Published: Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Updated: Friday, Nov. 13, 2009

Mustangs’ Hanewich leads crop of area signees

LAKEWOOD RANCH — “OK, are you ready?”

Then Mark Hanewich handed his daughter, Corey, a pen.

She signed a letter-of-intent Thursday afternoon inside Lakewood Ranch High School’s library, and in doing so, accepted a full scholarship to play softball at Stanford University.

Hanewich verbally committed to the Cardinal over the summer.

“I don’t have to worry about if something were to happen or fall through,” said Hanewich, a senior outfielder with the Mustangs. “Seeing my sister sign early, I felt like it would be the right choice for me, so I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of my senior year stressing about school.”

Corey’s older sister, Ashley, is a junior at Wisconsin.

“She told me just to take it slow, and not to have coaches rush me,” said Corey, who chose the Cardinal over other schools such as Georgia, Georgia Tech, Arizona, Purdue, Wisconsin and Florida State. “Toward the end, a lot of schools were pressuring me to commit, and I was obviously waiting for this one. Luckily, it worked out.”

Hanewich, who carries a 4.39 grade-point average, led the Mustangs in hitting (.432), hits (38), runs (37), home runs (three), triples (five) and steals (17) last fall. That made her an attractive recruit for Stanford, much to Hanewich’s delight.

“It’s just such an amazing school academically and athletically,” she said. “They provide their students so much. And once you graduate, you’re pretty set for life.”

Lakewood Ranch swimmer John Silvers (Penn State) and golfer Rocky Khara (Virginia Commonwealth) are expected to sign today, as well.

At Manatee, tennis player Mary Chupa, a senior, signed with West Virginia. She played three seasons at Saint Stephen’s and her sophomore year in Michigan, but sat out the last prep season to resolve residency conflicts in Michigan.

Chupa, who will make her Manatee debut this spring, chose the Mountaineers over 40 other suitors.

Her older sister, Angela, plays tennis at Wisconsin.

“I’ve been looking forward to this since I learned you could get a scholarship,” Mary said. “I’ve been counting down the days every day until I signed.

“I feel like there’s a huge weight that’s been lifted off my shoulders.”

Sean Jacklin, a senior golfer at Manatee, signed with the University of North Carolina.

“It feels good knowing you are going to a D-I school that plays a good, competitive schedule,” he said. “There’s a lot more confidence that I’m going to play with. I can focus on my game more than anything and not have to worry about being recruited.”

The IMG Academies had over a dozen student-athletes sign Thursday morning, including Bradenton residents Dillon Moyer (baseball, UC Irvine), Casey Mulholland (baseball, University of Mississippi), Jimmy O’Neill (baseball, Stetson), Christina Miller (golf, University of Mississippi) and Matt Frey (gymnastics, Minnesota).

Baseball players Gavin Patton and Blake Perry signed with Kentucky, while Carter Bumgardner signed with Maryland.

Other golfers who signed were Laetitia Beck (Duke), Matt Felsenfeld (Michigan), Sophie Hayashi (Indiana), Seiji Liu (Harvard), Danielle Pinder (Richmond) and Sammi Stevens (New Mexico).

Basketball player Dwight Powell signed with Stanford.

Recently, Bradenton Christian’s Liz Capps signed a letter of intent to play basketball at Southeastern University in Lakeland.

Staff writer Ryan T. Boyd contributed to this report.