Fremd grad Hipchen helps Adelphi University lacrosse to national title

He rose from the ground floor of Palatine lacrosse …

Adelphi University senior forward and midfielder Jack Hipchen (Fremd High School) helped the Panthers men’s lacrosse team win the NCAA Division II national title with a 12-10 win over No. 1 ranked Lenoir-Rhyne on May 26 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia. It was No. 4 Adelphi’s eighth national championship, tops in Division II men’s lacrosse.

Hipchen was an original member of the Palatine Park District Penguins youth lacrosse program.

At Adelphi he made the Northeast-10 (NE10) All-Rookie Team in 2021, was United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association honorable-mention All-America in 2023, and this season earned first-team USA Lacrosse All-America as a short stick defensive midfielder.

A five-time member of the NE10 Academic Honor Roll with Academic Distinction through fall 2023, Hipchen this season scored 11 goals with 7 assists for 18 points. He picked up 48 ground balls and caused 16 turnovers.

For a second straight year, College of DuPage sophomore Noah Mack (Elgin) is the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division III men’s track athlete of the year. At the championships May 9-11 in Utica, N.Y., Mack repeated his first-place finishes in the 100- and 200-meter dashes and the 400 relay (this time in a meet-record 41.21 seconds), and added a fourth win on the Chaparrals’ 1600-meter relay as COD won its fourth straight team title.

While this is not generally a column for coaches, Jim Macnider, former coach at Schaumburg High School, led the Harper College women’s track team to a repeat team title at the NJCAA meet. Named national coach of the year, Macnider has now earned the award 12 times spanning women’s and men’s track and cross country on top of three boys cross country championships at Schaumburg.

Harper’s winners included Isabella Wojciechowski (Buffalo Grove) in the 5000 and Lily Wintergerst (Buffalo Grove) in triple jump. Runner-up College of DuPage featured Patty Karpiesiuk (Leyden) winning pole vault, high jump, and the 100-meter dash.

Villanova graduate student and rower Kara Dempsey (Maine West) earned Coastal Athletic Association (CAA) all-conference honors for the first time on May 18 in the championship finals. A nine-time member of the CAA Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll through last fall, Dempsey helped Villanova’s Varsity Eight to a fourth-place finish in the Grand Final.

Lewis University junior third baseman Mikey Kocen (Warren), a first-team pick in the Great Lakes Valley Conference, earned Division II first-team all-Midwest honors from three sources — the National College Baseball Writers Association, the Division II Conference Commissioners’ Association, and the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings. Kocen led or tied for the Flyers’ lead in nine major offensive categories, hitting .399 with 19 doubles, 16 home runs, 63 runs scored and 61 RBI.