Hot on the heels of our prep report is a look at local colleges where records are being broken, coaches are continuing to be hired and transfers are quickly coming and going. Plus, stats galore! High school or college, it’s still the fastest 1,000 words in sports.
NORSE ADD ANOTHER LITHUANIAN AND HE’S BIG
Paulius Rapolis, a Lithuanian big man with international experience, has verbally committed to the Northern Kentucky University men’s basketball team. Rapolis played at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, for two seasons. He averaged about 11 points and 10 rebounds per game his senior year. In March, Rapolis represented IMG Academy on the IMG Post-Grad National Team at the Phenom Prep And Post-Grad Nationals in South Carolina. He was named a player to watch. IMG Academy has developed 19 NBA draft choices.
Rapolis was last listed at 6-feet-11 and 205 pounds. It’s been reported he’s now 7-feet and 230 pounds. On3 Elite scouting lists Rapolis as a 3-star prospect. He’s the No. 20-rated prep player in Florida and the No. 26-rated center in the nation. Originally from Vilnius, Lithuania, Rapolis turns 19 in July. He already has experience playing in the Lithuania U18 League (Sostines KM 1) and Junior League (BC Rytas).
Rapolis averaged 9.6 points and 8.1 rebounds per game for SKM I in 2022-23. He had a single-game high of 24 points and 14 rebounds. Rapolis pulled down a season-best 15 rebounds in another outing. He played for the Lithuanian U17 National Team in the 2022 FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. Rapolis averaged 4.0 points and 8.5 rebounds in the 2023 Youth Basketball Champions League in Turkey. He played for Lithuania’s BC Rytas.
NKU is expected to have two Lithuanians on roster in 2024-25. Hubertas Pivorius, a 6-2 guard, missed all of last season with an injury. He’s also from Vilnius, Lithuania. Pivorius averaged 2.8 points per game in 2022-23 in 30 games for the Norse. He had a season-high 16 points against Tennessee Tech. In 2021-22, he was Horizon League freshman of the week for the week of Dec. 20, 2021.
UPSET PUTS NKU TENNIS TEAM IN LEAGUE SEMIS
The NKU women’s tennis team reached the Horizon League tournament semifinals for the first time. The No. 5 seed Norse rallied to upset No. 4 Milwaukee, 4-3 on Friday to advance. It’s the first league semifinal appearance in the NCAA Division I era for the Norse.
Angela Rinaldi completed the comeback with a 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 victory at No. 5 singles to help seal it for the Norse. She won a third-set tiebreaker. Ashlee Fisk won at No. 1 singles for NKU. Fisk also won in doubles with partner Catharina Cardoso.
Action continued Saturday at Schwartz Tennis Center at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. NKU (6-12) was eliminated by top-seeded Cleveland State 4-3 in the semifinals.
NORSE MAKE A SPLASH WITH FIRST SWIM COACH
NKU hired its first swimming coach on Thursday, selecting Kevin Woodhull-Smith as men’s and women’s head coach. Woodhull-Smith was previously head men’s and women’s swimming coach at Barton College in North Carolina for three years.
He was Conference Carolinas coach of the year three times, both men’s and women’s coach of the year in 2022 and women’s coach of the year in 2021. He led his teams to one conference championship, a women’s title in 2021, and three runner-up finishes.
Woodhull-Smith’s swimmers broke more than 25 Barton school records and totaled over 100 all-time top-8 performances. Before Barton, Woodhull-Smith was an assistant at East Carolina University for eight years.
Woodhull-Smith graduated from North Carolina State in 2010. He lettered four seasons for the nationally-ranked Wolfpack and qualified for the Olympic Trials in the 200-meter individual medley in 2008.
FRESHMAN PHENOM TRANSFERS TO WISCONSIN
Norse women’s basketball standout Carter McCray has taken her game to the Big 10. The freshman announced Tuesday that she has committed to the University of Wisconsin. The 6-1 center is from Oberlin, Ohio, where she starred for Elyria Catholic High School.
McCray averaged a team-best 15.7 points and 11.2 rebounds in her one season at NKU. She was the lone Norse starting all 31 games. McCray won multiple Horizon League freshman of the week honors.
THOMAS MORE PITCHER SMASHES RECORD
Thomas More University fifth-year pitcher Annika Gels is the softball program’s new career strikeout leader with 533. She surpassed former record-holder Alix DeDreu who struck out 527 batters from 2016-19. Gels, second-team all-Mid South Conference last season in Thomas More’s final year in NAIA, entered the Saints’ first year in NCAA Division II ranked sixth in strikeouts.
She moved inexorably to the top, breaking the record Friday by fanning four in a Great Midwest Athletic Conference loss to Trevecca Nazarene. Gels has struck out a career-best 148 batters this season.
SAINTS SOFTBALL COACH SECURES WIN NO. 400
TMU softball coach Lindsay Eagan earned her 400th career victory with a Saints sweep of a doubleheader against Ursuline on April 13. Eagan, the softball program’s all-time victory leader, is in her 16th season as head coach at Thomas More.
Eagan set a program single-season record with 36 wins her first year in 2009. She put together four straight 30-win seasons from 2016-19. The Saints closed the weekend with a record of 15-35 in their first season in NCAA Division II.
FORMER COUGAR STANDOUT TO CAMPBELLSVILLE
One-time Conner basketball standout Dalton Kramer transferred to Campbellsville University after one season at Cincinnati-Clermont. He has three years of college eligibility remaining.
UC-Clermont gave Kramer his first college offer last April. He rewarded the program with a standout freshman season as one of the best players in Division II of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. He averaged 20.3 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists and 4.0 steals per game and was named an all-American.
SPEED READS
NKU baseball player Liam McFadden-Ackman finished the week leading the Horizon League in three hitting categories. In conference only statistics through Sunday, the senior led in on-base percentage (.559), walks (27) and sacrifice flies (4). He is second in the league in batting average (.430) and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.306). He ranks third in slugging percentage (.747), hits (34) and RBI (29).
NKU senior teammate John Odom leads the Horizon League in two categories: slugging percentage (.841) and on-base plus slugging (1.334). He is third in batting average (.413), tied for third in triples (2), fourth in on-base percentage (.493) and tied for fifth in home runs (6).
Senior teammate Treyvin Moss leads the Horizon League in hits (40), doubles (14) and at bats (102). He is second in stolen bases (10), third in runs scored (26) and fifth in batting average (.356). NKU leads the league in batting average (.322) and runs scored (199).
NKU softball player Ela LeMonier leads the Horizon League in stolen bases (17). The senior is second in hits (53), third in batting average (.390) and fourth in runs scored (29). Teammate Olivia Pastin is second in slugging percentage (.619). The junior is third in RBI (31) and fourth in doubles (13) and on-base plus slugging (1.021). Pastin is fifth in batting average (.364) and tied for fifth in home runs (5).
NKU senior pitcher Lauryn Hicks leads the Horizon League in opposing batting average (.201). She is second in saves (4), fourth in wins (5) and strikeouts (119), and fifth in ERA (2.81).
Thomas More freshman baseball player Sam Bond leads the Great Midwest Athletic Conference in doubles (20). He is second in hit by pitch (15), fifth in on-base percentage (.500) and ninth in batting average (.376).
Thomas More senior softball player Kemper Delaney ranks third in the GMAC in hit by pitch (12). Freshman Anna Greenwell is fourth in sacrifice bunts (8).
Saints senior Annika Gels ranks second in the GMAC in innings pitched (165). She is fifth in strikeouts (148).