SCOTS CLAIM ANOTHER

The men’s track team won their eighth straight Midwest Conference title and the women claimed their fourth consecutive crown at last weekend’s MWC meet held in Galesburg.

"It doesn’t get ho-hum at all," Fighting Scots coach Roger Haynes told the Galesburg Register Mail after the Scots picked up their 57th MWC team title during Haynes’ career. "It’s always different kids and the kids are the ones who make you successful. It was a very good way for our seniors to end their conference careers."

Those seniors – Jenny Babos, Megan Clennon, Cassie Jensen and Jessica White on the women’s side and Aaron Etienne, Brad Gross, Jonny Henkins, Seth Leitner, Chuck Lief, Emmanuel Minter, Adam Rodriguez, Peter Sprecher and Zach Wilson for the men – accounted for 18 all-conference medals at this meet alone.

"Our senior leadership each year helps to push our program forward," said Haynes. "Winning by the amount we did on both sides, means we had a lot of people come through. It was one of the more quality-depth Midwest Conference meets we’ve had in a long time. Our seniors show the younger kids the way and thanks to a good foundation, our program continues to grow."

The foundation was never more apparent than in the field events where Wilson and Tanesha Hughes each picked up three firsts. Hughes led a 1-2-3 finish in the women’s discus just missing a conference record with an automatic qualifying and school-record mark (156’0). Babos was second and Allison Renfroe was third. Hughes’ discus mark ranks her third nationally. Her other firsts came in the hammer throw (145’0), where Babos was third, and the shot put (41’7-3/4), where Gloria Lehr placed third and Babos fourth.

Wilson led a 1-2-3 charge in the men’s shot put, winning by ¼ inch (49’2-1/2). Freshmen Sam Cokinos and Petyon Lumzy were second and third. Wilson also won the hammer throw (168’6) and Lumzy was fifth. "Peyton has been very consistent throughout the year," reported Haynes. "Sam got hot at the end of the season which is when you want to peak. The senior (Wilson) edged the freshman (Cokinos) by ¼ inch. It doesn’t get much closer than that."

Clennon’s winning mark in the javelin (124’10) set the stage for the Scots’ third 1-2-3 finish. Lehr placed second and Jensen was third. "Megan has been so solid all year," praised Haynes. "Gloria and Cassie really stepped up to complete the sweep in the javelin. They both had their best marks of the year at the meet. That was a key on Saturday to open the gap a bit for the women."

Clennon also took first in the high jump (5’6-1/2) and is ranked fourth nationally. Heather Hull placed fourth and Sarah Stinson was fifth.

Five athletes captured their third conference crown in the same event. Wilson picked up his third win of the meet, winning the discus for the third straight year (155’5). Junior Luke Reschke improved his provisional time and took his third straight 400-meter dash title (47.74). Reschke and Gross captured their third 4x400 relay crown (3:19.91), teaming with Aaron Daverin and Jake Stott. The foursome also took second in the 4x100 relay. Stott added a third in the 400 and Gross was sixth. Daverin placed third in the 100 and fourth in the 200.

White etched her name in the record books with her third straight pole vault title (12’6-1/4). The senior broke her own conference mark in capturing the title and improved her national ranking to fourth. Shannon Turczyn, who broke her own conference record in the 100-meter hurdles in the prelims (14.48), broke the tape in the finals (14.79) to also lay claim to her third MWC title in the same event in as many tries. Katie Vaccarello was second in the 400-meter hurdles and sixth in the 100-meter hurdles.

While a handful of Scots continued their dominance, one streak came to a close. Henkins ended teammate Sprecher’s three-year championship reign in the pole vault. Henkins set the new conference mark, placing first (17’0-3/4), Sprecher was second and freshman Brock McAnally was fourth.

Morgan Leffel (35’3) and Jae Moore placed 1-2 in the triple jump, while Whitney Didier was fifth. Leffel again displayed a flair for the dramatic. The freshman was sixth after her first finals attempt and improved two feet on her last jump to win. "Morgan had a sore knee," reported Haynes. "I told her after she had jumped well on her first jump, she was done. After she ran the 4x1 relay, she sneaked back over to the triple jump and took the rest of her jumps. She’s a competitor."

Dan Higgins improved his provisional mark and was less than four feet from a conference record while winning the javelin (194’10). Minter was fourth.

"Dan progressed nicely this season," said Haynes. "Emmanuel’s fourth place was a nice way for him to end his career."

