PELLA—Three Central College athletes received American Rivers Conference honors Monday.
           
Dom DeLaPaz (senior, Davenport, West HS) was tabbed as the league's baseball position player of the week, Peyton Steffen (junior, Marion, Linn-Mar HS) was named the women's track performer of the week and Emma Beck (junior, Holland, Grundy Center HS) was picked as softball pitcher of the week.
           
DeLaPaz, a catcher, crushed five home runs and drove in 13 runs while hitting a sizzling .777 (7-9) in five games last week. The Dutch split a pair of games with Buena Vista University, sandwiched around a three-game series at Luther College where they went 1-2. Central is 13-14 overall and 5-10 in conference games. DeLaPaz is batting .333 for the season with 11 homers and 35 RBIs while slugging .724.
           
Steffen was the top collegiate finisher at the Jim Duncan Invitational in Des Moines Friday in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, placing behind an unattached runner. Competing on the Drake University track, it was her first career steeplechase but her time of 10:33.85 ranks fourth in the NCAA Division III.
           
Beck tossed Central's first no-hitter since 2002, blanking Buena Vista University 14-0 in five innings at Pella last Tuesday, walking one batter while fanning nine. She also shut out Conell College at Mount Vernon Thursday, 8-0 and 11-0, extending her scoreless innings streak to 18.1 and lowering her earned run average to 1.92. Beck is 11-2 on the season.