FUN IN THE SUN

The men’s golf team pulled a tough assignment this week – play golf in Florida.

The Fighting Scots are making their second trip to the NCAA National Golf Championships in three years this week after capturing the Midwest Conference title and the automatic NCAA Tournament berth that goes with it. Dave Ragone’s team was rewarded with the earliest tee times (7:00 a.m.) for yesterday’s opening round.

The team flew to Florida Sunday and took practice rounds Monday and Tuesday before hitting the links at the Dye Course yesterday. The team will play their final round of the qualifying rounds today on the Dye Course. The top 23 teams from the field of 32 and the top five individuals not part of the 23 qualifying teams will play the final 36 holes Friday and Saturday on the Dye Course.

Sun and a high of 81 greeted the Scots for Wednesday’s opening round and they responded with a respectable 314, but they sit in a tie for 28th position, 35 strokes behind Round 1 leader Methodist University which shot an amazing 9-under 279. The Scots are just 7 strokes from making cut of the top 23 teams for Friday and Saturday’s final rounds.

Ryan Harvey began the round in great shape, birdying the first hole and completing the front nine at even par. Trouble on the back nine, including a triple-bogey on the par 4, 322 yard 12th dropped him out of the top 10. He finished the round with a 6-over 78, tied for 105th.

Rodney Clayton’s round was just the opposite. He found himself 3-over par through the first six holes before back-to-back birdies got him to plus-1, but a bogey on 9 put him at 2-over at the turn. Clayton then birdied two of the first three holes on the back nine to finish the day at 1-over 73 and in a tie for 32nd.

Three birdies on the front nine by Ryan Tapscott were offset by a triple and double bogey as he made the turn at 3-over. A triple on the 495-yard, par 4 15th hurt his chances to rebound as he finished the day’s play with an 8-over 80.

A birdie on 10 came in the middle of a pair of triple bogeys for Ted Starkey who wound up the day with an 83. Greg Jones rounded out the Scots day with a 90.

The Scots begin play this morning at 11:10 EDT on the Ryder Course, a course longer, but similar to, Monmouth’s home course at Gibson Woods. Ryder, a 7,056-yard par 72 course, is set among rolling fairways and plenty of timber which should make the Scots feel right at home.

Now, if they can shoot well enough to avoid an early return home.

AND THE BEAT(ING) GOES ON

When the dust settled Saturday afternoon at the Midwest Conference Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Waukesha, Wis., the Monmouth College men had claimed their ninth consecutive conference title and the women their fifth straight.

Strong performances in the women’s field events Friday set the stage for the Fighting Scots’ women to run away from the pack on Saturday. The women easily outdistanced runnerup Carroll University 254-172. Monmouth’s men were in second after Friday’s first round, but sprinted past second-place Illinois College for the title 194-145.

That wasn’t exactly the picture Roger Haynes had envisioned last week.

“It was pretty amazing and surprising,” said Haynes of his team’s margin of victory. “The women had a very good Friday and the men did what they needed to do to stay close and give themselves a chance to win.”

The women picked up two individual titles as they swept the top three spots in the discus and the top two in the hammer throw Friday. NCAA qualifier Tanesha Hughes flung the discus a meet record 161’3” to outdistance teammates Gloria Lehr and Allison Renfro in second and third. Lehr got the better of her teammate in the hammer throw where she won with a conference-record mark of 153’4”, easing by Amanda Streeter in second and Hughes in fourth. Hughes and Lehr placed 2-3 in the shot put. Lehr also placed second in the javelin and Brittany McCline was fourth.

“We had a couple of big performances from our throwers,” praised Haynes. “Gloria’s record in the hammer and Amanda getting into the finals and finishing second were a couple of big accomplishments. Going into the meet, Gloria was probably our No. 3 hammer thrower and then she sets the conference record. That’s indicative of the ability those girls have. Tanesha, Gloria and Allison going 1-2-3 in the discus obviously earned us a lot of points, too.”

