Six westside athletes selected as finalists for WHAM Sportswomen awards

Six westside athletes selected
as finalists for WHAM Sportswomen awards

Six local standout athletes have been selected as finalists for 2005-06 awards sponsored by Newsradio 1180 WHAM. They will be at the Head Table at the 28th Annual WHAM Sportswomen of the Year Awards Luncheon on Monday, April 24 at the Clarion Riverside Hotel.

Alyssa D'Errico (Byron-Bergen), Amanda Griggs (Hilton), and Kelly VanDenburg (Brockport) are three of the five finalists for the award. Gymnast Emily Green (Penfield) and swimmer Erin McGraw (Fairport) complete the High School field.

Maggie Kril of Spencerport and Lyndsay Wall of Churchville are two of the five finalists for the WHAM At-Large (non-high school or college sport participant) Sportswoman of the Year Award, joining distance runner Christa Downey (Fairport), ice hockey player Kim Insalaco (Greece), and golfer Christy Rittenhouse (Pavilion). Roberts Wesleyan College's Judy Wright is one of the five finalists for the WHAM College Sportswoman of the Year Award.

Dottie Pepper, current LPGA on-course analyst for The Golf Channel who was the 1992 LPGA Tour Player of the Year and 1996 Rochester champion, will be the luncheon's featured speaker. Her appearance is courtesy of Frontier.

A junior at Byron-Bergen High School, D'Errico excels in volleyball (outside hitter), basketball (guard/forward), and softball (shortstop). In 2005, she was the Section Five Class C Volleyball Tournament MVP for the fourth straight year and First Team All-State for the second year in a row as her team repeated as New York Class C Volleyball Tournament Champions.

D'Errico paced her 2005-06 basketball team (12-8) to the Section Five Class B Tournament Semi-Finals, compiling 16.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, and 3.1 steals per game with Class B All-Sectional Tournament and Honorable Mention All-Greater Rochester honors. She was her 2005 softball team's Most Valuable Player, batting .435 with 48 RBIs. D'Errico carries a 94.6 academic average, is Byron-Bergen's second luncheon finalist, joining 1982 selection Maura McGinnity.

A senior at Hilton High School, Griggs is considered Section Five's premier distance runner. During the 2005 cross-country season, she won the Monroe County and Section V Class A individual titles as Hilton won both competitions on the way to the 2005 National Championship, during which she earned All-American honors.

Griggs earned the MVP award at the 2005 Section Five Class AA Outdoor Track & Field Championships after winning the 1500 and 3000-meter events, with Hilton capturing the team title. She has an overall 3.90 grade point average on the 4.0 scale, and is Hilton's second luncheon finalist (Bridgette Newman was the 1986 pick).

A senior at Brockport High School, Van Denburg swept every major interscholastic golf competition in 2005, winning the Monroe County Tournament of Champions (nine-hole score of 39, won play-off on 10th hole), Section Five Championship (two-over par 75), and New York State Tournament (37, called after nine-holes due to lightning). She compiled a 36.0 nine-hole stroke average on the way to her sixth straight First Team All-League and Monroe County Player of the Year honors, and was the medalist in all ten of her competitions.

VanDenburg also averaged 7.8 points per game in 2005-06 for Brockport's basketball team as an Honorable Mention All-Monroe County guard. With a 3.50 overall grade point average, she was recently voted the 2005-06 recipient of the coveted Harvey Anderson Scholarship Award, which is awarded to the top female senior student-athlete in Section Five. VanDenburg is Brockport's seventh luncheon finalist, the first since Nicki Sciremammano in 1995-96.

During the summer of 2005, Kril won the New York State Golf Association Women's Senior (50-and-Over) Amateur Championship (79-74-163), Women's Rochester District Gold Association (WRDGA) Senior Championship (74), and her home-course Durand Eastman Club Championship. She also was a sectional qualifier in the 2005 USGA Women's Senior Amateur, placed second in the Monroe County Championship, and was a quarter-finalist in the WRDGA Match-Play Championship.

An eight-time Durand Eastman Club Champion who has also won Brook-Lea Country Club, Genesee Valley, and Deerfield Country Club titles, the 51-year-old Kril was the 2002 and 2003 Monroe County champion.

Wall played a regular shift on defense and had two assists for the U.S. Olympic Ice Hockey Team that beat Finland 4-0 for the Bronze Medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics. In 2005-06, she played 17 games with nine assists for the U. S. National Team which won the Gold Medal at the 2005 World Championship.

A member of the U.S. Olympic Team that earned the Silver Medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics, the 20-year-old Wall graduated from Churchville-Chili High School in 2003.

Wright re-wrote the Roberts Wesleyan College basketball record book during the 2005-06 season, as the senior guard from Syracuse set New York State College Records for all Divisions for most points in one season (1105) and career (2813) for the 23-11 Raiders. She led her squad in scoring (32.5 ppg), rebounding (8.3 pg), assists (4.7 pg), and steals (3.2 pg) as Roberts finished fifth at the National Christian College Athletic Association (NCCAA) National Tournament.

Among Wright's 2005-06 honors were First Team NAIA and NCCAA All American, American Mideast Conference North Division Player of the Year, and NCCAA East Region Player of the Year. She set 12 school records, including most points in one game (52 vs. Oklahoma Wesleyan at NCCAA Nationals).

The luncheon, which raises funds for the Heart of Gold Children's Foundation, has limited tickets remaining at $50 per person. Seats must be ordered by calling the 24-hour Luncheon Hot-Line at 234-2055. The event has been a sell-out at 760-plus for the past 11 years.