BEREA, OHIO — Baldwin-Wallace College had another strong year in 2007-2008 in terms of athletics as four teams won Ohio Athletic Conference Championships and a fifth shaed a regular-season crown.  Of the 21 varsity teams, 16 had winning records with a combined overall record of 578-280-11  for a .671 winning percentage.

 

The women’s basketball and women’s tennis teams each won both an OAC regular season and an OAC Tournament title. The women’s cross country and women’s indoor track teams each won a league crown by winning the conference championship meet. The men’s swim team tied for the OAC regular season title. 

 

During the fall season, seven teams had winning records and the women’s cross country team captured the OAC title.

 

In cross country, the women’s team was 77-7 overall and won its 11th OAC title in the last 16 years. Senior Lindsay Brickner (Lisbon/ David Anderson) was the top runner as she was the OAC Co-Runner of the Year and the individual champion at the OAC Championship Meet and Head Coach Bill Taraschke and his staff were named OAC Coaching Staff of the Year. In addition, four other women earned All-OAC honors. The men’s team was 54-33 overall. Overall, six student-athletes were named Academic All-OAC selections for track/cross country.

 

In football, the Yellow Jackets were 6-4 overall, securing their 40th winning season in the last 41 years.  Eight Yellow Jackets were All-OAC selections, two were Academic All-OAC selections and four were ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV selections.  Senior punter Kevin Soflkiancs (Middleburg Heights/ Midpark) was a three-time Division III All-American (2004, 2006 and 2007), a two-time ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-American and is the only football player in the 105-year history of the OAC to earn first-team All-OAC honors four consecutive years. He also was selected as B-W’s Male Clyde Lamb Award winner.

 

In soccer, the men’s team was 9-6-4 overall and the women’s squad had an 11-6-3 overall mark. Senior Todd Alexander (Hudson) was named OAC Defender of the Year and senior Michelle Neff (Strongsville) was the OAC Goalkeeper of the Year for the second time in her career. Eight soccer players were named All-OAC, nine Academic All-OAC and five were ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV selections. Senior forward Matt Pietro (Canfield) was named an ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-American for the second consecutive season. Junior midfielder Allie Wojtkun (North Olmsted/ Magnificat) was the Female Clyde Lamb Award winner.

 

The volleyball team was 18-14 overall and led by the play of seniors Kelsey Hills (Sylvania/ Toledo St. Ursula) and Meggie Marten (Bowling Green), who were both Academic All-OAC picks. Marten was named OAC Libero of the Year and an honorable mention All-OAC pick. Hills was a first-team All-Great Lakes Region pick, an honorable mention AVCA (American Volleyball Coaches Association) Division III All-American and an All-OAC selection for the fourth straight season. She also was an ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV selection and named as B-W’s Outstanding Senior Female Athlete.

 

The women’s golf team was 54-30 overall as it compiled marks of 15-15 in the fall and 39-25 in the spring. The Jackets’ also finished third in the OAC Championship Tournament. Senior number one player Molly Scheetz (Canton/ Perry) led the team with a fourth place individual finish at the OAC Tournament and an 18-hole stroke average of 86.88 overall. Scheetz ended her career as a four-time All-OAC selection, was a tournament medalist at the Denison Invitational, a three-time Academic All-OAC At-Large and three-time ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV selection and a two-time NCGCA (National Collegiate Golf Coaches Association) Scholar. 

 

The men’s golf team was 60-32-2 overall this season, including a 29-11-1 fall campaign and a 31-21-1 spring record. The Yellow Jackets also placed fourth at the OAC Championship.  Sophomore No.1 player Nick Bryan (Zanesville/ Bishop Rosecrans) set a single-season school-record by averaging 74.0 strokes per round during the fall 2007 season, but missed almost the entire spring due to an injury. The team set a school-record with six players averaging less than 80 strokes per round during the combined fall and spring seasons. Sophomore No.3 player Mike Falk (Strongsville) earned All-OAC honors and Bryan and senior All-OAC player Matt Lewis (Canal Fulton/ Northwest) were Academic All-OAC At-Large picks.

 

During the winter sports season, B-W won three OAC championships.

 

The women’s basketball team was 27-3 overall, won both the OAC regular season and OAC Tournament titles and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Head Coach Cheri Harrer was named OAC Coach of the Year for the fourth time in her career and four players were selected All-OAC and three named Academic All-OAC.  Senior guard Selena Eskinazi-Budge (Beachwood) and sophomore center Ariel Brough (Powell/ Olentangy Liberty) were also selected as ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV student-athletes.

 

In men’s basketball, Head Coach Steve Bankson won his 700th career game in his final season as coach and senior guard Brendan Schuler (Fairview Park/ Fairview) and sophomore wing Kyle Brown (Strongsville) were named All-OAC. Bankson ended his B-W coaching career as the school’s all-time winningest basketball coach with a 420-328 mark and finished his 44-year coaching career with a 701-442 mark. Schuler finished a fine four-year career as a three-time All-OAC player, 18th all-time in scoring and third all-time in assists. Junior guard Dennis Santiago (Brook Park/ Midpark) was an Academic All-OAC selection for the second straight season.

 

The wrestling team was led by senior two-time Division III All-American 165-pounder Gino Russo (Northfield Center/ Macedonia Nordonia). He had a 27-4 record this season, won his second consecutive OAC title at 165 pounds, placed sixth at the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year to earn All-American acclaim and capped his career by being named B-W’s Outstanding Senior Male Athlete. In addition to Russo, six other B-W wrestlers placed in the top four at the OAC Championship.  Seniors Brian Haines (Amanda/ Teays Valley) and Jeremy Feador (North Olmsted) were named Academic All-OAC At-Large picks and selected by the NCWCA (National Collegiate Wrestling Coaches Association) as All-American Scholars.

