April 28, 2003

MOUNT VERNON, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today its Male and Female Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, April 27. Coe College softball player Beth Rohlena (Sioux City, Iowa/North HS) was named IIAC Female Athlete of the Week and Coe tennis player Nick Frank (Waterloo, Iowa/West HS) was named IIAC Male Athlete of the Week.

Rohlena, a sophomore right fielder, hit .368 (7-for-19) during the week with three home runs, six RBI and four runs scored. She led the Kohawks to a 6-0 record during the week including a doubleheader sweep of #2 Simpson College. In game one against Simpson, Rohlena’s lone hit in three at-bats was a game winning home run to lead off the bottom of the seventh inning to give Coe a 3-2 victory. In Coe’s 5-2 victory over Simpson in game two, Rohlena went 2-for-3 with a solo home run. In a non-Conference sweep of Mount Mercy College she went 2-for-7 with a run and an RBI. She drove in the game-tying run and scored the winning run in game two. She went 2-for-6 with a home run and three RBI in a sweep of Loras College including the game winning RBI in game two.

Frank, a senior, won Flight A singles and doubles Championships at the Conference Individual Tournament. In singles, after a first round bye, he defeated Luther’s Randy Mack (6-1, 6-0) in the second round and then defeated teammates Adam Elliott (7-5, 6-4) and Phil Williams (7-5, 6-1) in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. In the finals, the second-seeded Frank defeated top-seeded and defending Conference Champion Nick Barnes in three sets (6-4, 3-6, 6-3). Frank won his fourth straight Conference doubles Championship and third straight with Barnes as the duo defeated Williams and Lucas Elliott in the finals (8-6) after defeating Central’s Nick Cochrane/Aaron Enderlin in the semifinals (8-6) and Luther’s Mack/Adam Strand in quarterfinals (8-2).

The IIAC also announced today its Players of the Week for the six Conference sports in competition during the week. Rohlena and Frank earned the weekly honor for softball and tennis, respectively, while the following individuals were recognized for their weekly performances.

Baseball: Cornell College senior catcher Ian Harden (Aurora, Colo./Eaglecrest HS) hit .692 with a 1.000 slugging percentage in four games. He had nine hits in 13 at-bats including two doubles and a triple, scored seven runs and drove in seven runs in Conference doubleheader sweeps of Coe College and Buena Vista University. He went 2-for-4 with a double, run and RBI in a 5-4 victory over Coe and 3-for-3 with a double, triple, two runs and three RBI in an 8-7 victory over Coe. In a 7-5 victory over Buena Vista, Harden went 2-for-2 with two runs scored and one driven in, and in a 15-13 win, he went 2-for-4 with two runs scored and two driven in.

Men’s Golf: Simpson College sophomore Mike Martin (Bettendorf, Iowa/Bettendorf HS) shot even-par 144 and leads the Conference golf Championship after 36 holes. Martin shot two-under-par 70 in the opening round and finished the first weekend of the Championship with a 74.

Women’s Track and Field: Buena Vista University senior Jessica Jensen (Elkhorn, Iowa/Elkhorn-Kimballton HS) automatically qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in two events at the Drake Relays. She ran a 57.1 second split as a member of the Beavers’ 4x400 relay team that finished second in an automatic qualifying time of 3:54.91. She also qualified in the 400-meter hurdles in a time of 1:02.18. She finished 19th in the event and was the only Division III runner in the 32-member field that included 30 Division I athletes. Jensen was also a member of the 4x100 relay team that ran a time of 49.71 and a member of the sprint medley relay team that ran 4:12.83, the second fastest time in school history.

Men’s Track and Field: Wartburg College sophomore Josh Moen (Fairbank, Iowa/Wapsie Valley HS) finished third at the Drake Relays in the 10,000-meter run and automatically qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championship. He finished in a time of 30:28.64, the sixth fastest time in Division III to date this year and broke the school by nearly 12 seconds.

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