March 26, 2007

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Luther College softball player Ashley Hoffman (Centerville, Iowa/Centerville) and Wartburg College baseball player Jake Shandri (Urbandale, Iowa/Urbandale) have been named the IIAC Female and Male Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, March 25. The Conference also announced the Performers of the Week for each of the Conference’s six sports in competition during the week.

Softball – Ashley Hoffman, Luther College, Centerville, Iowa/Centerville
Hoffman, a junior third baseman, hit .647 (11-for-17) with two doubles, three home runs, 10 RBI and six runs scored in six games during the week. She opened the week with a 3-for-3 performance against SUNY-Morrisville in which she had four RBI, two doubles and two runs scored in Luther’s 14-1 five-inning game. She was 1-for-3 in a 10-0 five-inning win over Kalamazoo and 2-for-3 with a home run and four RBI in a 19-4 five-inning win over Eastern Connecticut State. Hoffman was 1-for-2 with a run scored in a 13-6 win over North Central (Ill.) then finished her week with a pair of 2-for-3, one RBI, one run scored performances against Hastings (a 2-1 loss) and Calvin (a 5-4 win).

Baseball – Jake Shandri, Wartburg College, Urbandale, Iowa/Urbandale
Shandri, a senior first baseman, hit .684 (13-for-19) with four doubles, four home runs, 10 RBI and nine runs scored in five games during the week. He had a 1.526 slugging percentage for the week and went 10-for-14 in a three-game sweep of Dubuque. In the first game against the Spartans, he was 3-for-6 with two doubles, an RBI and a run scored in the Knights’ 4-3 win. In the second game of the series, the opener of a doubleheader won by Wartburg (12-6), Shandri was 4-for-4 with three home runs, a double, seven RBI and four runs scored. In the nightcap, a 15-11 win, he was 3-for-4 with a double and two runs scored. Earlier in the week, he went 3-for-5 with two RBI and two runs scored as Wartburg was swept by St. Olaf (7-2, 5-4) in Metrodome in Minneapolis, Minn.

Men’s Golf – Reid Turner, Central College, Des Moines, Iowa/Grandview Park Baptist
Turner, a junior, finished third at the Central Dutch Classic with a 5-over par 147 (71-76). His first round par 71 was one of only three par or better rounds in the entire tournament. Turner was the top Division III finisher, finishing behind a pair of golfers from St. Ambrose, the fourth-ranked school in the NAIA.

Men’s Tennis – Thomas Orser, Luther College, Keller, Texas/Keller
Orser, a sophomore, went 6-0 during the week including two wins at #2 singles and four wins at #4 singles. He registered wins at the #2 position against Illinois Wesleyan’s Paul Oehrlein (6-3, 6-2) and Hamline’s Jon Breimhorst (6-2, 6-3). At #4, Orser defeated Florida Tech’s Joel Zahlan (6-2, 6-0), Calvin’s Steve DeMaagd (7-6, 6-2) and Chicago’s Noah Schneider (6-3, 6-4). Chicago is ranked 28th nationally as a team and eighth in the Central Region. Calvin is ranked 11th in Central Region.

Women’s Track & Field – Kelsey Hagerty, Simpson College, Tama, Iowa/South Tama
Hagerty, a senior, placed in the top-10 of three events at the Wartburg Open, highlighted by first-place finish in the javelin with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 39.53 meters. She also finished seventh in the hammer (37.43 meters) and ninth in the shot put (11.52 meters).

Men’s Track & Field – Jordan Pinckney, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Washington
Pinckney, a junior, placed second in the shot put at the Lynx Spring Break Invitational hosted by Rhodes College with an NCAA provisional qualifying mark of 15.69 meters. He finished second to Glenn Edwards of Division I Memphis. Pinckney also had a discus mark of 36.95 meters, finishing 18th.

Other Outstanding Weekly Performers
The IIAC also recognized the following outstanding athletic performances from the past week.

• Wartburg College sophomore third baseman Amy Daniels (Cedar Falls, Iowa/Cedar Falls) hit .500 (4-for-8) with two home runs, five RBI and four runs scored in a doubleheader sweep of William Jewell and split with Division I Missouri-Kansas City.

• Simpson College senior outfielder Kyle Meyer (Hortonville, Wis./Appleton North) hit .550 (11-for-20) with four RBI, eight runs scored and three stolen bases in five games. In the middle game of the three-game set with Coe, he was 5-for-5 with three runs scored and an RBI in a losing effort.

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