NIC ROUNDUP: Yang named second-team All-American in NJCAA volleyball
* VOLLEYBALL
Yang Yang, a sophomore middle blocker for the North Idaho College volleyball team, was named a second-team All-American by the NJCAA.
Yang had 392 kills and 286 digs in helping the Cardinals to an eighth-place finish at nationals this season. At nationals, Yang had 70 kills and 56 digs for NIC, which finished 23-8.
Yolanda Passi, a sophomore outside hitter from national champion Southern Idaho and Maddie Bushman, a sophomore outside hitter from Salt Lake Community College, were named to the first team.
* WRESTLING
LAS VEGAS - North Idaho College's Brock Banta bounced back after an opening-round loss to finish 3-1 in the 125-pound bracket on Friday and is the lone Cardinal to advance to the second day of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
The 2012 edition features 32 teams - most of which compete at the Division I level.
In his final match of the day, Banta scored a takedown with 2 seconds remaining and defeated William Watterson of Brown 7-5. If Banta wins his first match today vs. Jade Rauser of Utah Valley, he will be guaranteed to finish no worse than eighth and would become the first Cardinal to medal since Jemele Jones in 2010.
Other Cardinals competing included:
Jarrett Morrill (2-2) at 141 pounds, Jeremy Golding (0-2) at 149, Nicholas Moreno (1-2) at 157, Jake Mason (1-2) at 165 pounds, Kyle Sweedman (1-2) at 174 pounds, Caleb Rivera (0-2) at 184 and Bryan Smith (0-2) at 285.
Morrill fell in his final match of the day to Boise State's Travis Himmelman with a berth to the second day on the line.
NIC's Mikey Rodriguez (133) is coming back from mono and traveled with the team, but didn't compete.
"Brock has been wrestling real well for us lately and it's exciting to have someone advance," NIC coach Pat Whitcomb said. "Our guys wrestled pretty well and Jake Mason had a good showing in his first tournament back after coming back from an illness."
Boise State's Brian Owen, son of former NIC coach John Owen and wrestling at 133 pounds, advanced to the second day with a 3-1 record.