Our KCII countdown of top 10 stories from Hillcrest Academy athletics in the last school year starts on the softball diamond where the Ravens spent this summer rewriting the record books. Hillcrest finished the year with 13 wins, the second most in school history, and highest total since 2011. The Ravens were 6-8, sixth in the Southeast Iowa Superconference North Division, and collected their first playoff win in nine seasons, beating Montezuma in an 11-10 wild walk-off at home.

Individually, five Ravens put their name among the best in school history for numbers in a season.

Senior Delaney Shaw added her name to nine pages of the record book. She set the all-time Hillcrest marks belting five homers and driving in 36. Her .532 batting average is second best, as is her .608 OBP and .797 slug. Shaw had 42 hits and scored 33 times, both third most, with 17 stolen bases, sixth most and 16 walks, ninth most.

Senior Malia Yoder is in the top 10 in eight different categories. Her 44 hits this year ties a school record she previously owned. Her 26 RBI are third most, her .500 average, 31 runs scored and 10 doubles are all fourth most in one year. Yoder slugged .670 to finish seventh all-time. In the circle, Yoder has 112 strikeouts and 10 pitching wins, both fifth most ever for a Raven in a year.

Senior Morgyn Nafziger set the school record, scoring 35 times in a season. Her 25 walks are third most and 16 stolen bases seventh in a single campaign.

Junior Stavia Miller stole 15 bases to place eighth all time and scored 23 runs, ninth most.

Eighth grader Ella Mize set the school record, allowing just 13 walks in nearly 40 innings pitched. Her 2.29ERA during that same time is second best and her 17 RBI are ninth most for one year.

Yoder, Shaw, Nafziger and Mize were named All-Southeast Iowa Superconference. Shaw was named All-District. This week, Hillcrest head coach Kent Blossom talked about the body of work for his club.

Blossom said, “We knew coming in that we had seven seniors. That’s a lot of leadership and a lot of experience with their innings played. We were very excited to have a chance to come into the season and do some things that perhaps hadn’t been done in a number of years. Those veterans did a great job coming alongside our youth. We have a tremendous amount of talented underclassmen. We got that exciting win in the postseason at our place against Montezuma. I was really happy for the way we went through some adversity early on, played well, we didn’t give up in games. It really speaks to the overall mindset that we brought into the season.”

The Ravens finished with a 13-15 overall record. Tuesday’s ninth biggest story from Raven athletics last year takes us to the volleyball court.