Junior college transfer Cory Sims was announced as the NIU men’s basketball team’s most valuable player at Monday night’s end of season banquet.

The 6-foot-1 guard was third on the team in scoring (9.6 ppg) and first in assists (4.75 apg) while starting in 22 of NIU’s 28 games.

Anthony Maestranzi was voted the best defender (34 steals), Mike McKinney the top dunker and Todd Peterson received the heart award.

The voting was conducted by the team’s players and coaches.

Track and field

School records were broken yet again by NIU senior Alicja Czajka at the Florida State Relays from March 16-19.

The Polish-native broke her own 3,000-meter Steeplechase record with a time of 10:41.40. Czajka previously set the NIU mark with a 11:23.78 time at last season’s MAC Championships.

Sophomore Ashley Morrow also put together a pair of second-place finishes in the discus and hammer throws with distances of 44.69 and 50.09 meters, respectively.

Men’s tennis

The return of injured senior Erick Martinez to the court was not enough for NIU men’s tennis as the Huskies went 1-1 over Spring Break.

Martinez, who plays at No. 2 singles and doubles, missed two weeks with a groin injury sustained March 5 against Wright State.

In the team’s first match without Martinez, the Huskies (8-6) took four of the five singles matches from Jacksonville for a 4-2 victory, despite forfeiting one singles spot.

Despite Martinez’s return to doubles action the next day, wins from Willy Gali and Alex Friesen were not enough as NIU dropped a 5-2 decision to Stetson.

Gali’s win was his 21st of the season at No. 1 singles.

Women’s tennis

Florida began sunny but ended rainy for the women’s tennis team.

In their first outdoor match of the year, the Huskies (4-3) dispatched Flagler College 6-1 March 15 in Jacksonville. Freshman Christy Svetlic earned her team-leading 11th victory with a 5-7, 6-0, 1-0 three-set victory at No. 3 singles over Flagler’s Laurie Molter.

But for the following two days, constant precipitation ended up raining out the Huskies’ match against No. 9 North Florida. No makeup date has been announced.

Men’s golf

The NIU men’s golf team opened its spring season with a third-place finish at the six-team Kauai Collegiate Cup in Princeville, Hawaii.

The Huskies shot 16-under-par to finish with a three-round total of 848.

Western Kentucky placed the top three golfers and easily outdistanced the field with a 40-under-par to win by 22 strokes.

Ethan Roush tied for eighth with a 5-under score of 211 to lead the Huskies.

Women’s golf

After a rough start to their trek through Florida, the NIU women’s golf team bounced back with a sixth place finish at the NIU Snowbird Intercollegiate.

Rains forced a cancellation of the first round of the NIU-hosted 16-team field in Tampa on Thursday. But a 76 from sophomore Lisa Bailey was good for fourth place and helped the Huskies to finish their Spring Break on a high note.

The Huskies had previously finished 13th out of 14 teams at the Peggy Kirk Bell Invitational on March 15 and 10th in the 20-team field at the NIU Springlake Intercollegiate on March 12.