A PARALLEL UNIVERSE?

Stranger things have happened, but the men’s basketball team’s upset of No. 11 ranked St. Norbert 60-51 last Friday had more than one fan thinking “Hmmmm.”

Monmouth alum Bill Turner ’93 pointed out on a popular basketball message board that a cable station was airing Braveheart at the same time the Scots were downing the Green Knights. As you may recall from the Academy Award-winning 1995 Mel Gibson movie, the Scots beat the Knights in that one, too…although no one was beheaded in Glennie Gym.

The only thing cut off Friday night was the St. Norbert offense in the second half and Monmouth turnovers – just five, count ‘em FIVE for the entire game. Mark Vershaw’s troops cranked up the defensive muscle, holding the Knights scoreless through the first eight minutes of the second half and allowed just four points through the first 12 minutes of the half – 13 for the entire second 20 minutes.

“We knew going in, we’d have to do a lot of things right,” said Vershaw. “There are no tricks to beating St. Norbert, they’re a very sound basketball team. We got behind by 10 in the first five minutes before we began doing some things to give us a chance to win. We told our guys if we could get to the last five minutes of the game, we had a chance to win it. By far, that was the best 37 minutes of basketball we’ve played since I’ve been here. The crowd showed us the appreciation for the way we played and that was a great atmosphere.”

Trailing 38-29 coming out of the locker room, the Scots went on a 10-0 run to start the second half. Corey Gruber’s jumper at the 12:16 mark gave Monmouth their first lead since the game opened with an Eric Grant 3-pointer. Grant, as it would turn out, would nail three treys and hit two crucial free throws in the final minutes to finish with 15 points.

“Eric was able to get to the basket and that helped us out,” said Vershaw. “He did a good job of attacking and that allowed us to do some things off the screen.”

Although Grant hit some key shots, it certainly wasn’t a one-man show…and it wasn’t only the offense that played a key role.

“We defended the post much better in the second half,” praised Vershaw of the play of Kyle Weyeneth, Eric Cogdill, David Milroy and Zach Ott. “Our posts worked a little harder to keep the ball out of there in the second half, and our guards came down and helped out, too. We took that away and did a tremendous job of rebounding.”

There weren’t many rebounds to be had – just 58 for the entire game – and Cogdill took care of eight of those and had some big boards down the stretch.

Speaking of big down the stretch, Grant, Ott and Gruber combined to drain nine of 10 free throws in the final 1:05 to ice the game. Ott, who made nine of 10 charity tosses for the game, finished with 11 points in just 17 minutes.

“We didn’t have a mental letdown at any time in the second half,” reported Vershaw. “We were focused, energized and executed the game plan both offensively and defensively.”

In a game as close as this one, each possession was magnified. A couple of hustle plays to save a turnover on the same possession, Grant on the floor outwrestling a Knight for a rebound, Weyeneth drawing a charge down low all gave the fans a feeling the Scots wouldn’t be denied.

Ripon was the team that wouldn’t be denied Saturday when the Red Hawks clipped the Scots 80-78 in the game’s final seconds. Tied at 78-78 with :03 left, Monmouth was called for a lane violation on a free throw, giving Ripon the ball. The Red Hawks’ Scott Gillespie – yes, Coach Bob Gillespie’s son – drove the length of the floor and hit a running jumper in the paint as time expired to hand the Scots the loss.

“I felt fortunate to be in that game and have a chance to win it,” said Vershaw. “We had a little emotional letdown after Saturday. We could never get all the way back to our level of concentration and execution we had Friday night.”

The Scots never led until Cogdill’s old-fashioned three-point-play gave the Scots a 61-60 lead with 6:51 to go. From that point on, the Red Hawks and Scots exchanged the lead five times to go with five ties.

“I’ll give our guys a lot of credit for scratching and clawing their way back,” said Vershaw. “It was disappointing that the second day of a double-header weekend, we weren’t able to get a win. That has been our Achilles heel that we haven’t been able to put those back-to-back games together.”

Sophomore guard Robbie Hinkle had arguably his best game as a Scot, keeping Monmouth close with 12 first half points, finishing with 18 in the game hitting half of his eight trey attempts.

