Sandra Magnus, Phys’86, MSEE’90, a mission specialist for NASA and a former standout for the Missouri S&T women’s soccer team, received the Dr. Charles Bertram Alumni of Distinction Award, and Jordan Henry, EE’09, a standout pole vaulter for the Miners’ track and field squad, received the men’s Paragon Award from the GLVC.
Brooke Ryan has been around the game of soccer her entire life. She started playing when she was 4, but before that she attended her two older brothers’ games.
Dale Martin, a member of the Missouri S&T coaching staff for the past 29 years, will resign as head men’s basketball coach effective June 30. He has held the position for 22 years.
When you think of sports in Canada, you might think of hockey, a sport in which Canadians have excelled at the international level.
But the United States’ northern neighbor has a strong history in baseball as well. The list of major league standouts includes Ferguson Jenkins and Larry Walker and current stars like Justin Morneau, Jason Bay and Russell Martin.
Zlatan Hamzic, a sophomore in mathematics, became the first student-athlete in school history to earn an individual national championship March 14, winning the title in the 200-yard breaststroke in school-record time at the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Houston.
For the second year in a row, pole vaulter Jordan Henry, a senior in electrical engineering, was the national runner-up in his event at the NCAA Division II Indoor Track and Field Championships held in Houston in March.
Tamara McCaskill, a senior in chemical engineering, concluded a record-setting career for the Lady Miners in March as the all-time leading scorer in the history of the S&T women’s basketball program. She also landed an all-conference honor for the third time in her four-year career.
Missouri S&T athletics’ online presence got a new look in January with the launch of a new Miner sports website. The site, hosted by Internet Consulting Services, provides a fresh new look for the promotion of athletics on a daily basis.
Junior Justin Taylor’s passion for sports comes from his two older brothers who got him involved in basketball as a kid. Not only does he love the competition but he loves to win. That trait helped make him a successful football and basketball player at Webster Groves (Mo.) High School.
The recipient of the 2008 NSCAA Honorary All-America award is out of this world. Literally.
Missouri S&T won the Great Lakes Football Conference championship in 2008 and the league’s all-conference team was a reflection of that. The Miners had 13 players chosen for the squad and won six additional awards for their performance.
The Missouri S&T swimming team finished the three-day Mizzou Invitational in December with 15 automatic qualifiers for the NCAA Division II Championships that began in Houston, Texas, on March 11. This marks only the second time in school history that 15 swimmers have gone on to the national meet.
Sophomore Bridget Williams is the easiest volleyball player to find on the floor. Just look for the player wearing a different-colored jersey.
The Missouri S&T volleyball team was ranked 16th in the nation in NCAA Division II in home attendance during its first season of competition in 2007. The Lady Miners averaged 443 fans per home contest, which was the best mark in the Great Lakes Valley Conference.
Three members of the Missouri S&T softball program spent the summer touring Austria as part of a USA Athletes International softball squad.
Missouri S&T is the top-ranked institution in the Great Lakes Valley Conference and among the top 20 schools in NCAA Division II for the second straight year in the National Collegiate Scouting Association rankings. The Miners are ranked 19th in the 2008 listing.
While the women’s basketball team was making history with its first-ever NCAA Tournament victories, another Missouri S&T team was making history of its own in another part of the state.
The best women’s basketball season in Missouri S&T history ended in the championship game of the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional as Northern Kentucky handed the Lady Miners a 60-52 defeat in Springfield, Mo. The loss, which came after victories over Michigan Tech (75-66) and Quincy (79-73) in the first two rounds, brought the 2007-08 season to a close with a final record of 24-7. The 24 wins is a new team record.
The M-Club at Missouri S&T held its annual awards banquet and two of the school's most celebrated student-athletes received the Gale Bullman Awards: Ashton Gronewold, who set numerous records during his four-year, All-America career on the football team, and Kandi Wieberg, who did likewise for the softball team for the past four
seasons.
"Coach of the Year" awards were given to two head coaches who led their respective teams to unprecedented heights in the 2007-08 season. Alan Eads led the Lady Miner basketball team to a school record 24 wins and a berth in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division II Tournament, while Doug Grooms led the S&T swimming team to a national runner-up finish at the NCAA Division II Championships in March and was named national coach of the year by the College Swimming Coaches Association of America.
Missouri S&T had three representatives at the NCAA Division II Track & Field Championships in Walnut, Calif., May 22-24, led by All-American Jordan Henry, who entered the meet as the fifth-ranked pole vaulter in the nation with a top mark of 17 feet.
Henry, the national runner-up in the indoor season, was joined by fellow pole vaulter Peter Hollenbeck, while Tamara McCaskill represented the women's team in California. Hollenbeck cleared 16-3 1⁄2 this season and McCaskill had a top mark of 5-7 in the high jump. At the time the magazine went to press, results were not available.
Since she was a little girl, Kandi Wieberg dreamed of being a college softball player. Playing as second baseman for Missouri S&T’s softball team, she’s achieved her dream and much more.
