Lake Forest College's Valdivia named all-American
Grayslake Central graduate Joey Valdivia has finished his collegiate football career with high honors.
The Lake Forest senior running back was named a first team selection to the American Football Coaches Association all-American team.
Valdivia led the nation in scoring for the second year in a row with 18 points per game.
He broke his own program record with 1,809 rushing yards on the season and ranked second in the country with 180.9 rushing yards and 218.6 all-purpose yards per game. He was also third in the nation with 26 rushing touchdowns and 25th with nearly 6.5 yards per carry.
Valdivia owns 13 school records, including most rushing yards (4,170), yards per carry (6.7), rushing touchdowns (64) and total points (414).
The Foresters were 8-2 during three of his four years on the team and no player in program history was around for more victories than the 28 Lake Forest has posted in Valdivia's career.
Valdivia is just the second player in school history to be named First Team all-American by the AFCA.
He joins Alex Pasiewicz, who earned the honor a year ago as a kick returner.
The award adds to the list of honors earned this season by Valdivia.
He was also named first team All-West Region by D3football.com and Midwest Conference Offensive Skill MVP.
Lake Forest was 8-2 this fall and finished second in MWC South Division play with a 4-1 league record in 2017.
Cross country
Stevenson senior Brett Lucas has made a verbal commitment to run cross cross Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., to run cross country and track. The Patriots' distance runner holds the school record for the 3,000-meter run.
Football
• Wisconsin junior linebacker T.J. Edwards was Associated Press All-America first-team selection. He was one of five Badgers recognized.
He also earned second-team honors from the Football Writers Association of America.
Edwards' selection by the AP gives the Badgers a first-team All-America linebacker for the third consecutive season and fourth time in the last five years. He joins Chris Borland (2013), Joe Schobert (2015) and T.J. Watt (2016) on that list.
A runner-up for the Butkus Award, presented to the nation's top linebacker, Edwards has recorded 75 total tackles and 11.0 tackles for loss as a key part of Wisconsin's top-ranked defense, which has allowed a nation-leading 253.2 yards and just 13.2 points per game.
He also is tied for the team lead with four interceptions - including one returned for a touchdown - and has logged seven pass breakups. Edwards was a consensus first-team All-Big Ten pick this season.
• Michigan State junior Matt Morrissey (Stevenson) was named to the 2017 Academic All-Big Ten Team for the third year in a row.
Morrissey has played in all 11 games, starting at safety in three games (vs. Bowling Green, Western Michigan, Notre Dame). He has a career-high 30 tackles and three pass breakups on the season.
• Illinois Wesleyan junior defensive back Trevor Staley (Lake Zurich) was named to the second team of the 2017 Associated Press Little All-America Division III football squad. Staley was also a D3football.com first team all-North Region selection as he finished third on the Titans with 56 total tackles, including 44 solo, with a team-leading 3 interceptions for 77 return yards.
Men's basketball
Villanova junior guard Jalen Brunson (Stevenson) scored a career-high 31 points to help the top-ranked Wildcats roll past Temple 87-67 before a sellout throng of 10,206 at the Liacouras Center.
The win lifted Villanova to an 11-0 overall record and a fifth consecutive perfect 4-0 season in the Philadelphia Big Five. The Owls fell to 6-3 overall, 1-2 in City Series action.
"That's a very good win for us against an outstanding team," said VU coach Jay Wright on the school's website recap. "I'm really proud of Jalen. Phil Booth had a virus and wasn't really himself. I knew Jalen would understand the situation."
Brunson was 11-of-16 from the floor.
"Jalen was incredible," Wright added. "He can do that every night but we like to keep balance. With Phil being under the weather, I knew Jalen would be really aggressive. They did a good job of taking away our perimeter, which forced somebody to go create shots. La Salle did the same thing and we missed the shots. Jalen made the shots tonight."
Men's track and field
Augustana junior Rob Williams (Vernon Hills) was chosen as a captain for the 2018 season. Williams' top finish was fourth at Western Illinois and he was 16th at conference and 53rd at regionals.
Happy holidays
Sports Notes thanks all of its readers throughout the school year and wishes everyone happy holidays. The column will return on Jan. 9, 2018. Please continue to email news on local athletes from the northwest suburbs to jleusch@dailyherald.com