USD's Huber Honored by SDCCTFCA

South Dakota women's track and field coach Lucky Huber has been named the 2012 South Dakota Cross Country and Track and Field Coaches Association (SDCCTFCA) College Coach of the Year. The award was given out as part of the South Dakota High School Coaches Association Clinic Wednesday in Aberdeen, S.D.

Huber, who is entering his 19th season as the Coyote women's track coach in 2012-13, received the honor after three Coyote women's athletes earned All-American honors at the NCAA National Championships in June.

OU's Francis Participates in NCAA Mock Selection Exercise

Having led the Oakland women’s basketball team to a pair of  NCAA Tournament appearances, head coach Beckie Francis knows what it takes to get her team into the Big Dance. However, on Monday and Tuesday she got an even better look at how the process works as a member of a mock selection committee at the NCAAHeadquarters.

The members work in teams of two to represent the 10 members of the Division I Women’s Basketball Selection Committee. The coaches are briefed and given the automatic bids before starting the process of selecting which teams will receive at-large bids. The coaches follow the same format that the real committee uses in March and once they’ve selected the at-large bids they must seed the teams from one-to-64 before the first day is completed.  

Kansas City’s Hall Named Officer of Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association

Kansas City Director of Athletics Tim Hall was named an officer of the Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association on Tuesday, taking the role of Treasurer for the 2012-13 term. Hall is in his sixth year directing Kangaroos athletics. 

Oakland Director of Athletics Tracy Huth was added to the Division I-AAA Athletic Directors Association Executive Committee, giving The Summit League two representatives on the officers and executive committee.

OU Head Golf Coach Cunningham Heading to U.S. Senior Open

Oakland head men's and women's golf coach Russ Cunningham will be making his first appearance in the United States Senior Open Championship. Although it will not be as a competitor, Cunningham will be caddying for longtime friend Randy Lewis in the 2012 U.S. Senior Open at Indianwood Golf and Country Club in Lake Orion, Mich.

“I first met Randy at the 2000 USGA Mid-Amateur Championship,” said Cunningham. “We’ve played several rounds together over the years and in 2009 he asked me to caddy for him at Hawk Hollow for the U.S. Senior Open qualifier, which he finished as the first alternate and later got into the championship.”

The 54-year-old Lewis was named the GAM Golfer of the Decade for the 1990s and Cunningham earned that distinction for the 2000s. Both players have established themselves in the amateur world and Cunningham was excited when he received the phone call from Randy to carry his bag in the 2012 U.S. Senior Open.

Click here to read the full release.

Pair of Leathernecks Earn ITA All-Academic Honors

Two Western Illinois tennis players, Jessica Callahan and Mitch Granger, were recently named 2012 ITA All-Academic Scholar-Athletes. 

 

To qualify for the honor, student-athletes had to maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 during the current academic year, be enrolled in their present institution for a minimum of two semesters and earn a varsity letter.

Calgary Herald Highlights Levins' Road to the Olympics

Photo by Tom Gee (eliterunningphotos.com)

In the span of a couple of months, Cam Levins has gone from just hoping to sneak onto his first Canadian Olympic track and field team to being one of the biggest stories on it.

In between, the 23-year-old from the tiny Vancouver Island town of Black Creek, B.C., has laid down a few eye-popping performances, collected two NCAA titles, and signed a sponsorship deal with Nike — the latter being big news for a runner who kills off a pair of shoes every two to three weeks.

Click here to read the complete article.

WIU Women's Basketball Alum Tugba Palazoglu Qualifies for 2012 Olympic Games

Western Illinois women's basketball alum Tugba Palazoglu qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games as a member of the Turkish Women's National Basketball Team. The shooting guard made 'The Fairies of the Net's' 12-person roster to achieve the honor.

Tugba Palazoglu

She is the second Western Illinois women's basketball player in program history to qualify for the Olympics. Her former teammate Zane (Teilane) Tamane was the first, appearing in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with the Latvian Women's National Basketball Team. Turkey opens pool play on July 28th against Angola and faces the United States on August 1st. Turkey will play five games as part of Group A. Eight of the 12 teams will advance to the quarterfinals after pool play.

Palazoglu transferred to Western Illinois after spending two years at Barton County Community College and played at Western in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. As a junior, she led the team with a 38.9 shooting percentage beyond the 3-point arc, was third on the team in points per game with 10.2 and was one of four returners who averaged double-digit scoring.

Click here to read the full release.

UMKC's Frerichs Heads to IAAF World Junior Championships

After just one year as a Kangaroo, UMKC's Courtney Frerichs has already set a UMKC school record, qualified for the 2012 NCAA West Regional, been named a Distinguished Scholar on The Summit League Fall and Winter/Spring Academic All-League Teams and been named The Summit League Female Track & Field Athlete of the Week on Mar. 27.  Now the sophomore-to-be will try to add a gold medal to her collection when she heads to Barcelona, Spain, for the IAAF World Junior Championships as part of Team USA. 

Frerichs, a Nixa, Mo., native, earned her spot on the team after finishing second in the 3,000 Meter Steeplechase at the US Junior Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Bloomington, Ind., at the Robert C. Haugh Track & Field Complex with a personal best time of 10:35.23 on June 15, beating out runners from schools including Illinois, Penn State, Arkansas, UCLA and Yale.

Click here to read more.

Jewett Joins Jackrabbit Women's Basketball Coaching Staff

Veteran collegiate coach Mike Jewett will join the South Dakota State University women's basketball coaching staff, head coach Aaron Johnston announced Friday.

Jewett has coached at the collegiate level throughout the Midwest for nearly 20 years, most recently serving as head coach at Southwest Minnesota State from 2006-10. The Mustangs improved their win total each of his four seasons on the bench, compiling a 15-12 record his final season.

His career record as a head coach stands at 110-85, including a three-year run at Franklin College (Ind.).

Click here to read the full release.

NDSU's Anderson Highlighted in Fargo Forum

A year of golf that saw Amy Anderson make the cut in the U.S. Women’s Open and ended with a highly acclaimed international tournament in Scotland was summarized in one award that was announced on Thursday. The North Dakota State junior was named the Summit League’s Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

It’s an honor that the conference advertises as its most prestigious. And she’ll have less than 24 hours to think about it on U.S. soil.

Click here to read the complete article.