“Robbie was able to give us two tremendous efforts in back-to-back games,” praised Vershaw. “He was involved in the game and getting our bench fired up. Had we had a few more guys play like he did Saturday, it would have been a different outcome.”

The Scots didn’t quite get a different outcome last night at Illinois College where the Blue Boys edged the Scots 76-69. Tied 36-36 at the half, IC used a pair of treys and four free throws in the first five minutes of the second half to gain a small cushion and held on.

David Milroy hit a pair of charity tosses to tie the game for the final time at the 11:12 mark, but the Scots could not regain the lead. Alex Tanney led Monmouth with 20 points, hitting five of his six 3-pointers.

“We hope to put together a run down the stretch,” said Vershaw. “If you look back and see if we hit free throws down the stretch, we could have reversed the two Ripon games and the Knox game. We would still be in the hunt for the conference tournament. We need to finish strong to build for next year. We have that potential, we saw that Friday against St. Norbert.”

Now, if we could only get the cable stations to air movies where the Scots beat the Pioneers, Vikings, Buccaneers….

      GREAT EXPECTATIONS

To borrow a line from Charles Dickens, swim coach Dave Yez has great expectations his Fighting Scots will do more than just make waves at this weekend’s Midwest Conference Swimming and Diving Championships.

“I just have a really good feeling about this weekend,” said Yez. “They’ve performed above our expectations this season and I’ve been very pleased with the way the season has turned out. The kids have set very high expectations for themselves this weekend.”

Those expectations include improving on last year’s finish. That may be difficult on the men’s side, where the Scots were second to seven-time defending champion Grinnell. The women expect to move up from last year’s fifth-place finish in hopes of gaining ground on Grinnell, which has won the last 10 league titles on the women’s side.

Entering the MWC Championships, the Scots’ men have posted a total of 32 top 10 times in the conference’s 19 events. They are seeded in the top two in 11 events.

Freshman Andrew Wright (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) leads the Scots with the conference’s top time in three events. He leads the 1000-yard freestyle (10:32.95) by more than eight seconds and the 1650 freestyle (17:33.44) by more than 15 seconds. His league-leading 500 freestyle time (4:58.43) is nearly four seconds faster than the No. 2 swimmer. Wright is ranked second in the 200 freestyle (1:50.89), just .07 seconds off the leader, Grinnell freshman Thomas Lankiewicz.

Junior John Kaiser (Hanover Park, Ill./Glenbard North) has the best time in the 100 butterfly by nearly a second (54.90) and he is seeded second in the 200 fly (2:04.60) by just over a second.

Another junior, Harrison Heilman (Downers Grove, Ill./North), is seeded second in the 200 IM by just over two seconds (2:05.25).

In the relays, the Scots have posted the top time in the 800 freestyle relay (7:34.01), nearly three seconds ahead of second-seed Grinnell. They have the second-best time in the 200 and 400 freestyle relays (1:32.10 and 3:22.16). Monmouth is nearly three seconds back in the 200 and just one second off the pace of Grinnell in the 400.

Despite a shortened dive season, junior Jack Clifford (Rantoul, Ill./St. Thomas More) should earn valuable points in the 1-meter diving well, where he is seeded second.

“Grinnell has to be the men’s favorite because they can fill all the diving events,” said Yez. “I feel the battle will be for second between us and Lawrence. We’ll be a strong contender for second with our collective depth.”

The depth may see more points from a variety of swimmers – Ken and Steve Collins in the individual medley; Tom Pederson, sprints; Joe Testolin and Jim Travnik, distance; Josh Van Swol in the 200 backstroke and 200 freestyle; and Josh Dunn in the 100 and 200 freestyle and the 100 backstroke.

What the Scots women lack in numbers, they make up in quality. The team of eight freshmen and one junior is ranked in the top 10 in 25 events and is in the top three in 10 events. They have also set two school records. The Scots will be counting on their youth to provide scoring punch as the team’s top times have all been turned in by the freshmen.

Krysta Sparks (Montrose, Colo./Montrose), who has broken her own record in the 100 and 200 breaststrokes, has the top time in the 200 breaststroke (2:32.45) by more than a second and is seeded second in the 100 breaststroke (1:09.89), just .06 back of fellow freshman Jordan Barclay of Carroll. She is third in the 200 IM (2:17.75), less than six seconds back of the top time.

