journal, Highland had five first-team selections to the North Division team, as nine Huskies were honored in the postseason lists, in addition to head coach Carrie Wieland being named co-coach of the year.

Columbus was the other area team to have an athlete named to the first team list, with junior Laura Mincks earning recognition as an outfielder for the Wildcats this season.

Helping the Wildcats to a 10-9 season, Mincks had a stellar year at the plate, batting .475 and finishing the season with an on-base percentage of .580.

Mincks finished the season with 12 RBIs and a team-high 20 runs scored, stealing five bases on the year, as well as swatting a team-high two homeruns.

Earning second-team honors as a pitcher was senior Kelsey Pretz, who wrapped up her high school career this summer.

Pretz started all but two games for the Wildcats in the circle, earning a record of 10-7, and posting an ERA of 3.79 in 98 innings. She finished the year with a WHIP of 1.43, and struck out 49 batters.

She was also strong for the Wildcats at the plate this year, finishing the season with a .377 batting average and a .421 on-base percentage, notching 12 RBIs and scoring seven runs.

Sophomore Shania Boyd joined Pretz on the second-team as an outfielder.

Boyd batted .298 with an on-base percentage of .377, notching 14 hits in 2015.

Boyd flashed her ability in the field as well, only committing one error in 19 games for the Wildcats.

Earning honorable mention honors for the Wildcats were senior Claire Hamilton and sophomore Bailey Stroud.

Hamilton batted .308 this season, driving in eight runs and tied for the team lead with four sacrifices on the season.

She was also among the teamleaders in hits with 16, while being perfect in the field, not committing an error in 64 chances.

Stroud drew 13 walks this season, helping her on-base percentage shoot up, finishing with a clip of .435.

She finished second on the team with 17 runs scored, and drove in 11 runs and finishing the season with a .271 batting average.