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Maryland Terrapins athletes close February with a flourish

Although the men's basketball team lost an important road game, last week was a pretty good one for Terrapins competing in other sports. Here's a recap of some stories you might have missed.

Sammi Silber/Testudo Times

While most Maryland fans have been playing close attention to the recent ups and (mostly) downs of the men's basketball team, other Terps have been racking up awards and laurels and succeeding in all sorts of ways. Here's your one-stop look at those accomplishments.

Track and Field

Two athletes, sprinter Micha Powell and thrower Chioma Onyekwere, led the Terrapins women's track and field squad to a ninth-place finish at the B1G Track and Field Championships. In the process, Powell, who crossed the border from Toronto to come to Maryland, qualified as the 16th seed in the 400 meter run at the upcoming NCAA Championship when she finished third at the B1G indoor championships in Geneva, Ohio with a personal best time of 52.56 seconds.

The Fairfax, Virginia senior Onyekwere, whom her teammates call CiCi, outdid her junior teammate. Onyekwere broke a 14-year-old Maryland record in the weight throw with a throw of 21.17 meters (69 feet five and a half inches). The effort earned her not only the 12th seed for the NCAA Championship but also a spot on the All-Big Ten second team.

Golf

Sophomore David Kocher was named the Big Ten Golfer of the Week for the last week of February for firing a six under par 210 at the Puerto Rico Classic. His score put him in a tie for fourth place among a 75 player field. While this is the first B1G weekly honor for Kocher, who hails from Charlotte, North Carolina, he earned second team All-Big Ten honors and an individual bid to the NCAA Regionals as a freshman.

Baseball

While the young Terrapins squad is experiencing some growing pains as they look for ways to replace the program record eight players chosen in last year's major league draft, the same cannot be said of star junior pitcher Mike Shawaryn. Following his workmanlike, if unspectacular season debut at Alabama, Shawaryn out dueled Rhode Island's Steve Moyers in Maryland's home opening 1-0 win.

Shawaryn pitched eight scoreless innings giving up only one hit allowing only two base runners while walking none and striking out five. The Terps turned double plays that erased both base runners allowing the Carney's Point, NJ right hander to face the minimum 24 batters. His performance earned him his fourth career B1G Pitcher of the Week laurel and is his first of this season.

Women's Lacrosse

The top-ranked Maryland women's lacrosse team played another thriller against erstwhile ACC rival North Carolina and came away with an important early season 8-7 road win against a top ten squad. Maryland's season started three weeks ago and Terrapins have captured at least two conference Player of the Week awards in each of those three weeks.

However, the third week is unique in two ways. It's the first time that Taylor Cummings is absent from the awards list and it's the first time one Terp has nabbed two awards. Goalkeeper Megan Taylor joined Cummings in notching the award for Defensive Player of the Week and teammate Caroline Steele in picking up the league's Freshman of the Week honor.

Taylor registered eight saves in the win at Carolina including a critical six in the first half allowing the Terps to build a 4-1 lead despite some sloppy play in which Maryland turned the ball over seven times. Although it's early in the season, the Glenelg, Maryland freshman leads the B1G with a stingy 5.83 goals against average.

Men's Lacrosse

Although the men's lacrosse team fell short in its efforts to pick up an early season road win at No. 7 Yale, freshman Austin Henningsen's performance stood out enough for him to be named the Big Ten's Co-Freshman of the Week. Henningsen won 13 of 16 faceoffs and gobbled up eight ground balls in the 8-5 loss in New Haven.

Again, although the season is young, Henningsen leads the NCAA winning a remarkable 79 percent of his faceoffs after his first two games as a collegian. He became the first Terrapin to win this award since Matt Neufeldt won it in March 2015.

Women's Basketball

The Maryland women's basketball team entered the final week of the Big Ten regular season a game behind Ohio State. By the time the dust and detritus of the week's play settled and cleared, the Buckeyes lost their final two games while the Terps won both of theirs allowing Maryland to claim a second consecutive Big Ten championship. The Terps managed this in no small part due to the efforts of the B1G Player of the Week, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough.

The junior from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania averaged 23 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists in the wins over Wisconsin and Minnesota. Walker-Kimbrough dropped in 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in the rout of Minnesota registering the third double double of her career. The Player of the Week award is her second of the season and second of her career.

Leading up to the conference tournament, the B1G also announced its All-Conference teams. Brionna Jones joined Walker-Kimbrough as a first team All-B1G selection on both the coaches and media squads. Jones, a 6'3" junior center from Havre de Grace, MD averages 15.6  points and 9.5 rebounds per game. She leads the country in field goal percentage making 67.9 percent of her shots. Walker-Kimbrough leads Maryland in scoring at 19.6 points per game, is second in rebounds at 5.6  per game and has dished out 101 assists good for third best on the team.

Senior guard Brene Moseley also picked up some hardware when the coaches slotted her as one of the 10 players selected as a second team All-B1G performer. The coaches also tabbed Moseley as the conference's sixth player of the year. The Paint Branch graduate averages 11.4 points per game. She is second on the conference in assists at 6.1 per game and leads the league with a 2.6 assist to turnover ratio. The media placed Moseley on its honorable mentions list.