Rachel Buckham (Sturgeon Bay, Wis./Sturgeon Bay) has the second-best time in the 100 and 200 backstrokes (1:05.38 and 2:19.83, respectively), two seconds off the leader in the 100 and nearly six seconds back in the 200.

Rachel Holm (Oregon, Ill./Oregon) is just .03 seconds out of the top seed in the 200 butterfly (2:19.02), trailing Lawrence sophomore Rebecca Hamlyn. She is third in the 50 free (26.50), one second back of the leader, Grinnell senior Valerie Stimac.

Monmouth’s 200 medley relay team has the league’s second-best time (1:58.80), less than three seconds off the top time. Their 400 freestyle relay team is ranked third (3:56.92), just .11 back of the second seed and their 400- medley team sits third (4:23.05), nearly 10 seconds back.

“We may not have the large numbers of women other teams have, but I’ll take the lower numbers and higher quality anytime,” said Yez. “At championship meets like this weekend, those quality swimmers can get us a lot of points. We have quite a few women in scoring position.”

Other hopefuls for the women are Kendra Kuehl in the individual medley; Jamie Schingoethe, sprints; and Colleen Zumpf in the breaststroke.

ESPN SPELLS ACADEMICS

Known as a tough competitor on the court, women’s basketball player Melissa Gorski (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) has made her mark in the classroom as well with her selection to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V team.

Gorski, a senior English major, was named to the college division first team, becoming Monmouth’s first District V first-teamer in women’s basketball since Amber Kuhrts in 2001. Her selection marks the fourth straight year a Scot has been named All-District. Last season, Ashley Yeast was named to the second team for the third consecutive time.

A seven-time Dean’s List recipient, two-time all-conference and two-time academic all-conference performer, Gorski scored her 1,000th point this season, becoming only the seventh woman in Fighting Scots history to do so. Her 1,218 points places her fourth all-time, just 100 points behind her coach, Melissa Bittner. The guard leads the Fighting Scots with a 15.7 points per game average. She is second in rebounds with an 8.7 per game average, and her 80 assists lead the team.

The ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District V team is voted on by sports information directors from District V, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Wisconsin and two Canadian provinces. Athletes must earn a minimum 3.30 cumulative GPA, have achieved at least sophomore status at their respective school and be a starter or key reserve in order to be nominated for the post-season honor. Only first team all-district athletes are eligible to be placed on the national ballot.

ESPN The Magazine All-American award winners will be announced Feb. 24.

WHEN YOUR BACK IS AGAINST THE WALL

After last weekend’s 78-47 loss to St. Norbert and 77-64 loss to Ripon, women’s basketball coach Melissa Bittner knew what her team had to do if they wanted to have a chance to make the Midwest Conference Tournament – win their final three games.

One down, three to go.

The Scots’ 69-65 win over Illinois College last night, coupled with Carroll’s loss at Beloit gives the Scots the advantage in any tie-breaker with the Pioneers who began the week in possession of the fourth and final spot for the tournament.

At the start of the week, Monmouth, Illinois College and Lake Forest were all on the outside looking in, hoping to find a way to reach the 10-win plateau that could open the door to the league tournament. St. Norbert locked up a berth with last Friday’s 78-47 win over Monmouth. Beloit, Ripon and Carroll were in the top four, but the Scots, Lady Blues and Foresters were in the mix. If the Scots can now win their remaining games at Lake Forest next Wednesday and at home against Grinnell in their regular season closer on the 21^st, they’ll be able to at least tie for fourth with Carroll or Illinois College – or both. More next week on the possible tie-breaker.

Of course, this was all set up by last weekend’s losses.

“St. Norbert was just ‘one of those’ games,” said Bittner. “We only shot 30 percent. We had some defensive problems. It was disappointing because we had played them so tough at their place. They came in with a big chip on their shoulder because last year we beat them here. They came out really intense and we seemed a bit flat.”

The Scots didn’t fair much better Saturday, falling to Ripon 77-64. After never leading against St. Norbert, the Scots led for all but two minutes of the first half against Ripon. The Red Hawks responded in the second half, connecting on more than half their shots, taking the lead for good three minutes into the second half.

