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COLLEGE SIGNINGS: Several athletes to continue athletic careers

alex wallner, effingham daily news, ill.
·4 min read

Dec. 26—Several area athletes signed to college over the last few weeks.

Effingham's Garrett Wagoner will continue running cross-country and track and field at the University of Illinois at Springfield. Marah Kirk will continue her golf career at John A. Logan College. Cumberland's Kennedy Stults will continue her volleyball career at Rend Lake College, and Kendyn Syfert will continue her volleyball career at Lincoln Trail College.

GARRETT WAGONER

Wagoner finished this past season for the Effingham cross-country team with seven top-10 showings.

His best showing came at the Doc Acklin Invitational, where he ran the course in 17:11, finishing first. He also set a personal record at the Mattoon Cross Country Invitational after finishing in 16:01 to finish fifth.

Overall, Wagoner said those would continue to drop at Illinois-Springfield.

"I'm excited to see the growth I can have," Wagoner said. "I think I will prosper; I'm going to shock myself to see what I can do."

Wagoner's work ethic will help with that.

Head track and field coach Jordan Jaspering said that is one reason why he enjoys coaching Wagoner so much.

"It's nice when you have a kid like that," Jaspering said. "You can tell him, 'Here's what I want you to do,' and he doesn't ask any questions; he goes out there and gets it done and sets a high bar for himself."

MARAH KIRK

Kirk finished her senior season with an 85.5 scoring average in 18-hole events and a 42.5 average in 9-hole events.

She qualified for the IHSA State Final Tournament, where she shot an 82 on the first day and a 77 on the second day to finish 21st individually.

Kirk hopes to continue that good play at the collegiate level — a level she has worked for since her junior year.

"It means a lot. I started golf my sophomore year, and that was like a trial to see if I liked playing this," Kirk said. "Then, junior year, I discovered I liked playing this and wanted to do something."

Head coach Jerry Trigg added that Kirk signing to continue playing in college shows that what his program is teaching is working.

"We're getting them out there and letting them play a lot," Trigg said. "We try to practice a lot and work on different things, and that shows me that the kids are willing to put in the time to work hard at the game."

KENNEDY STULTS

Stults finished this past season with 160 kills, 50 aces, and 225 digs for Cumberland and earned a spot as a Lincoln Prairie Conference All-Conference Honorable Mention.

An outside hitter, club coach Brittany Tavenner called Stults "one of the smartest players we've ever worked with."

"Kennedy is so smart. She is one of the smartest players we've ever worked with, as far as learning her shots and ensuring she leads her team," Tavenner said. "She is aware of what the other team is doing at any given time, which is rare."

Rend Lake head coach Reggie Bateman also likes her length.

"One of her biggest things is that she's lengthy; one of the biggest things you look for as a front-row player," Bateman said. "She can hit; she has good placement. We need to tweak a couple of things, but she puts up a good block and has a good swing."

Stults added that she believes Bateman will be a good fit for her moving forward.

While at Rend Lake, she will also be playing with fellow outside hitter and former Altamont Lady Indian Ella Ruffner for one season.

KENDYN SYFERT

Syfert finished the season with 264 kills, 57 aces, and 333 digs for Cumberland and earned a spot on the Lincoln Prairie Conference All-Conference First Team.

To go along with those numbers, Syfert also broke the all-time kills record in school history.

What Lincoln Trail head coach Dana Goodwin liked the most about Syfert, though, was her winning mentality.

"Just in the past couple of years, I've been heavily focusing on recruiting and getting girls that I know will help out in that aspect, " Goodwin said. "It's already been engrained in my freshmen coming back next year that we're going to continue going up from here."

Contact EDN Sports Editor Alex Wallner at 618-510-9231 or alex.wallner@effinghamdailynews.com.