Finalists selected for WHAM local sportswomen awards

Fifteen of the top female athletes in the five-county area will be honored on Monday, April 29 at the 24th Annual WHAM Sportswomen of the Year Awards Luncheon. Five finalists in the local high school, local college, and local at-large divisions will attend the noon luncheon at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel in downtown Rochester, where the 2001-02 individual winners in each category will be announced.

Less than 100 tickets remain for the luncheon at $40 per person. Tickets must be purchased by calling the 24-hour luncheon hotline at 234-2055. The luncheon has been a sell-out at 760-plus attendees for the past seven years.

Junior Joanna Patalano (soccer, basketball, softball) of Churchville-Chili , is a finalist in the high school category.

Lyndsay Wall (ice hockey) of Churchville is one of five at-large finalists.

The finalists were selected for their athletic excellence from April 2001 through March 2002. Overall career athletic achievements and academic performance/community involvement were also considered.

The WHAM Sportswomen of the Year Award Luncheon, which raises funds for the Heart of Gold Children's Foundation, will have Penn State University's women's basketball coach Rene Portland as its featured head table speaker. Portland's appearance is courtesy of Frontier, a Citizens Communications Company.

Also honored at the head table with special exemplary achievement awards will be East High School athletic director Kathy Smith of Ontario (Jean Giambrone Service Award), University of Rochester women's soccer coach Terry Gurnett of Spencerport (Jack Palvino Award), and Quad A for Kids (WHAM Outstanding Achievement Award, with Brighton's Mara Posner accepting).

Joanna Patalano posted six shutouts in goal and had seven goals with two assists as a defender with Monroe County Division II Player of the Year, First Team All-Greater Rochester, and Sixth Team Class A All-State honors for Churchville-Chili's 2001 soccer team (17-3-2). She averaged 20.1 points, 11.2 rebounds, and 6.1 assists per game at guard with County Division II Player of the Year, First Team All-Greater Rochester, and Eighth Team Class A All-State honors for the Saints' 2001-02 basketball team (16-8), and was a 2001 Second Team All-County outfielder in softball. Academics: 97.0 overall GPA.

Lyndsay Wall, who played defense on the 2002 U.S. Olympic Women's Ice Hockey Team that earned a Silver Medal, was, at 16, the youngest hockey team member ever to compete in the Olympics and the youngest American athlete at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. The Churchville-Chili High School junior is also an All-County softball catcher.