Shannon Turczyn not only won the 100-meter hurdles, she also automatically qualified for next week’s NCAA Outdoor Championships with the fifth-fastest time in the nation. The senior broke the tape with a conference-record time of 14.29. She finished her career unbeaten in the sprint hurdles, winning the MWC title all four years in the 55-meter hurdles indoors and the 100-meter hurdles outdoors. Classmate Katie Vaccarello was fourth. The tandem finished 2-3 in the 400-hurdles. Turczyn ran a lifetime-best 1:06.01 to clip Vaccarello for second by just over three-tenths of a second.

“Shannon’s performance in the high hurdles was significant,” said Haynes. “It was nice for her to put her time down a little lower. Winning all eight conference championships in the highs is quite an accomplishment.”

Jae Moore and Brittany Lowdermilk made the awards stand with a 1-2 finish in the 100-dash. Moore took first, running a 12.71, just three one-hundredths ahead of Lowdermilk. Moore also placed second in the 200 and Lowdermilk was fourth.

“Jae winning the 100 as a sophomore is a very good accomplishment,” said Haynes. “She’s the future and the leader of our program in terms of what the women’s sprinters can do in the upcoming seasons. She’s made some significant changes since high school and will be really solid for us for the next two years.”

Mary Kate Beyer set the new school and conference standard in the steeplechase. The sophomore took first with a provisional-qualifying time of 10:56.60. The time ranks her in the top 20 nationally.

“The incredible thing with Mary Kate was that she ran an extremely tough combination of distance races that weekend,” said Haynes. “It wouldn’t have been her first choice, but she willingly ran the 10K on Friday when I asked her to. Then she came back with a 5K on Saturday in addition to a record in the steeplechase. In the steeplechase, Mary Kate pulled away from her top competitor after about four laps and broke the conference record by about 20 seconds.”

Megan McKenna took second in three field events. The senior was runnerup in the triple jump, long jump and pole vault. Other seconds came from Beyer who ran a lifetime-best 40:33.52 in the 10,000-meter run, Heather Hull in the high jump with a personal-best 5’3-1/4”. Beyer also took third in the 5,000 run.

McKenna, Turczyn, Lowdermilk and Moore added second-place hardware in the 4x100 relay, finishing just a half-second behind Carroll. Vaccarello, Moore, Turczyn and Lindsie Pettie duplicated the runnerup finish in the 4x400.

“Megan was her usual very competitive and consistent self,” reported Haynes of McKenna. “She’s willing to do whatever we ask for the betterment of the team and she does it without question. Coming into the meet, she had a sore leg, but made it through the field events and insisted that she run in the 4x1 on Saturday. That’s just the kind of selfless competitor she is.”

A pair of personal-bests were recorded in the 800 run by Pettie and Katie Staab. Pettie took second with a PR of 2:21.51 and Staab’s 2:23.05 was her career’s fastest in the event.

Dan Higgins was the lone man to win a conference title after Day 1 of the competition, but the Scots were in position to make a run on the final day with a flurry of firsts and key scoring performances. Higgins successfully defended his title in the javelin Friday with a throw of 193’9” to improve his provisional-qualifying mark.

“Dan’s really fought back from an early season injury,” reported Haynes. “He hadn’t thrown competitively since April 4. His training had been pretty limited, so it was not only a pretty good throw to make the provisional distance, it was also impressive under the circumstances.”

The Scots picked up more field event points when Peyton Lumzy took first in the discus with a mark of 141’10” to add to a second in the hammer throw and a third in the shot put. Sam Cokinos edged Lumzy in the shot, placing second. He was third in the discus. Tyler Hannam captured his first MWC title, winning the high jump at 6’6-3/4”.

Logan Hohl bounced back from a second-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles to take first in the 400-hurdles. He broke the tape in a provisional-qualifying and personal-best time of 53.03, moving him to eighth on the national list.

