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SCOTS SCOOP – Feb. 21, 2007 – Vol. 7, No. 29
SCOTS SETTING TABLE FOR NATIONAL SUCCESS
Readers of Steve Rosenbloom’s sports blog for the Chicago Tribune know
that he has a catchphrase to honor athletes after breakthrough
performances. Had he covered Monmouth College at the UNI-Dome Open in
Cedar Falls, Iowa, on Friday night, he might have written, “Kel Bond and
Alex Stuart, your table is ready.”
Both Fighting Scot competitors likely punched their ticket to the national
meet next month with outstanding efforts. While winning the 800-meter run,
Bond ran a season-best 1:54.07 that came in nearly a second under the
provisional-qualifying time. It was the second-fastest time indoors for
the school record-holder.
“He was really not challenged a great deal,” said MC coach Roger Haynes.
“He made a nice mid-race move. A year ago at this meet, he followed the
pace of an All-American from Iowa State, but this time he did it pretty
much on his own. He’s shown that he can run pretty well against himself.”
Stuart added nearly a foot to his school-record indoor triple jump
distance, soaring 47'4-1/2 to win that event. He is now ranked sixth in
the nation, while Bond moved up to 10th.
“Alex had a really solid week of preparation,” said Haynes, who noted
Stuart is just seven inches behind the national leader. “He was mentally
and emotionally ready for the meet and had a real nice series of jumps.”
A table-setting of four will also be needed for the 4x400 group of seniors
Dante Daniels (Waukegan, Ill./Gurnee-Warren) and Tyler Rundle (Monmouth,
Ill./Warren) and brothers Josh and Luke Reschke (Geneseo, Ill./Geneseo),
who placed second to Northern Iowa with a school-record time of 3:18.66.
That performance trails only Lincoln and Nebraska Wesleyan among Division
III relay teams this year. Daniels ran a 48.9 lead leg and Josh Reschke’s
split was 49.2. Luke Reschke wasn’t challenged at the end but still ran
50.2.
“We didn’t run until almost 11 o’clock in the evening,” said Haynes. “They
were able to maintain their concentration and focus and run well. They can
even run better, and they’ll need to.”
Despite facing Division I competition that also included Drake University,
several other Monmouth competitors also had high finishes. Distance
runners Clay Staley (Hanna City, Ill./Illini Bluffs) and Zach Barr
(Roseville, Ill./Roseville) both placed second, with Staley clocking a
time of 4:22.71 in the mile and Barr completing the 3000-meter run in
8:46.36.
Throwers Jeff Rebholz (Henry, Ill./Henry) and Zach Wilson (Lacon,
Ill./Midland) were consistent, with Rebholz placing second in both the
weight throw (57'6-1/4) and the shot put (52'1-1/4) and Wilson taking
fourth in those events (56'2-1/2 and 49'6-1/2).
Junior Chuck Lief (Mokena, Ill./Lincoln-Way) was fourth in the triple jump
(43'1-1/2) and Daniels added a fourth-place 400-meter dash time of 50.39
to his strong relay leg.
In the pole vault, junior Peter Sprecher (Canton, Ill./Canton) took fourth
(16'0-3/4) with classmate Jonny Henkins (Kewanee, Ill./Kewanee) placing
seventh (15'7). Senior Tim Frank added a seventh-place finish in the high
jump (6'2-3/4) and Rundle took eighth in the 200-meter dash (22.73).
Pole vaulters Jessica White (Galesburg, Ill./Galesburg) and Megan McKenna
(Chicago, Ill./Resurrection) were the top women’s finishers. They both
cleared 11'5-3/4, which was good for runner-up for White and a third-place
finish for McKenna. The multi-talented McKenna had a “solid night,”
according to Haynes, also placing third in the triple jump with an
indoor-best leap of 35'1-3/4.
Also finishing in the top three was sophomore Shannon Turczyn (Peru,
Ill./LaSalle-Peru), who was third in the 60-meter hurdles (9.14). When
converted to a 55-meter time, Turczyn ran a provisional-qualifying time of
8.56, and Haynes feels she has a great shot at breaking the Midwest
Conference record of 8.43.
Other strong efforts for the Scots came from junior Jenny Babos (Leland,
Ill./Somonauk) in the weight throw (sixth, 46'6-1/2), senior Sara
Ingersoll (Monmouth, Ill./Monmouth) in the 800-meter run (seventh,
2:23.54) and sophomore Erin Degelman (Sherrard, Ill./Sherrard) in the pole
vault (10'0). Placing eighth were junior Megan Clennon (Aurora, Ill./West
Aurora) in the high jump (5'1), senior Kila Cox (Granger, Ind./Hononegah)
in the 400-meter dash (1:00.87) and freshman Gloria Lehr (Knoxville,
Ill./Knoxville) in the shot put (39'6-1/2). The women’s 4x400 relay team
of Cox, Turczyn, senior Jacquie Ouart (Kewanee, Ill./Kewanee) and
sophomore Katey Vaccarello (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) also placed
eighth in a season-best 4:11.37.