The Red Hawks put on a flurry in the final minute of the first half to give themselves some momentum heading into the locker room. A bucket by Melissa Gorski and a pair of Lynsey Barnard free throws put the Scots up by three 32-29 with less than 30 seconds remaining in the half. Ripon responded with a three pointer and followed a Monmouth turnover with a layup to take a 34-32 lead.

“Ripon is an example of what one good recruiting class can do for you,” explained Bittner of the Red Hawks who were picked seventh in the preseason poll. “They picked up three freshmen who are starting and having a big impact on their program. They were clearly a bottom-dweller last year and now they’ve completely turned it around.”

Ripon hit the boards, too, outrebounding the Scots 47-27. Seven of the Scots eight losses have come when they were beaten on the boards.

“Rebounding was clearly the reason we lost that game,” claimed Bittner. “All the other stats were very similar. The free throw attempts were heavily in Ripon’s favor, but we had to foul late and that increased their margin.”

The Scots were able to hold off the Lady Blues down the stretch last night in Jacksonville. Monmouth trailed for the game’s first 17 minutes, but took the lead on Tanesha Hughes’ free throw with 3:40 left in the first half and the Scots closed the first period with a 15-0 run to lead 32-25 at the intermission. The Lady Blues closed the gap to 1, 66-65 with :17 left, but Gorski iced the game making three of four free throws in the waning seconds. Hughes finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds – 10 defensive – and Gorski added 22 points.

“We’re in the position now where we don’t have to rely on anyone else,” said Bittner. “The remaining games will present different challenges for us. We have to be ready. We can’t let up. We HAVE to win the next two.”

Bittner is hoping to be able to tell her team they HAVE to win another two – at the MWC Tournament – at the end of the season.

RUNNING SHORT ON TIME

Competing against their toughest competition this season, the Monmouth College men’s track placed first and the women fourth at the 14-team Keck Invitational at Bloomington, Ill., last weekend, but they want to be even better in two weeks.

“We’ll need to improve significantly over the next two weeks,” said Roger Haynes in preparation for the Midwest Conference Indoor Championships Feb. 27-28. “Everyone in the conference is getting better. We’ll have to show some significant improvement to get us set up for the conference meet.”

A senior and a sophomore showed some improvement last weekend for the women. Senior pole vaulter Megan McKenna won the event, clearing an NCAA provisional qualifying height of 11’3-3/4, her highest vault this season and less than three inches short of her career-best.

“We kept Megan out last week to rest a bit,” said Haynes. “That little bit of rest helped her. She’s been to this level before and had some good attempts at the next height. She’s ready to go for the conference meet.”

Sophomore distance runner Mary Kate Beyer broke her own school record to place third in the 3,000-meters. Beyer’s time of 10:27.02 eclipsed her previous best by more than 15 seconds.

“Mary Kate is running better, unfortunately, everyone in the conference is running better, too,” said Haynes. “She’s preparing herself well and putting herself in good seed position for the conference races and that was our goal.”

A couple of other distance runners are jockeying for position in the middle distances. Katie Staab and Amy Aghababain ran “solid” races in the 800-. Staab tied for 17^th clocking a 2:27.40 and Aghababian was 23^rd at 2:31.25, The pair was competing at that distance for this season first time.

Junior Gloria Lehr led the women’s throwers, winning the shot put with a mark of 42’0-3/4 and placing seventh in the weight throw with a personal-best 48’4 – more than a foot better than her previous best. Allison Renfroe placed third in the shot with a mark of 39’11-1/2 and Amanda Streeter was fifth with a personal-best 39’7-3/4.

Two Scots placed in the top four of the 55-meter hurdles. Shannon Turczyn improved her Midwest Conference time and placed second in 8.59 after running an 8.54 – just .01 off the provisional time – in the prelims. Katey Vaccarello was fourth with an improved MWC time of 9.34.

“Katey is improving her race in the hurdles,” said Haynes. “Shannon improved somewhat, but is not where she would like to be right now.”

