Hometown Heroes | Lakewood Ranch's Danielle Valley caps Big 10 season with solid showing at conference championship
Danielle Valley, a Lakewood Ranch alumna now swimming for Wisconsin, earned a pair of top-six finishes at the Big 10 championships in Ann Arbor, Mich., last week. On Thursday, the second day of the event, Valley earned her top finish for the Badgers, finishing fifth in the 500-yard freestyle at 4:40.94. During the final day Saturday, Valley placed sixth in the 1650 freestyle at 16:14.59. She also came in 11th in the 400 individual medley at 4:15.11 on Friday.
Valley earned a pair of Big 10 swimmer of the week honors this season, although she was left off all three all-conference teams.
COURTNEY MIRABELLA -- The former Braden River pitcher tossed a gem Saturday, but took a loss to Wisconsin. The next day, she took the hill again for North Carolina State and proved why she's became the Wolfpack's top hurler this season.
Mirabella threw a complete game without an earned run against the Badgers on Saturday after pitching 2/3 of an inning in relief earlier in the day against Nebraska. Despite striking out 10 batters against UW, a pair of unearned runs saddled Mirabella with a loss.
The next day, however, Mirabella pitched 2 2/3 innings in a 6-5 victory against Wisconsin with six strikeouts and earned a relief win in the final game of the ACC/Big 10 Challenge. Mirabella leads NC State with 41 1/3 innings this season and has posted a 3.39 ERA with 50 strikeouts and 17 walks.
KENDALL VEDDER -- The former Palmetto shortstop's season-opening three-game hitting streak ended Saturday against Western Kentucky. Vedder collected at least one hit in each of Austin Peay's first three games, including a two-hit effort against the Hilltoppers on Friday, before going hitless in a pair of Saturday games.
Vedder also went 0 for 2 in a 10-5 loss to Murray State on Saturday, but scored two runs. Five games into the 2016 season, Vedder is third on the Governors with a .357 batting average and tied for the team lead with five RBIs.
JORDAN WHITAKER -- Softball season is just starting for the former Palmetto standout, but Whitaker is already plenty familiar with athletics at Division II Salem International University. Although she originally committed to Salem International just to play softball, she ended up on the soccer team, as well, and was the Great Midwest Athletic Conference freshman of the year.
Whitaker has started all five games in the outfield so far this season for the Tigers, and has gone 4 for 17 with a double, four runs, an RBI and a stolen base.
This story was originally published February 23, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Hometown Heroes | Lakewood Ranch's Danielle Valley caps Big 10 season with solid showing at conference championship ."