Cox earned one of the Midwest Conference Performer of the Week honors, and
Stuart was also one of the weekly winners. That boosts Monmouth’s total
this season to seven different men’s winners and five women.
Besides Barr, who also had a solid time of 4:29.97 in the mile, and
Staley, Haynes said other men’s distance runners competed well, including
sophomore Damon Bautista (Silvis, Ill./East Moline), who finished the
800-meter run in 2:02.23. He said he is looking forward to putting a
strong distance medley relay team together at this Saturday’s Anderson
University Invitational. The squad will try to qualify for nationals in a
race that features legs of 1200, 400, 800 and 1600 meters.
Haynes was also pleased to have former MWC champ Brenda Herrera (Kewanee,
Ill./Wethersfield) back and in good form. Herrera, who has returned to the
team after missing the 2006 season, has been sidelined by a broken wrist,
but she “moved herself back into contention” in the league with a
200-meter dash time of 27.36.
Concluded Haynes, “Overall, I was pleased with our performances. The
majority of our people were above average, and that’s a good indicator
that they were ready to compete.”
.500 GAME ENDS .500 SEASON
In what has been an up-and-down Fighting Scots season, it was fitting
that the final game of Monmouth’s 11-11 season had peaks and valleys.
Last Wednesday, the Scots fell 69-59 to a Lake Forest team that went on to
earn one of the league’s four playoff spots. The final margin was
deceptive, as the game featured seven ties and 14 lead changes. Monmouth
led 33-32 at halftime, and the Scots were also up 51-50 with nine minutes
left.
For the next four minutes, both teams missed opportunities to take control
of the game, but the Foresters finally capitalized thanks to Brad Wehner.
On three straight trips, Wehner made three-pointers, and his personal 9-1
run gave Lake Forest a 61-52 lead. Monmouth would get no closer than six
points the rest of the way.
“The first half we played like the season that could have been and the
second like the season that we actually had this year,” coach Terry
Glasgow told the Daily Review Atlas following the game.
Glasgow pointed to rebounding as the key statistic in the game, as two
Forester players combined to grab as many boards as the entire Monmouth
team.
“We got non-competitive and lost all aggressiveness, giving them multiple
second chances offensively,” said Glasgow. “Lake Forest got too many
rebounds that they put back for baskets for us to win. We got
out-rebounded 36-22, and 17 of those were offensive boards. There is no
physical reason we should have been out-rebounded to lose the game.”
In his final game as a Fighting Scot, senior Raun Singleton (Roseville,
Ill./Roseville) scored 17 points. He netted two free throws with 39
seconds to play, giving him exactly 100 for his two MC seasons and
qualifying him for the career record. His 85-of-100 accuracy bested Mark
Mendez’s previous record of 83.9. Singleton also ended his career with a
streak of 20 games in which he made a three-pointer.
Junior Blaise Rogers (Forest City, Ill./Midwest Central) added 15 points
in the game and finished as the Scots’ leader in free throws made and
attempted (86-of-109), assists (62) and steals (25). Junior Joe Terwelp
(Quincy, Ill./Notre Dame), who had seven points in the loss, topped
Monmouth in scoring and rebounding average (16.7 and 6.6).
“We had dramatic improvement from a year ago,” said Glasgow when asked to
review the season, which followed an 8-13 campaign a year ago. “The
coaching was better, the players did better, we defended better and we
achieved more.”
Those achievements included road victories over Carroll and Lake Forest
teams that reached the MWC playoffs. Besides regular season champion
Grinnell, the only league team that Monmouth didn’t defeat during the
season was St. Norbert.
“We were picked to finish ninth, and we moved beyond that,” said Glasgow.
“We had some great wins. Where we struggled was with consistency. We had
trouble stringing two games together on a weekend or stringing two halves
together in some of our single games. We were just a couple bad halves
away from being a playoff team.”
As it turned out, the Scots would have tied for fourth in the league by
sweeping Lake Forest and finding one other win. A homecourt loss to
last-place Illinois College, followed by a loss three days later at Knox,
were both games the Scots would like to have back.
“Our kids feel better about this season, they were competitive and we were
a .500 team, but not making the playoffs is a disappointment,” Glasgow
concluded.
DESPITE LOSS, OT THRILLER A POSITIVE
The Fighting Scots women’s basketball team followed a familiar script
in their season finale last Wednesday, giving one of the league's elite
all it could handle before coming up on the short end of the final score.
This time, the opponent was a Lake Forest team that entered the game
ranked 17th in the nation, and when the Foresters grabbed a 17-point
second-half lead, it seemed that Monmouth's season would end with a
whimper, not a bang.
Before falling 95-86 in overtime, though, the Scots gave their faithful
plenty of reasons for optimism.
“I thought we played a phenomenal game tonight from the coaching staff to
the seniors and on down,” coach Melissa Jones told the Daily Review Atlas
following the game. “You just can’t have that many turnovers in overtime
to win against a team like Lake Forest.”