“Logan was ahead in the highs, but hit a hurdle late and got nipped at the finish,” reported Haynes. “I think this may have been a critical place in his career. A lot of kids would have let that affect them negatively. He decided to let it affect him positively. He really came out and got after it in the 400 hurdles and broke Jason Devino’s conference record. He also ran a good leg at the end with the 4x400 relay. I think the 100 hurdles may have been an approach-changing event to come back and not back off and to put the next race (400 hurdles) away early. He was so far ahead after the first 200 meters that the outcome was decided very early.”

The Scots ran a provisional time and set a conference record while winning the 4x100 relay. Shane Reschke, Aaron Daverin, Kyle Prout and Saidu Sesay clocked a 41.74 to win the event by nearly two-tenths of a second. Reschke, who picked up two relay firsts, was joined by Hohl, Ryan Hardman and Jake Stott in winning the 4x400. The quartet broke the tape in 3:19.56, winning by nearly four seconds.

“It was pretty impressive for the 4x1 guys to break the record Dante Daniels, Tyler Rundle, Luke Reschke and some of the more storied guys in our program set. Saidu had to come from behind on the anchor to win it. Aaron is the lone senior in that group, so it bodes well for the future to try and get that time even lower.”

The relay team members were also busy as individuals. Stott led a 2-3-4 finish in the 400 as he led Reschke and Hardman across the finish line. Sesay took fourth in the 200.

A personal-best in the triple jump earned Nick Wright a trip to the awards stand. The junior sailed 45’6-1/2” to edge past Sean Wells in fourth.

Damon Bautista ran to a second-place finish in the 1500. His time of 4:02.54 was just over a half-second off the pace. The Scots added needed points with fourth place finishes from Tim Bentz in the 800 run and Jeremy Henkins with a lifetime best of 13’5” in the pole vault.

Not all of the awards went to the athletes. Haynes captured his second straight Outdoor Women’s Coach of the Year award as the women had four athletes selected as the meet’s Most Outstanding Performers. Lehr and Hughes shared the award in the field events and Turczyn and Beyer were honored in the running events. A pair of Fighting Scots men also received the Outstanding Performer award: Lumzy (field) and Hohl (track).

While numerous Scots set records and were named MOPs, Haynes was quick to point out every point counts and the team’s success is dependent on all the athletes, not just the headliners.

“The people that don’t get a lot of press may have had as much to do with this championship as anyone,” said Haynes. “Guys like Sean Wells, Mike Blodgett (6^th in the long jump), Nick Wright and Jeremy Henkins are all solid scorers for us. They make as much difference to our team as the upper echelon guys. They have championship expectations every bit as much as the guys who have been to the national meet. Hopefully, that’s a measure of our program that they take their performances seriously. The have a championship-caliber mentality when it comes to their approach and that’s a huge advantage. We lost some top people (Luke Reschke and Clay Staley) due to injury, but the team still had every expectation to win.”

The Scots have last chance qualifying meets this week prior to next week’s National Championships in Marietta, Ohio. Two women have automatically qualified for the meet – Hughes (discus) and Turczyn (100-meter hurdles). Hughes is also a provisional qualifier in the shot put while Lehr has made provisional marks in the shot, discus and hammer throw. McKenna and Beyer are provisional in the pole vault and steeplechase, respectively.

On the men’s side, Hohl has provisional efforts in both hurdle events. Hannam and Higgins each made provisional marks in the high jump and javelin, respectively. Monmouth’s 4x100 relay is a provisional qualifier with their effort last weekend.

WAIT ‘TIL NEXT YEAR

While that has been a familiar refrain for Cubs fans, it really rings true for the Fighting Scots baseball team – whether we want to wait or not.

The Scots went just 2-8 over the season’s first 10 games, but were 14-9 over the remainder of the season, including winning their eighth Midwest Conference South Division title in nine years.

“The guys really came back once we got out of spring break,” said Roger Sander. “You just have to play so many games in a short amount of time, our guys were physically worn out – especially our pitching staff. To finish at .500 when we started six or seven freshmen, it was a pretty good year and paints a bright picture for the future. Even in Arizona when everybody was exhausted, we didn’t have a lot of blowouts.”