Kaci Lierman ran a personal-best in the 400- with a 1:01.54 to place fifth. The time moves her to fourth in the conference seeds. Jae Moore took a pair of sixths, running a 7.60 in the prelims of the 55- dash, and a 7.63 in the finals. She clocked a 27.18 in the 200-, just .04 off her season-best. Moore also placed eighth in the triple jump with a career-best leap of 33’7-1/2. Lierman, Moore, Whitney Didier and Morgan Leffel placed fourth in the 4x400 relay in 4:11.50.

Leffel also tied for fifth in the long jump at 16’0-1/4. A pair of Scots scored in the high jump. Sarah Stinson and Heather Hull each cleared 4’9-3/4 to tie for sixth and eighth, respectively.

“Our jumps were pretty good,” praised Haynes. “Morgan and Jae competed well in their field events. They’re coming along nicely.”

The Monmouth men placed three scorers in the 200- and 400- dashes while improving their conference seed times. In the 200 - Luke Reschke ran a 22.82 to place fourth, Jacob Stott was fifth in 22.99 and Saidu Sesay ran a 23.08 to finish eighth. Stott led the way in the 400- , placing third in 50.10, just .03 out of first. Logan Hohl placed fourth with a time of 50.76 and Shane Reschke clocked a 51.84 to place eighth. Hohl, Stott and both Reschkes formed the winning 4x400 relay, turning in a 3:22.81 while improving their splits.

Clay Staley jumped to the MWC lead in the mile, logging a personal-best 4:19.90 to finish sixth. Geoff Bird’s 15:54.80 in the 5,000- placed him fourth.

“Clay has come back and gotten himself in good shape after not being able to do a lot of training last summer,” said Haynes of his top distance runner who attending military training last summer. “He’s in the same situation as Mary Kate. He’s running improved times, but so is everyone else in the conference. Some of our other guys like Damon (Bautista), Tim (Bentz) and that group of distance guys have got to step up and challenge him.”

Bentz clocked a top 10 MWC time in the mile of 4:35.08 to place 22^nd and Jon Welty ran a lifetime-best at that distance to place 28^th in 4:39.00 and move into the conference’s top 10.

In the field events, Tyler Hannam cleared a conference and personal-best 6’6-3/4 to win the high jump – less than an inch from the provisional qualifying height. A clerical error placed the bar at the lesser height, otherwise the sophomore may have made the first provisional mark of his career.

Sean Wells tied for third at 6’2-3/4 and Matt Hassler’s 6’0-3/4 was good for seventh. Brock McAnally placed third in the pole vault at 14’10.

“Brock had some good jumps at 15’4,” reported Haynes. “He’s improving as is Jeremy Henkins. Brock will do well at conference if he can just maintain his consistency.”

Sam Cokinos, Peyton Lumzy and Paul Terpening all scored in the shot put. Cokinos won the event with a mark of 47’2-1/2, Lumzy was third at 46’6-3/4 and Terpening placed sixth with a distance of 43’6. Lumzy also took sixth in the weight throw at 46’1-1/2. Mike Blodgett placed sixth in the long jump at 20’8-1/2 and Nick Wright was eighth in the triple jump with an effort of 42’9-1/2.

Monmouth will host the seven-team Fighting Scot Invitational Saturday at 2:00 p.m. The meet will be preceded by a Pentathlon at 10:00 a.m. 

The Scots will host the conference meet in two weeks, but the home track might not be that much of an advantage at this stage of the season.

“We’re not set up with our seed times like we have been in the past,” said Haynes of the upcoming conference meet. “We’ll drop the quantity of the workouts a bit and try to pick up the intensity. We’ve got some work to do for sure. This weekend is the meet we’ve pointed to, to try and get ourselves ready. We’ll see how it works out.”

JUMPING INTO THE FIRE

Men’s tennis coach Chad Braun could have scheduled a couple of easier opponents for the Scots’ opener last weekend, but instead, his squad faced a Coe team that has dropped only one set in four matches and UW-Eau Claire – the owner of a 25-4 dual meet record last season.

“We could have scheduled weaker teams, but you don’t get better playing bad teams” said Braun. “We wanted to schedule some good competition right out of the gate. We found some areas where we need work and we’ll address that this week.”

The Scots fell by identical 9-0 scores at the meet held in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As expected, Monmouth’s doubles teams provided the toughest test for the Kohawks and the Blugold.

