April 2, 2007

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Luther College softball player Lisa Huinker (Decorah, Iowa/Decorah) and Loras College track and field performer Geoff Kaiser (Horicon, Wis./Horicon) have been named the IIAC Female and Male Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, April 1. The Conference also announced the Performers of the Week for each of the Conference’s six sports in competition during the week.

Softball – Lisa Huinker, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa/Decorah
Huinker, a senior short stop, hit .615 (8-for-13) with three doubles, two home runs, 10 RBI and eight runs scored in four games during the week. In an 11-1, five-inning victory over UW-LaCrosse, Huinker was 3-for-3 with a double, home run, five RBI and two runs scored. She went 1-for-3 with a double, RBI and run scored in the nightcap against LaCrosse, a 4-1 Luther win. In the Iowa Conference opener, Huinker went 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored in a 9-1, five-inning victory over Cornell. She finished her week with a 3-for-4 performance with a double, a home run, three RBI and three runs scored in a 14-0, five-inning win. She became Luther’s career leader with 19 home runs, accomplishing the feat in just 54 career games.

Men’s Outdoor Track & Field – Geoff Kaiser, Loras College, Horicon, Wis./Horicon
Kaiser, a senior, won three events at the Augustana (Ill.) College Viking Olympics highlighted by an NCAA automatic qualifying performance in the long jump in which he posted a winning mark of 7.35 meters. He also crossed the finish line first in the 110-meter hurdles (15.04 seconds) and the 400-meter hurdles (54.29 seconds).

Baseball – Ryan Dupic, Buena Vista University, Emmetsburg, Iowa/Emmetsburg
Dupic, a senior pitcher/first baseman, pitched eight shutout innings in Buena Vista’s 5-1 win over Simpson, surrendering six hits and striking out five while walking just one. Offensively, Dupic hit .300 including a 2-for-3 performance in a 5-4 loss to Bethany Lutheran and a 1-for-4 performance against Simpson.

Men’s Golf – Zach Massey, Central College, Grand Junction, Colo./Central
Massey, a senior, won the 46-player Simpson Invitational with a 2-over-par 74.

Men’s Tennis – Chad Evans, Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Kennedy
Evans, a senior, went 4-2 during the week with a pair of wins at #2 singles and #1 doubles. He recorded singles wins over Wartburg’s Tylor Schlader (6-0, 6-0) and Grinnell’s Eli Best (6-3, 6-2). In doubles with Sam Zerbib, Evans registered an 8-2 win over Wartburg’s Mitch Eslick/Tom Koenen and an 8-6 win over Grinnell’s DJ Warden/Nate Fox. Grinnell is ranked #13 in the Central Region. Both of Evans’ losses came at the hands of Carleton – 6-2, 6-2 against Kartheek Koneru and 9-8 to Brendan Cooper/Julian Tokarev.

Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – Alicia Whisner, Central College, Adel, Iowa/ADM
Whisner, a senior, finished in the top-7 of four events at the Washington (Mo.) University Invitational highlighted by an NCAA provisional qualifying mark in the javelin. She won the event with a mark of 43.88 meters, bettering the NCAA PQ standard by 4.64 meters and falling just shy (0.32 meters) of the automatic qualifying mark. She also finished third in the shot put (12.63 meters), sixth in the hammer (39.91 meters) and seventh in the discus (35.04 meters).

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

• Cornell College sophomore pitcher Casey Korn (High Ridge, Mo./Northwest) went 1-0 with a save in two games against Central. He pitched one inning of perfect relief, with a strikeout, in Cornell’s 5-4 win over Central to earn the save. He followed that with a complete game two-hit, seven-strikeout shutout in the Rams’ 1-0 win over Central.

• Loras College junior Ellen Thys (Victor, Iowa/HLV) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with her performances in the hammer and discus at the Augustana (Ill.) College Viking Olympics. She posted a mark of 46.16 meters in the hammer and 44.41 meters in the discus, topping the field by over two meters.

• Wartburg College senior Lucy Joseph (Lake Worth, Fla./Lake Worth) registered NCAA provisional qualifying marks in the 100-meter hurdles (14.91 seconds) and as a member of the 4x100 relay team (48.73). She and her relay teammates were the top Division III finishers in both events at the Missouri Relays.

• Cornell College junior James Klobucar (Janesville, Wis./Craig) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships with his performance in the decathlon at the Washington (Mo.) University Invitational. He won the event with a score of 6,018 points and posted the top mark in three of the 10 events – 100-meter dash (11.24 seconds), long jump (21-2.5), and 110-hurdles (15.87 seconds).

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