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Recent Renegades 2017 News

RENEGADES REPRESENT FREDERICK COUNTY LACROSSE

By Kevin Cole 11/06/2017, 3:30pm EST

2017 FREDERICK ALL-COUNTY LACROSSE

Frederick County Offensive Player of the Year

  • Kristyn Staley - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)

 

Frederick County Defensive Player of the Year

  • Jessica Loveless - Renegades 2017 (Oakdale HS)

 

1st Team - All Frederick County

  • Jena Macdonald - Renegades 2017 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Erin Hoyle - Renegades 2017 (Oakdale HS)
  • Rachel Walchuck - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)
  • Katie Stottlemyer - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)
  • Delaney Irwin - Renegades 2017 (Frederick HS)
  • Lori Breen - Renegades 2018 (St. John’s Catholic Prep)
  • Quinlin Gray - Renegades 2018 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Jenna Molnar - Renegades 2018 (Walkersville HS)
  • Oivia Schwiegerath - Rebels 2018 Black (Oakdale HS)
  • Sam Lenfesty - Renegades 2018 (Frederick HS)
  • Megan Libonate - Renegades 2018 (Oakdale HS)
  • Brynn Halsey - Renegades 2018 (Oakdale HS)
  • Shae Fitzgerald - Renegades 2019 (Oakdale HS)
  • Shaye Morrell - Renegades 2019 (Urbana HS)

 

 

2nd Team - All Frederick County

  • Gabi Griffith - Renegades 2017 (Oakdale HS)
  • Megan Cleverly - Renegades 2018 (Middletown HS)
  • Makenzie Schnur - Renegades 2018 (Brunswick HS)
  • Danielle Holt - Rebels Black 2018 (Oakdale HS)
  • Paige Kolb – Rebels 2018 (Oakdale HS)
  • Chandler Stewart - Renegades 2019 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Grace Phillips – Rebels 2019 Titanium (Urbana HS)
  • Rachel Johnson - Renegades 2019(St. John’s Catholic Prep)
  • Alyson Casey - Renegades 2019 (Urbana HS)
  • Izzy Clark - Renegades 2019 (Oakdale HS)
  • Julia Iapicca - Renegades 2019 (Oakdale HS)

 

Honorable Mention - All Frederick County

  • Amy Joy - Renegades 2017 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Megan Atkinson - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)
  • Wynnanne Walters - Rebels 2017 Black (Brunswick HS)
  • Regan Farr – Renegades 2017 (Walkersville HS)
  • Kieran Vinal - Renegades 2017 (Brunswick HS)
  • Megan Atkinson - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)
  • Shannon Duley - Renegades 2017 (Middletown HS)
  • Brooke Ingram - Rebels 2017 Black (Thomas Johnson HS)
  • Paige Shortt - Renegades 2018 (Walkersville HS)
  • Eleni Bedard - Renegades 2018 (St. John’s Catholic Prep)
  • Olivia Heaton - Renegades 2018 (Brunswick HS)
  • IsaBella Pellet - Renegades 2018 (Frederick HS)
  • Lilly Stephens - Renegades 2019 (Urbana HS)
  • Kayla George - Renegades 2019 (Middletown HS)
  • Amanda Effland - Renegades 2019 (Frederick HS)
  • Abby Lauterbach - Renegades 2019 (Frederick HS)
  • Savannah Vance - Renegades 2019 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Bridget Scherer – Renegades 2020 (St. John’s Catholic Prep)
  • Shanna Dextradeur – Renegades 2020 (Middletown HS)
  • Blake Clouser – Renegades 2020 (Tuscarora HS)
  • Lauren Roberts – Renegades 2020 (Tuscarora HS)

 

You can find the schedules, as well as sign up for updates by text or e-mail, at:  http://www.tourneymachine.com/Public/Results/Tournament.aspx?IDTournament=h2016083008390364480c5f398caae43

Blenckstone's long road to Longwood

By Kevin Dunleavy 09/23/2016, 11:45am EDT

Blenckstone's long road....

