April 30, 2007

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Central College track and field performer Alicia Whisner (Adel, Iowa/ADM) and Luther College tennis player Max Busch (Duluth, Minn./Marshall) have been named the IIAC Female and Male Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, April 29. The Conference also announced the Performers of the Week for each of the Conference’s six sports in competition during the week.

Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – Alicia Whisner, Central College, Adel, Iowa/ADM
Whisner, a senior, automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in the javelin with a mark of 158-feet 5-inches at the Drake Relays, good for a sixth-place finish in the combined University-College Division. The mark, which broke her own school record by more than nine feet, surpassed the U.S. Track and Field B Standard by more than four feet and was just two feet shy of an A Standard which would automatically qualify her for the U.S. Track and Field Championships in June.

Men’s Tennis – Max Busch, Luther College, Duluth, Minn./Marshall
Busch, a freshman, won the Flight A singles title at the Iowa Conference men’s tennis Individual Tournament and led Luther to the Conference team title with a 4-0 week in singles play. In the Team Tournament Championship match, Busch defeated Coe’s Ryan Yao (6-2, 6-3). Seeded #1 at the Individual Tournament, he posted victories over Coe’s Sam Zerbib (6-3, 6-4) and Wartburg’s Mitch Eslick (6-4, 6-1) in the first round and quarterfinals, respectively. After defeating Coe’s Joey Lankelma (6-4, 7-6(4)) in the semifinals, Busch defeated #2-seed Yao for the third time this year (6-2, 6-3) to win the individual title.

Baseball – Aaron Saeugling, Wartburg College, Dubuque, Iowa/Wahlert
Saeugling, a junior pitcher/infielder, recorded his fourth consecutive complete game victory in Conference play with a three-hit shutout over Coe (6-0). Offensively, he hit .500 (4-for-8) with a double, an RBI, three runs scored and four walks in the three-game sweep of Coe. In the single nine-inning contest (a 4-1 win), Saeugling was 2-for-3 with a walk. He was held hitless in the first game of the doubleheader (a 13-3 win) but walked twice and scored both times. In addition to his complete game shutout in the nightcap, he went 2-for-3 with a double, an RBI and scored a run.

Softball – Christina Gaard, Luther College, Decorah, Iowa/Decorah
Gaard, a senior outfielder, hit .583 (7-for-12) with a double, six RBI and three runs scored in four games as Luther clinched its first Conference title since 1988. Gaard went a combined 5-for-7 in a doubleheader sweep of #22-ranked Central. In the opener, a 15-5 Norse win, she was 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. In an 8-2 win in the nightcap, she went 2-for-3 with four RBI and one run scored. Gaard was 1-for-3 in Luther’s 4-1 loss to Wartburg but rebounded with a 1-for-2, 1 double, 1 RBI performance in a 4-3 win that clinched the Conference title outright.

Men’s Golf – Andy Petersen, Central College, Davenport, Iowa/West
Petersen, a sophomore, a sophomore, became the 11th Central golfer to earn Conference Individual Medalist honors and the first since 2002. He shot a 3-over-par 147 (70-77) over the final 36-holes of the Conference Championship, including his second round of 70, giving him two of the three sub-par rounds in the Tournament. Petersen led the Championship wire-to-wire and finished the 72-hole Tournament with a 2-over-par 290 and defeated teammate Isaac Rodenberg by nine strokes, leading the Dutch to their 27th IIAC men’s golf title with a record 49-stroke victory.

Men’s Outdoor Track & Field – Geoff Kaiser, Loras College, Horicon, Wis./Horicon
Kaiser, a senior, automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships with his winning performance in the 400-meter hurdles at the Loras Open, setting a meet and venue record with a time of 52.24 seconds. He also provisionally qualified for the Championships with a winning long jump mark of 23-feet 7.5-inches, and won the 110-meter hurdles with a personal-best time of 14.97 seconds.

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

• Loras College junior pitcher Matt Barilla (Aurora, Ill./Marmion Academy) threw two complete games during the week, allowing just one earned run, 10 hits and one walk while striking out 10 over 14 innings in victories over Dubuque and Simpson.

• Luther College sophomore outfielder Jake Waddle (Coon Rapids, Iowa/Coon Rapids-Bayard) hit .545 (6-for-11) with 2 home runs, seven RBI and six runs scored. He went 6-for-8 in a doubleheader sweep of Buena Vista.

• Coe College sophomore pitcher Ellie Schultz (Clayton, Iowa/Clayton Ridge) pitched 13 scoreless innings, striking out 17 batters and allowing just five hits and one walk in a doubleheader sweep of Cornell.

• Wartburg College junior Heidi Porter (Manson, Iowa/Manson NW Webster) automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 800-meters with a time of 2:08.89 at the Drake Relays. It marks the second consecutive week she broke the school record and turned in the top Division III mark in the country. Porter also anchored the sprint medley relay team to a second-place finish (3:58.42).

• Luther College junior Matt Busche (Wauwatosa, Wis./Wauwatosa) provisionally qualified for the NCAA Championships in the 10,000 meters with a time of 30:46.50 at the Drake Relays. The time is the second fastest time in school history and was good for a fifth-place finish in the 37-runner field.

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