 

Freshman diver Todd Richert (North Royalton) helped lead the men’s swimming and diving team to an OAC co-title during the regular season en route to setting four school records, being named as the OAC Men’s Diver of the Year and earning Division III All-American status in both the one and three-meter events. He is B-W’s first-ever two-time All-American in swimming and diving. In additon to Richert, six men and two women earned All-OAC honors as well as four men’s relay teams. Sophomores Vince Colwell (Parma/ Normandy) and Ryan Reynolds (Westerville/ South) and junior Sean Sonnenberg (Napoleon) were all OAC individual champions. Three swimmers from the women’s team also were Academic All-OAC At-Large picks.

 

In indoor track, the women’s team won the OAC title for the 18th time in the past 21 years while the men’s team finished fourth.  Junior distance runner Ashley Scullion (Kentwood, Mich./ East Kentwood) won two individual titles and was named as the OAC’s Julie Zajac Most Outstanding Distance Runner award winner. In addition, junior Rebekah Paul (Gibsonburg) won the 500-meter dash in a school-record time and ran on the first place Distance Medley Relay team and seniors Kristen Paulsen (Oberlin/ Firelands) and Courtney Beckett (Monaca, Pa./ Hopewell) earned first place finishes in the high jump and triple jump, respectively. 

 

There also was a great deal of success during the spring sports season.

 

The women’s tennis team was 18-7 overall and won the OAC regular season (9-0) and OAC Tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA Division III National Tournament for the second straight year. Head Coach Jack Bethlenfalvy won his second straight OAC Coach of the Year award and five players were named All-OAC and three Academic All-OAC At-Large. Seniors Tiffany Allison (Chagrin Falls/ Kenston) and Meggie Glassburn (Canton/ Jackson) were ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV At-Large selections. Allison, Glassburn and senior Krista Marshall (Medina/ Senior) ended their careers as the third, fourth and fifth all-time winningest players in school history.

 

In outdoor track, the women narrowly missed winning the 12th OAC “triple” of Taraschke’s career and placed second at the OAC Championships. The men’s team was a solid fourth at the OAC Meet.  Individually, Scullion was named the OAC Dave Lehman Most Oustanding Distance Runner at the OAC Meet as she won the 1500 and 5000-meter runs.  Paulsen earned an individual title in the 100-meter hurdles at the OAC meet and then placed 11th in the seven-event heptathlon at the NCAA Division III National Championship Meet. She qualified for the national meet for the fouth consecutive season and ended one of the most outstanding track careers in B-W history.  Three other women and five men also earned All-OAC honors, including junior Derek Hill (Fremont/ Ross) winning the 5000 meters. In addition, seniors Aaron Apathy (Parma/ Padua Fransiscan), Kristen Balogh (Loveland) and Beckett were all named as ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV student-athletes.

 

The men’s tennis team finished second in both the OAC regular season and at the OAC Tournament and had a 20-5 overall record and was ranked 24th in the Central Region by the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association). The 20 victories marked the fifth time in the last six years that Brian Rector’s team has achieved 20 or more wins (a 122-16 overall record). Senior No.1 player James Daly (Akron/ Firestone) highlighted the season and his career by being named as the OAC’s Mark Lenssen Player of the Year for the second consecutive season.  He owns B-W school single-season records for singles (29 in 2005), doubles (26 in 2005) and combination (55 in 2005) victories. Daly also owns school and OAC career marks for singles (105 and 105-10), doubles (91 and 91-15) and combination (196 and 196-25) triumphs. He also ended his career ranked 12th in the Central Region by the ITA. In addition to Daly, three other B-W men’s tennis players were named All-OAC.

 

The baseball team finished 19-19-1 overall and 9-9 in OAC play.  Five Yellow Jackets earned All-OAC honors and six student-athletes were named Academic All-OAC. Junior centerfielder Cody Kidd (Wellington) highlighted the group as he was an All-OAC and Academic All-OAC choice for the second straight year and earned first-team ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-District IV and third-team ESPN THE MAGAZINE Academic All-America accolades. Kidd was joined as a first-team Academic All-District IV pick by senior second baseman Nate Luken (Dayton/ Chaminade-Julienne).

 

The softball team was greatly improved under the direction of Head Coach Tom Spencer, who returned to the College and led the team to seven more wins than in 2007.   Freshman designated player Tanya Davis (Hinckley/ Medina Highland) and junior first baseman Caitlin Myor (Sheffield Lake/ Elyria Senior), were All-OAC selections. Myor and Davis, who was also a first-team All-Central Region selection by the National Fast Pitch Coaches Association/Louisville Slugger, each set a pair of single-season school records. Junior catcher Shea Monschein (Wellington) was an Academic All-OAC selection.

 

TO VIEW INDIVIDUAL SPORT INFORMATION, please visit our Web site at www.bw.edu/athletics. Then click on the sport you desire and you can access all of the latest information, coaching biographies, roster, schedule, statistics (past and present), program information, feature stories and the 2007-2008 Postseason Web Guide.

 

  FOR MORE GENERAL SPORT INFORMATION, please feel free to contact B-W Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327, by FAX machine at 440-826-2329 or via e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Cory Blackson by phone at 440-826-2780 or via e-mail at cblackso@bw.edu.