Clay Staley and Letiner finished 1-2 in the steeplechase. Staley improved his provisional time while winning the event (9:17.02). Gross broke the tape in the 400-meter hurdles (55.40) and Leitner placed eighth.

Etienne claimed first in the 1500-meter run (3:56.19), while Staley was third and Rodriguez placed fifth. Etienne added a runnerup finish in the 5000 and Staley was sixth. Rodriguez was also second in the 800.

The 4x100 and 4x400 women’s relay teams of Vaccarello, Turczyn, Leffel and Moore placed second. Mary Kate Beyer set a school record in the steeplechase while finishing third (11:38.76) and Jayme Ayers was eighth.

"The women in the track events were very workman-like," said Haynes. "They were consistent and put themselves in good position. Katie Staab had a great weekend, running season-bests in the 800, 1500 and 5K."

Also placing third to earn all-conference honors were Tim Bentz, 800; Michael Blodgett, long jump; Didier, pole vault; Lumzy, discus; Moore, 100 and 200; Reschke, 200; and Staab, 800.

Other point scorers for the men included Brad Begyn, 10,000 (seventh); Blodgett, triple jump (fifth); Cokinos, discus (fourth); Gross, long jump (fifth); Tyler Hannam, high jump (sixth); Lief, triple jump (fourth); Saidu Sesay, 100 (fourth); Scott Sheller, 10,000 (fourth); and Sean Wells, high jump (fourth) and triple jump (eighth).

Other point scorers for the women were Beyer, 5000 (sixth) and 1500 (eighth); Didier, 400-meter hurdles (fifth); Leffel, pole vault (fifth), long jump (fifth) and 400 (eighth); Staab, 1500 (fourth) and 5000 (seventh); Turczyn, 100 (fourth) and 200 (fifth); and White, long jump (fourth);

Haynes was named the league’s Coach of the Year for both men and women. Reschke was named the meet’s outstanding men’s track performer. Henkins and Wilson shared the outstanding field performer honors, while Clennon, Hughes and White garnered the women’s outstanding field performer title.

The Scots, who competed at last night’s Central Qualifier, will send athletes to a pair of meets today and tomorrow in an effort to improve their national rankings prior to next week’s NCAA Outdoor Nationals.

A BITTER ENDING

The good news is the Scots baseball team has the opportunity to make next season’s NCAA record book as one of the most improved teams from 2007.

The bad news is the team and their fans suffered through Monmouth’s first losing season since 1999.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort. "These guys came to practice every day and played hard and looked confident," said Roger Sander. "The problem we had was THAT team didn’t always show up on game day. We always talk about getting hot at the right time and this year it was that school to the east."

That "school to the east" – Knox College – not only ended the Scots’ seven-year reign as South Division champions, they also upset four-time defending Midwest Conference Champion Ripon to claim the MWC crown. How hot was the Fire? (No pun intended.) When you include the two South Division Tournament games just to get into the MWC Tournament the Fire won all but two coin tosses.

The Scots fell to St. Norbert in the MWC Tournament’s first round 16-1. The game was an example of how things had not gone right for Monmouth this season. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Scots pitcher Brian Chandler retired the first two batters on three pitches – combined. Then, in order – back-to-back errors, five straight hits (including a three-run homer), a walk and a two-run homer – and suddenly it’s 10-0. Chandler eventually took the loss despite allowing jut one earned run.

Sander’s troops rebounded in a loser’s bracket game against Knox. The Scots jumped on the Prairie Fire’s freshman pitcher for three first inning runs. Senior Matt McIntire drove in two with the team’s third hit of the inning. Knox responded with four in the bottom of the second and took a 5-3 lead after three innings.

The Scots tied it 5-5 with a pair of unearned runs in the fourth but could only muster two base runners the rest of the way and fell to their arch rivals 10-5.

"We break baseball down to three things," said Sander. "Good pitching, good defense and timely hitting. We never really put the combination together this year. We showed signs of everything, but never could get it to come together at the same time."

Next year’s team will have to replace five seniors. "We had a great senior class," said Sander. "They had the opportunity as freshman to play on one of the best teams we’ve had and then finish their careers with our first losing season in almost 10 years. It’s not their fault, they come to practice every day and work hard. We, as a team, just didn’t get it done."

Two of those seniors – Jake Bice and Ryan Priola – led the team in batting average. Bice hit a team-high .362 and Priola, who battled an arm injury and was relegated to the DH role, hit .350. The pair combined for nearly 40 percent of the Scots’ RBIs.