Few athletes had as promising a start as Taylor Blenckstone’s at St. Maria Goretti.

But that was before she was struck by the injury that plagues so many young female athletes.

Tearing the ACL in her left knee in the spring of her freshman year, then again in the summer after her sophomore year, forced Blenckstone to readjust her athletic ambitions.

But one goal always remained intact: To play college lacrosse.

This summer, after more than two years of much rehab and little play, Blenckstone, now a Goretti senior, made a verbal commitment to Division I Longwood (Va.).

“The past two summers I missed lacrosse, so I couldn’t do anything about the recruitment process,” Blenckstone said. “Division I, they recruit really early. Most 2018 girls already know where they’re going. I got lucky with Longwood. The coach is awesome.”

That coach, Elaine Jones, watched Blenckstone play one game this summer at a tournament in Richmond. That’s all she needed to see to make Blenckstone an offer.

“I had my mind set on it,” Blenckstone said. “I knew I wanted to play college lacrosse, so I worked really hard at rehab. I tried to do something every day.”

It’s been a long road back for an athlete who flashed so much talent as a freshman. Playing soccer that fall, Blenckstone scored more goals (18) than any player in Washington County. She also ran cross country, making The Herald-Mail’s all-county second team. In the winter she played for the varsity basketball team. 

In the spring, she showed which sport was her best before she was injured in the fifth game against Saint James. In those five games, her numbers were staggering — 37 goals, 13 assists, 66 draw controls, 36 ground balls.

After being so active and having her identity wrapped up in sports, Blenckstone had a difficult adjustment.

“It was heartbreaking to see what she was going through,” said Goretti athletic trainer Maggie Johns. “She had a lot of breakdowns, especially when she was watching the sports teams at Goretti, wanting to be out there playing. It was hard to keep her in check. I told her to focus on every other aspect of her life — school work, rehab.”

After sitting out for nearly a year, Blenckstone was cleared to play lacrosse at the beginning of her sophomore year.

In her first game in 11 months and 16 days, Blenckstone scored seven goals and the Gaels won 21 of the 24 draws she took. 

But as the season progressed, it was evident that Blenckstone — wearing a brace on her surgically repaired knee — was holding back. Late in the season she missed a few games with a sprained ankle. Then early in the summer, during a game with her club team, she reinjured the knee.

Johns remembers Blenckstone and her dad, Goretti athletic director David Blenckstone, coming to her the next day for a ligament test.

“It was a positive test,” Johns said. “The look on her dad’s face, the look on Taylor’s face — it still gives me goosebumps to think about that day.”

Getting back to work after a second ACL tested Blenckstone’s powers of positive thinking. 

“The first time, I got over it, and I was fine,” Blenckstone said. “But when it happened the second time, I thought, ‘What the heck? Why does this happen again?’ The first few months after the surgery, I was like, ‘Gosh, I don’t feel like doing this rehab anymore. I’ve already been through this before.’”

But Blenckstone eventually regained her desire. In addition to completing her rehab outside of school, Johns put Blenckstone through a variety of exercises geared toward lacrosse — squats while holding a lacrosse stick, for example.

“Taylor’s a skinny girl, but she’s so strong,” Johns said. “There were times when she doubted herself, but she’s got her confidence back. She’s moving much better now than after the first surgery.”

Blenckstone plans to play for Goretti this spring, hoping to put the other bookend on a career that started so spectacularly. 

Then it will be off to Longwood of the Big South Conference.

“I would tell Taylor, just imagine the story you’ll be able to tell,” Johns said. “How you came back from two ACL tears to play college lacrosse. It’s so rare and it says so much about you and your desire.”

After watching a soccer game at Goretti earlier this month, Blenckstone reflected on her long journey.

“When I was a freshman, I was probably at my best. That definitely was my peak in the athletic world. When I got back, I definitely didn’t feel like myself. It was just really tough to get back to where I was,” she said. “But right now, after all the rehab and all the working out I’ve done, I’m happy to say I’m back to my old self, back to the old athlete that I was.”

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