April 20, 2009

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) announced today that Wartburg College track athlete Hannah Baker (Keota, Iowa/Keota) and Coe College baseball player Pat Richmond (Algonquin, Ill./Dundee-Crown) have been named the IIAC Female and Male Athletes of the Week for the period ending Sunday, April 19. The Conference also announced the Performers of the Week for the six sports in competition during the week.

Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – Hannah Baker, Wartburg College, Keota, Iowa/Keota
Baker, a junior, turned in a pair of high provisional qualifying efforts in the 400 as one of only two Division III competitors to make the finals at the Kansas Relays. She also anchored the 4x400-meter relay to an NCAA automatic qualifying and NCAA Division III-best time with a fourth-place finish in the finals. The Knights posted the best time in preliminaries. (IIAC Female Athlete of the Week)

Baseball – Pat Richmond, Coe College, Algonquin, Ill./Dundee-Crown
Richmond, a junior first baseman, hit .750 in three games during the week with three extra base hits, seven RBI and a .950 slugging percentage. He was also perfect in five stolen base attempts and made only one error in 42 chances in the field as the Kohawks went 4-1. (IIAC Male Athlete of the Week)

Softball –Lauran Snyder, Luther College, San Pedro, Calif./San Pedro
Snyder, a freshman third baseman, hit .609 with 11 RBI, three doubles, and three RBI as the Norse posted a 5-3 record during the week.

Men’s Outdoor Track & Field – Shawn Olorundami, Buena Vista University, Sioux City, Iowa/West
Olorundami, a senior, captured the individual title in the 110 hurdles and placed second in the 400 hurdles at the Sioux City Relays. His 14.53 clocking in the finals of the 110 hurdles bettered the NCAA provisional qualifying standard. He also ran on the winning 4x200 relay and anchored the 4x100 relay to a third-place finish.

Men’s Tennis – Elliot Rausa, Coe College, Waterloo, Iowa/Columbus
Rausa, a sophomore, won his 14th straight singles match over the weekend to improve his record to a team-best 19-1 for the year. He also teamed with Sam Zerbib for a pair of wins at No. 1 singles to move to 19-4.

Men’s Golf – Ross Jacobucci, Luther College, Woodbury, Minn./Woodbury
Jacobucci, a junior, captured medalist honors at the Buena Vista Spring Invitational by virtue of a tie-breaker. He shot 72-69—141 to tie Central’s Andrew Townsend atop the leader board and lead the Norse to the team title, three shots ahead of Nebraska Wesleyan.

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

• Baseball – Buena Vista University junior pitcher/outfielder Brandon Pietrzyk (Portland, Ore./Marshall) hit .563 for the week to raise his league-leading batting average to .491. He recorded three multi-hit games and now has at least two hits in eight of his last 12 games. A triple in game two of an IIAC series against Central gave him five for the season, moving him into a tie for second on the school’s single-season record list. Pietrzyk is now 12 RBI shy of tying the school’s single-season mark of 58.

• Baseball – Loras College senior shortstop Nick Olberding (Dyersville, Iowa/Beckman) helped Loras to a 3-1 week with a road win over Buena Vista and a series win over Luther. He hit .562 for the week with two home runs, seven RBI and a double. Against Buena Vista, Olberding hit a two-run homer to put the Duhawks ahead and then pitched one inning of relief to earn the save.

• Softball – Coe College senior pitcher/outfielder Sonja Schwenker (Burlington, Iowa/Burlington) went 1-1 on the week in the circle with a 4-0 win over No. 4 Luther and a 1-0 loss to No. 5 Central. She struck out 10 while giving up just one run. She also hit .571 with an RBI in seven plate appearances.

• Softball – Central College senior pitcher Megan Swingen (Woden, Iowa/Woden-Crystal Lake) compiled a 3-0 record with an 0.41 ERA, nine strikeouts and one save during the week. She allowed two runs (one earned) and six hits while walking five.

• Men’s Golf – Central College junior Andrew Townsend (Bettendorf, Iowa/Pleasant Valley) tied for first in the 114-golfer field at the Buena Vista Spring Invitational after shooting 71-70—141, losing medalist honors to Luther’s Ross Jacobucci due to a tie-breaker. The Dutch finished fourth as a team, five shots behind Luther.

• Men’s Tennis – University of Dubuque sophomore Claudio Giraldi (Rome, Italy/Shape American) remains unbeaten in the Iowa Conference at No. 1 singles at a perfect 6-0 and has an overall record of 18-5. He has helped the Spartans to a 12-11 mark overall and has won seven matches in a row.

• Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – Buena Vista University senior Natalie Olorundami (Sioux City, Iowa/West) won the 100 hurdles and placed second in the 400 hurdles at the Sioux City Relays. Her 14.60 clocking in the 100 hurdle prelims was a personal season-best as well as an NCAA provisional mark. She also anchored the fifth-place 4x100 relay.

• Women’s Outdoor Track & Field – Simpson College sophomore Catie Ellingson (Indianola, Iowa/Indianola) won the 800 and 1,500 and was a member of the winning 4x400 relay at Grinnell’s Dick Young Classic. Ellingson set a meet record in the 1,500 with a 4:41.54 clocking.

• Men’s Outdoor Track & Field – Central College junior Matt Patrick (Dallas Center, Iowa/Dallas Center-Grimes) won the 400-meter dash and ran on the winning 4x400 relay at the Doane Relays. He also ran on the runner-up 4x100 relay.

• Men’s Outdoor Track & Field – Wartburg College senior John Kuckelman (Keokuk, Iowa/Keokuk) helped lead the Knights to a runner-up team finish at the Dick Young Classic with a win in the hammer throw (168-2) and a second-place finish in the discus (138-8).

-30-