"Jake had a tremendous senior year," praised Sander. "He carried us offensively most of the year. He cooled off in the last 10 days or so and still hit over .360. Ryan accepted the DH role and had the kind of year you hope seniors have. Let’s not forget McIntire. He was third on the team in RBIs, so with those three guys, we’re losing over half our RBI production."

The Scots also lose Ryan Stubler and Jake Gustafson. The pair added solid defense and versatility to Sander’s lineup. Gustafson saw action primarily as a middle infielder and Stubler was used at first, third and on the mound.

Don’t break out the crying towels just yet. Sander is upbeat given the play of some talented underclassmen and a recruiting class he’s betting could be the best in years. "We’ve got a really good freshman class coming in," he said. "If we get a couple players we have a shot at, our incoming class will go from very good to great. That group added to what we’ve already got means we should be pretty salty for quite a while."

Hmmm, sounds like Sander’s recipe calls for the salt to take the bitter taste out of the end of the 2008 season.

SECOND TO NONE

The men claimed their fourth consecutive Midwest Conference All-Sports championship by winning the 2007-08 title and the Fighting Scots women had their highest finish since the 2002-03 season.

The all-sports championship is awarded at the end of the MWC’s championship schedule. The title is determined by a system that awards points based on each school’s standing in each of the MWC’s 20 recognized sports.

Monmouth’s men retained possession of the Ralph Shively Trophy, named for the retired conference commissioner, thanks to their 74-point total, edging Grinnell (72.5) and St. Norbert (72). The Fighting Scots men’s track team led the way to the title by picking up a combined 20 points with their repeat as indoor and outdoor conference champions.

The Fighting Scots women totaled 69 points, just 12.5 points behind winner St. Norbert and 5.5 points shy of runner up Carroll. Like the men, the women were buoyed by their indoor and outdoor track titles as well as the softball team’s surprise fourth-place finish in the league tournament.

The Midwest Conference has awarded the All-Sports championship since 1969 for the men and 1979 for the women.

TERRIFIC TRIO

The baseball team landed three members on the All-Midwest Conference team.

In a vote of the league’s coaches, seniors Jake Bice (Colchester, Ill./Colchester) and Matt McIntire (Stronghurst, Ill./Southern) and freshman Billy Herrin (Galesburg, Ill./Galesburg) were selected for the postseason honor. The trio combined to score nearly a third of the Fighting Scots’ runs.

Named to the first team, Bice picked up his second all-conference honor. The first baseman hit a team-high .362 and led the team with 33 RBIs and 63 total bases. Bice set the Monmouth College record with his 22nd hit-by-pitch in the Scots final game of the season.

McIntire picked up his first all-conference honor in joining Bice on the first team. The outfielder hit a career-high .321 this season with 24 RBIs. He was hit 11 times by pitches this season and tied the team record in that category. He led the team in sacrifice flies and tied for the lead in sacrifice bunts. He was second in stolen bases.

Herrin was named to the second team after hitting .333 with five doubles. He led the Scots outfielders with a .987 fielding percentage, committing just one error in 76 chances. He becomes the first Fighting Scots freshman to be named to an all-conference team since 2005.

THAT’S GOTTA HURT

"Wear it," is a popular phrase when a batter receives a free pass to first after getting hit by a pitch.

No one in Fighting Scots baseball history has "taken one for the team" more than senior Jake Bice. As is the tradition, when a player sets the school record for getting drilled at a home game, the PA announcer usually makes note of the feat to a rousing cheer from the crowd.

Bice earned the honor during the MWC Tournament last week, getting plunked for the 22nd time in his career. Bice took the record-setting pitch in the first inning of the Scots’ 10-5 loss to Knox. Figures, he would get hit by the Scots’ arch rivals.

During the South Division Tournament just a few days prior, Ryan Priola had set the standard getting hit for the 21st time. Priola got his due when the crowd cheered loudly after the PA man’s announcement. Bice received no applause after his record-setting mark, seems a record book error had inadvertently missed Bice’s milestone and the PA announcer made no mention of Bice’s mark – pun intended.

Scots Scoop is here to give Bice his just rewards.

Apologies to Bice from the sports information office and the usually sharp PA announcer for missing an opportunity to let everyone know Bice has been a pitcher’s target for the past four years.

Here’s to Bice, always ready to sacrifice his body for the good of the team. Now, just don’t rub it.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Thurs., May 15

Track & Field (split squad) – at North Central Last Chance Qualifier – 12:15 pm

Fri., May 16

Track & Field (split squad) – at North Central Last Chance Qualifier – 3:00 pm

Track & Field (split squad) – at Augustana Last Chance Qualifier – 4:00 pm