Joffroi Holcombe’s, performance at the NCAA Division II Great Lakes Regional earned him all-region honors from the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
Miner wide receiver Ashton Gronewold was named to a pair of All-America teams for his play during the 2007 season, making him the first player in the university football program’s 115-year history to earn All-America honors in three different seasons.
The Missouri S&T swimming team won a second straight New South Intercollegiate Swimming Championship title in February in Cleveland, Miss., gaining several high finishes and their 12th and 13th national qualifiers in the process.
The Miners finished the meet with 830 1⁄2 points, well ahead of the 733 posted by runner-up Ouachita Baptist.
Mike McNamee, a senior in civil and architectural engineering, has soccer in his blood.
The Miner cross country team’s strong start to the 2007 season earned the team a spot in the Top 25 for NCAA Division II in the poll released by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.
UMR’s athletics program ranks 13th among NCAA Division II institutions in the 2007 National Collegiate Scouting Association rankings.
UMR has been selected as a host institution for the 2008 NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships, which will take place March 12-15 at the Mizzou Aquatics Center on the campus of the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Three UMR athletes who finished their careers at the top of the charts in their respective sports and the only UMR track
and field team to win a conference championship were inducted into the MSM-UMR Athletic Hall of Fame on Oct. 27.
A venture into uncharted territory for the Lady Miner softball team started on a cold Easter weekend afternoon and finally put the program on the national map.
After two consecutive stellar seasons at wide receiver, UMR senior Ashton Gronewold has earned numerous pre-season honors for the 2007 football season.
Miner track and field standout Tyrone Smith finished 14th in the long jump competition during the 2007 Pan American Games held in July in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
Thomas McCormick, an outfielder for the Miner baseball team, was named as the recipient of the Mike Schmidt most valuable player award for the 2007 season as a member of the Quincy Gems of the Central Illinois Collegiate League.
Joe Ahearn, former assistant coach at Colgate University, has been named as the new UMR men’s soccer coach. He takes over for Vince Darnell, who resigned to pursue other career opportunities.
For the second consecutive year, senior swimmer Bill Gaul, ChE’07, was named Player of the Year on the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America team. It is the third time in the last four seasons that a UMR swimmer has earned this top academic award.
The UMR swimming team placed fourth at the NCAA Championships in March, its highest result at a national meet since 1998 and its fourth straight top-10 finish. The 12 team members earned a total of 37 All-America honors, 17 of which was based on individual performance, and established nine new school records.
Softball goes to regionals
The Lady Miner softball team earned its first-ever berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament this spring, playing in the Great Lakes Regional at Lewis University in Romeoville, Ill. Watch for information on the Lady Miners’ tournament run in the Fall issue of UMR Magazine.
Indoor track and field
The Miners indoor track and field team posted its highest finish ever at the NCAA. UMR participants Lucas Handley, Jordan Henry and Tyrone Smith earned All-America honors.
Nicole Dierking and Tamara McCaskill, the top two scorers on the Lady Miner basketball team, were named to the GLVC all-conference team as honorable mention selections.
Justin Taylor, the freshman point guard for the men’s basketball team, has been selected to Division II Bulletin’s all-freshman team for the 2006-07 season.
UMR psychology student Brandon Landry knows a lot about success. As a varsity football and basketball player, Landry broke every school record at Salesian High School in Fairfield, Calif., and was known as one of the top athletes in Northern California.
Dierking reached a personal milestone as the 2007 calendar year began. She became the 12th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark – and first UMR player to do so in five years – and recently completed her career as the sixth-leading scorer in school history with 1,169 points.
The alarm goes off at 5:30 a.m. and Wendy Moore, a senior in architectural engineering, is already getting out of bed to start her day with one of two daily practices.
Moore says it’s her teammates that get her going when most other students are sound asleep. “It’s tough to force yourself to get up and run at 6 a.m. However, knowing someone expects you to show up motivates you,” she says.
Travis Stensby was swimming for the University of Minnesota when he discovered a blood clot in his shoulder three years ago. That medical condition forced him to quit the team, and he thought his collegiate swimming career might be over.
Rodrick McDonald, a senior in mechanical engineering, has loved the thrill of competition since his Deer Park High School days in Pasadena, Texas, where he competed in multiple sports. Returning to Texas for football’s Whataburger Cactus Bowl in January and the NCAA Division II Track and Field Championships last spring only managed to increase his competitive fever.
No team is made of one person alone, but junior Maggie Thompson, a pre-medical student from Marshall, Mo., does her fair share of helping UMR athletic teams.
California native Phil Shin, a senior in biological sciences, stays busy with pre-medicine classes and daily practices for the UMR football team, but it can still be hard living such a long distance from his family on the West Coast.
That isn’t a major problem for Shin, however, who says he has found a family in the Miner football team. “During the season, we practice three hours a day,” he says. “Since my real family is all the way back in California, the team is all I have here. As a senior, my role is to set an example for the new transfer and freshman players.”
