The 2018 recipients of the Dick Dhabalt Athlete of the Year Award are baseball’s Dalton Fletcher of Athens and softball’s Katie McLean of Springfield.

Dalton Fletcher graduated LLCC in 2018 with a 3.81 GPA. He played third base for the Loggers and was named to All-Conference, All-Region, Academic All-Conference and Academic All-American teams. Fletcher hit .369 with 30 RBIs and only 13 strikeouts.

“Dalton had a great year. He was our leading hitter and best player,” says Coach Ron Riggle, athletic director and head baseball coach. Fletcher will be attending Illinois Wesleyan to play baseball and continue his academic studies.

Katie McLean, also a 2018 LLCC graduate, played outfield for the Logger softball team and hit .461 with 44 RBIs and six home runs for the year. She was named region Player of the Year (2017 and 2018), region Freshman of the Year (2017), All-Region team and All-Region tourney team (2017 and 2018), first team MWAC All-Conference (2017 and 2018), MWAC Freshman of the Year (2017), MWAC Player of the Year (2017 and 2018) and second team All-American (2017 and 2018). McLean will be attending University of Evansville on a softball scholarship.

“Katie McLean is a very talented athlete who loves playing the game of softball. I consider Katie one of the toughest outs that I have ever coached,” says Coach John Marsaglia, head softball coach at LLCC. “She played in three games in the NJCAA Division II Nationals and hit a homerun in each game!”

The LLCC Dick Dhabalt Athlete of the Year Award recognizes annually one LLCC male athlete and one female athlete. The award was established in February of 2015 in honor of Mr. Dhabalt, former athletic director, head men’s basketball coach and faculty member, and acknowledges his dedication to education, athletics and students at LLCC.