The Scots were on the winning end of one blowout – a 15-4 thrashing of Grinnell in the conference tournament sandwiched between two nail-biting losses, a 7-6 loss to eventual league champion Beloit in the opener and a 7-5 loss to St. Norbert in an elimination game.

In the opening game of the tournament, Monmouth jumped on Beloit for four runs in the first inning. After the Bucs intentionally walked Kevin Sashko to load the bases with one out, Ross Donnan’s single to left scored the first two of his nine RBIs at the tournament.

“We got some key hits in that first inning,” reported Sander. “We just weren’t consistent with getting those hits at the right time. That’s been our trademark all year long.”

Beloit fought back and scored four of their own in the fourth thanks to five hits to take a 5-4 lead. The Scots answered and took a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth when Donnan’s single score Chaz Baggio.

That’s when it got interesting – as if it wasn’t already.

Beloit got their leadoff batter on in the seventh and eighth and scored both for a 7-6 lead. Trailing in the bottom of the eighth with two out, Chad Kamm – the Scots’ leading hitter – took an up-and-in pitch for a called third strike with a 2-2 count and the bases loaded to end the threat.

“It was high and tight to the point that it backed Chad off the plate,” said Sander. “He’s hitting over .400. I trust his eye. He knows the strike zone. With two strikes, he’s going to try and make contact if it’s close, but he didn’t even offer at it. Not to take anything away from Beloit, but that was a key call.”

The Scots didn’t take anything for granted in the first elimination game – playing Grinnell for the sixth time in less than a week.

“It wasn’t hard to focus on Grinnell even though we had already played them five games that week,” said Sander. “The kids knew if we lose, we go home. It was that simple.”

Two big innings – a six-run fourth and a four-run sixth – propelled the Scots to their second mercy rule win over the Pioneers since the preceding Monday.

Caleb Ruyle – who had just nine RBIs on the year to that point – drove in five in the game and started the production with a double driving in Baggio, Sashko and Donnan. Kamm ripped a double to score Brad Winkler and Billy Herrin with the inning’s final tallies. Once the Scots’ picked up five hits in the sixth and scored another four runs, Monmouth was on the way to Saturday’s elimination date with St. Norbert.

The Scots trailed for most of that game until Donnan’s second homer of the game – a three-run shot in the bottom of the sixth – tied the game at 5-5. In another case of late runs dooming the Scots, the Green Knights scored solo runs in the eighth and ninth to pull out the win and send the Scots packing.

“We had two cases with runners on where our guys hit screamers right at the defense,” said Sander. “If those balls are hit a foot either way, we avoid outs and score runs. That’s just the bad luck we hit into. Give St. Norbert credit, when they needed a two-out hit, they got it. Four of their seven runs came with two outs. The tournament came down to who got some breaks. I feel like any of the four teams could have won that tournament. St. Norbert had to come from behind to beat Grinnell in their opener and Beloit had to come from behind to beat us.”

If, uh, we mean WHEN, the Scots get to next year’s tournament, they should have a lineup with plenty of tournament experience AND success. The only players with stats from this year’s MWC Tournament – position players Sashko, Nick Basala and Willy Mason and pitchers Brian Chandler, Drew Johnson and Matt Bourne – will be lost to graduation.

That means 100 percent of the RBI production will be returning. Five players hitting .300 or better – Winkler, Ruyle, Kamm, Donnan and Herrin – will be back for another try.

Two pitchers – Robbie Hinkle and Zach Myers – will also enter next year as returners. Hinkle sported a 2.25 ERA at the tournament and Myers had the third-lowest season ERA behind Hinkle and Bourne.

“I feel bad for my seniors,” said Sander. “We would have liked to send them out on a winning note, but I really liked the team we had this year. The team chemistry was great and that’s not always the case when you have a lot of good freshman that are playing ahead of some upperclassmen. I give the team credit, everyone pulled for each other and they all had the one common goal.”

With the success of this year’s underclassmen, Sander won’t have to dig too deep to find the talent to reload in 2010.