The Scots used a technical foul to stay even with the Foresters through
the first two possessions in extra time, but Monmouth lost the ball on
four of its next five trips. In the meantime, Lake Forest opened up a
five-point advantage, and Nicole Rivera sealed the outcome with a
three-pointer with one minute to play.
The Foresters hit seven threes on the day, while the Scots had just one.
That three-pointer was huge, though, as sophomore Katie Sheets
(Princeville, Ill./Princeville) got nothing but nylon from the top of the
key with two seconds left to force OT.
“We were able to draw up the play and it was a phenomenal shot to tie the
game for us,” said Jones.
The dramatic shot followed a clutch three-point play by freshman Elise
Waldorf (Canton, Ill./Canton) with 18 seconds left. Waldorf finished with
16 points, senior Laura Jahn (Palos Park, Ill./Stagg) scored 20 and junior
Ashley Yeast (Sciota, Ill./West Prairie) likely wrapped up the Division
III individual rebounding crown with a 15-point, 11-board performance.
Monmouth was led in the game by sophomore Melissa Gorski (Arlington
Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove), who scored a collegiate-high 24 points.
Gorski also broke the Scots single-season free throw accuracy record,
finishing at 76-of-92 (82.6 percent). That bested Michelle Perry’s record
of 82.4 percent that has stood since the 1988-89 season. At the halfway
point of her MC career, Gorski is the program’s free throw percentage
leader at 75.8.
Although the Scots finished just 6-10 in the Midwest Conference, both
their level of play against the league leaders and their overall record of
12-11 has Jones optimistic about the future.
“Physically, I think we are one of the best teams in our conference,” she
said. “We took the top two teams into overtime in the last couple of weeks
of play. We dropped both, but we walked away knowing we kept right with
the top-ranked teams.”
Offensively, the team scored 1,652 points to break its single-season
scoring record that was set, ironically, during the same 1988-89 campaign.
Although Jahn’s offense will certainly be missed after she ended her
career as Monmouth’s 10th all-time leading scorer (783 points), it’s quite
possible that the Scots will have three eventual 1,000-point scorers on
the floor next year. That’s something that hasn’t happened yet in three
decades of women’s basketball at Monmouth. Gorski is well ahead of the
milestone pace with 609 points, and Yeast and Waldorf are close. Yeast,
who scored 287 points this season, has 720 points with one season left,
and Waldorf netted 243 points in her rookie season.
MOSER’S STREAK ENDS IN LOSS TO WHEATON
Over the last two weekends, the Fighting Scots tennis team is 1-3. That
doesn’t mean one win and three losses, though. Rather, it stands for one
match completed, three postponed.
The Scots were able to play their home opener against Wheaton on Saturday,
but Wartburg was unable to make the trip to Monmouth due to poor travel
conditions. The cancellation followed the ones the Scots experienced Feb.
10 when they were not able to make the trip to play Carthage or Concordia.
The Monmouth-Wheaton match featured as much drama as one might have
expected from all four scheduled matches combined. The visiting Thunder
escaped with a 5-4 victory by pulling out three-set victories at No. 4 and
No. 5 singles. The No. 1 doubles match went to a tiebreaker before
Wheaton’s top team downed sophomore Kyle Korb (Quincy, Ill./Quincy) and
senior Jared Kunkle (Peoria, Ill./Dunlap) 9-8 (7-4).
“We had a match point at No. 1 doubles,” said MC coach Chad Braun. “Our
guys played pretty solid, but it was a match of missed opportunities.”
The victim at No. 4 was junior Matt Moser (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West),
who fell 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, ending his 20-match win streak. Moser, who led 5-4
in the third set, had not been beaten since a March 9, 2006 match in
Orlando, Fla.
“I don’t know if it will ever happen here again,” said Braun of the
streak. “I don’t know if you’ll ever see that topped. Hopefully, he can
get a win this weekend and get another streak going.”
At No. 5, senior Alex Carter (Wilton, Iowa/Wilton) fell 6-3, 4-6, 6-3.
Carter teamed with the Scots’ lone two-time winner on the day, senior Greg
Bouslog (Princeton, Ill./Princeton) to win 8-2 at No. 2 doubles, and
Bouslog breezed in his No. 6 singles match, winning 6-1, 6-2.
Korb won 7-6, 6-1 at No. 2 singles and the No. 2 doubles team of junior
Kevin Kamenjarin (Alsip, Ill.Marist) and senior Brian Jordan (Peoria,
Ill./Limestone) also went to a tiebreaker before winning 9-8 (7-5).
The Scots are scheduled to play Loras this Saturday at 11:30 a.m. at the
Huff Athletic Center.
“We handled them a year ago, but this is their first match of the year,
and they have some new recruits,” said Braun. “We don’t know what to
expect.”
SWIM SEASON NOW COMPLETE
A handful of Monmouth competitors took part in the Midwest Invitational
Last Chance Meet in Chicago on Saturday. As a team, the MC men scored 20
points to place 12th, while the women scored 62 points to place seventh.
No school records or honor roll marks were achieved by the Fighting Scots
participants.
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