Playing Coe’s No. 1 doubles team, Kyle Korb and Chris Utterback provided the highlight of the day, barely dropping an 8-6 decision.

“Kyle and Chris played a good doubles match,” said Braun of his new No. 1 team. “They played much better in their second match. They’re very talented doubles players. Chris has a very good forehand and Kyle has a solid backhand. They’re both tremendous volleyers and have very good serves. That makes for a good combination.”

Against Eau Claire, Ben Morrow and Eric Brandhorst fell at No. 2 doubles and the Sam Graf/Tyler Lampe No. 3 team lost – both by 8-4 scores. Graf and Lampe, playing together for the first time, were their own worst enemy.

“They got off to a really slow start, but recovered nicely,” reported Braun. “They played even after their bad start to the match. Ben and Eric gave Eau Claire a run, but couldn’t quite keep up with them.”

Korb, Graf and Brandhorst provided the closest singles matches of the day. Korb falling at No. 1 to Eau Claire 6-2, 6-3; Graf dropping a 6-4, 6-2 match to Coe’s No. 2 and Brandhorst at No. 3 losing 6-3, 6-3.

“Sam played a solid match against Coe,” praised Braun. “He did a nice job and is doing a nice job of adjusting to playing at a higher spot in the order. He’s moved up to No. 2 from playing at No. 3 and 4 last year.”

Braun expected his doubles teams to be very competitive, but also needs to get points in singles competition after the Scots were shutout last weekend.

“We need to be more consistent in singles,” claimed Braun. “We had way too many unforced errors. I can attribute some of that to our indoor surface.”

Don’t get Braun wrong, he loves the indoor facility, but because the indoor courts at Monmouth are a fast surface, volleys usually don’t last too long, and that hurts when the team plays on an official tennis surface which tends to be slower. It’s a double-edged sword of sorts – the faster surface improves the reflexes, but the short volleys don’t help with the mental conditioning of sustaining focus for the longer points.

“The points are going to be longer on a real tennis surface,” said Braun. “We’re just not used to playing those longer points. We’ve got to get better on the extended points, keeping our focus for longer periods of time. It’s not so much physical conditioning as a different mindset to be ready for the long volleys because you’ll need to hit more shots. We need to be more patient to set up our shots to finish.”

The Scots hope to finish this week with a win streak. They’ll travel to Milwaukee to face Carthage College and Concordia (Wis.). Monmouth had mixed results last year, falling 9-0 to Carthage, but taking Concordia 8-1.

“Carthage is very similar to the teams we played last weekend,” said Braun. “We’ll need to play better than we played last weekend, but we’re capable of picking up a win or two this weekend. I expect us to make a big improvement in our play this week now that we have a couple of matches under our belts. ”

IT’S A FIRST

Sophomore jumper Tyler Hannam (Woodhull, Ill./AlWood) soared to new heights at last weekend’s Keck Invitational and earned his first Midwest Conference Men’s Field Event Performer of the Week honor.

Hannam cleared a personal-best 6’6-3/4” to win the high jump by a full two inches at the 13-team invitational hosted by Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Ill. His winning jump was an inch higher than his previous best from the first meet of the season and was less than an inch short of the NCAA provisional qualifying mark. He holds the top height in the Midwest Conference by more than an inch.

Hannam’s winning jump was crucial in the team competition as the Fighting Scots won the meet by a mere four points.

WEBCASTS REMINDER

A reminder for fans not able to attend Fighting Scots basketball games in person may watch the action on their computer by logging on to www.midwestconference.tv for live action with video and audio. The feeds are free.

THE WEEK AHEAD

Fri., Feb. 13
Swimming & Diving – at MWC Championships, Grinnell, Iowa, 10:00 am

Sat., Feb. 14
Swimming & Diving – at MWC Championships, Grinnell, Iowa, 10:00 am
Track – hosts Pentathlon, 10:00 am
Track – hosts Fighting Scots Invitational, 2:00 pm

Sun., Feb. 15
Swimming & Diving – at MWC Championships, Grinnell, Iowa, 9:00 am 

Wed., Feb. 18
Women’s Basketball – at Lake Forest, 5:30 pm
Men’s Basketball – at Lake Forest, 7:30 pm 

SCOTSIVATIONAL

“Do or do not. There is no try.” - Yoda