“If these young guys continue to improve, we could be pretty salty for quite a few years,” claimed Sander. “Obviously, we’ll have to replace Sashko at short and shore up some pitching losses, but I like the prospects for next season.”

Scots Scoop is already pumped up for 2010. Do we REALLY have to wait ‘til next year?

STILL SETTING RECORDS

Senior Sarah Christensen (Galesburg, Ill./Galesburg) was named the Midwest Conference South Division Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive year as a record six Fighting Scots were named to the all-conference softball team.

A pair of freshmen joined Christensen on the first team. Catcher Lauren Bergstresser (Peoria, Ill./Richwoods) and shortstop Morgan Seiler (Chillicothe, Ill./IVC) earned selections after stellar inaugural seasons. Another freshman and two seniors were tabbed for the second team. Freshman utility player Brittany Forney (Spring Valley, Ill./Hall) joined senior pitcher Amanda Murdock (Aledo, Ill./Aledo) and senior outfielder Ashley Parer (Rock Island ,Ill./Rock Island) in picking up their first all-league honors.

Christensen, who last year became the Scots’ first Pitcher of the Year, finished the 2009 season with a 9-4 record and a 3.43 ERA. She finished in the top five in the Midwest Conference in five categories. She held opponents to a .231 batting average while recording 101 strikeouts. Her 276 career Ks ranks her second on Monmouth’s all-time list. 

Bergstresser racked up a conference-leading 24 stolen bases, which also set the Scots’ season record. In her first year, she is already more than halfway to the career mark of 43 set by Drew Robinson from 2005-07. Her .391 average tied for third in the league and she also tied for second with 32 runs scored.

Seiler led the Scots with 25 RBIs while hitting at a .361 clip. She collected six doubles and posted a .505 slugging percentage. In coach John Goddard’s nomination of Seiler, he wrote, “She was out with an injury for seven straight games, and we lost all seven.”

Forney began the year as a utility player, logging most of her time in the outfield before taking a role as the designated player. She hit .307 with 14 RBIs and was 7-for-7 in stolen bases.

Murdock’s six wins this season was the most in her career. Her 78 innings pitched were second on the team to Christensen. The senior allowed just four hits and no earned runs in her last two regular season games. For the season, she had a nearly two-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Parer finished her career in style with a career-high .314 batting average. She was a perfect 6-for-6 in stolen base attempts and ended her career with a 93 percent success rate. Parer also scored a career-high 18 runs for the Fighting Scots.

Monmouth finished the season with a 17-19 record, marking the most wins for the program since the 2003 South Division Championship team won 22 games. This is the fourth straight year the Scots have posted double-digit wins. One of the Scots’ wins came over a nationally ranked team which had lost to only two other teams during the regular season. Monmouth’s six selections to the all-conference team are the most in Fighting Scots’ softball history.

DOMINANCE

The men claimed their fifth consecutive Midwest Conference All-Sports championship by winning the 2008-09 title and the Fighting Scots women had their highest finish in the history of women’s athletics at Monmouth.

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 80-point total, edging Grinnell (77) and St. Norbert (71.5). The Fighting Scots won four league titles this season, led by the men’s track team, which picked up a combined 20 points with their repeat as indoor and outdoor conference champions. The Scots also took first-place points with league titles in football and golf.

The Fighting Scots women totaled 74 points, just 1.5 points behind winner St. Norbert. The women won four league championships this year and had three other top four finishes. Like the men, the women were buoyed by their indoor and outdoor track titles. The women also took first-place points with their first cross country team title. The Scots’ tennis team added to the tight All-Sports race with a third-place finish in the league tournament while the volleyball and softball teams were fourth.

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

THE WEEK AHEAD

Thurs., May 14
Golf – at NCAA Division III Championships third round, TBA

 Fri., May 15
Track – at Augustana Qualifier, 5:00 pm and North Central Qualifier, 3:00 pm
Golf – at NCAA Division III Championships final round, TBA 

SCOTSIVATIONAL

“You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.” - Rosalynn Smith Carter