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Post by vu72 on Jun 25, 2007 12:28:07 GMT -5
Well the final Commissioner's Cup numbers are in and our men continue to slide. For the last academic year Valpo finished sixth on the men's side(out of 8) after a fifth the previous year and a tie for third the year before that. Does not bode well for our entry into the more competitive Horizon.
The good news is the women's side where we finished a solid second after a third the year before and another second the year before that.
Overall we held on for a third place which is also the third straight third.
We do start out with a small disadvantage as we don't compete in golf. Western is the only school that has teams in all sports. Having said that ORU ran away with the Cup without Men's or women's swimming or softball. They are (and this really hurts) the class of the Mid-Con/Summit.
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Post by Valpower on Jun 25, 2007 15:14:04 GMT -5
Oh great! If jj were a shark, that news would be like chum.
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Post by valpotx on Jun 25, 2007 15:56:18 GMT -5
This was due to our S&D/T&F contributions on the men's side dragging us down. We (baseball) finally stepped it up, now it's time for better finishes in these areas!!!
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Post by ml on Jun 25, 2007 17:26:58 GMT -5
We actually had a pretty good year across the board.
On the women's side we won the soccer regular season. The cross country team finished second in the closest championship race in the history of the conference. The volleyball team finished third in the regular season with a very young team and took ORU to 5 games in the championship match in Tulsa. The track team placed third, its best finish ever, in the outdoor championships. Basketball finished second in the regular season, losing a very tough semi-final game to ORU in Tulsa. Softball had their best season ever, missing the 4 team Mid-Con post-season due to math.
On the men's side cross country matched their best finish ever, fourth. Baseball finished third after being picked last in the preseason poll. Basketball finished third after graduating 6 players.
In the past year we have had an All-American in the mile, Laura Rolf, a first team Academic All-American, Betsy Rietema, and a Coca-Cola Community All-American, Ryan Koepke.
We lead the Mid-Con in Academic All-Conference selections for the Fall, were second in the Spring, and first overall.
At the beginning of 2006/007 the Mid-Con changed the manner in which points were awarded in the Commissioner's Cup. If the old system were still in place we would have won the women's all-sport trophy, come in fifth in the men's and finished second in Commissioner's Cup.
ORU has a very strong over-all program, as do Western and Oakland. Congratulations to them for their successes. On the whole I think our coaches and student-athletes represented Valpo very well.
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Post by wh on Jun 25, 2007 21:15:41 GMT -5
We actually had a pretty good year across the board. We lead the Mid-Con in Academic All-Conference selections for the Fall, were second in the Spring, and first overall. As an avid VU supporter first and an avid men's basketball fan second, nothing makes me feel better than learning that our fine student athletes were first overall in Academic All-Conference selections. Tex, CA, Run and our other former VU athletes who post on this board must take great pride in knowing they graduated from a university where academic competition is even more fierce than athletic competition. |
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Post by valpotx on Jun 25, 2007 23:08:59 GMT -5
I know I definitely am proud of our academic achievements each year, as I took it very serious as well  |
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Post by jj on Jun 26, 2007 5:43:31 GMT -5
:'(Not chum,just a reality check. Now let's see: Academically we placed # 1, in Mid-Con. WOW! The schools we competed against are not Harvard,Yale,Princeton,Duke,Hopkins,Northwestern.Notre Dame or Michigan, just WIU,ORU,IUPUI,Oakland UMKC others. Talk about a feel good situation - Duh!  |
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Post by valpotx on Jun 26, 2007 9:04:28 GMT -5
The amount of athletes we have on this list each year is a great number, regardless of conference jj.....
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Post by vu72 on Jun 26, 2007 11:07:34 GMT -5
Well, I'll take the bait and take one swing at educating our "old" friend JJ.
First, let me give you ONE example of Valpo athletes competing against and doing very well against far more institutions then just the Mid-Con.
Betsy Rietema was not only an All-Conference basketball player but also a FIRST TEAM ACADEMIC ALL-AMERICAN as named by ESPN The Magazine. Harvard, Yale, Hopkins et al have any of those??
As for non-athlete academics apparently USA Today and their researchers think highly of Valpo students. This from a recent Valpo news release:
Only Valparaiso and the University of Alabama have had engineering students named to the Academic Team in each of the past two years. Valparaiso also is one of only 20 colleges and universities in the nation to have at least one student named to the first, second or third teams in each of the past two years.
I promise I won't waste any more cyber space on this guy!
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Post by valporun on Jun 26, 2007 16:17:43 GMT -5
I also have to admit that I think Valpo did very well considering the number of new coaches we had across the board...new coaches for track, baseball, women's tennis, plus a first year assistant coach in cross country that was just recently a graduate of the university...
I certainly don't think we did that badly, we just had more trouble with lots of youth in all of our sports and all the travel to get to our matches, games and meets. I commend these coaches for all they have done to produce successful athletes while learning new game, match and training philosophies. I can't wait to see how the addition of Mike Avery adds to all of this with the men's soccer team in the Horizon League...
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Post by wh on Jun 26, 2007 22:16:35 GMT -5
Well, I'll take the bait and take one swing at educating our "old" friend JJ. I promise I won't waste any more cyber space on this guy! Any time an inflammatory post begins with "Not chum, just a reality check," you can bet it's a troll. In the same way a person prefaces a personally offensive comment with "Don't take this personally, but..." and then unloads. How about bringing back the great neutralizer, Rick (if at least for a few days) to put this sleepy head to bed. Consider this my last swing, as well. |
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Post by valpo89 on Jun 27, 2007 8:59:42 GMT -5
JJ's not a troll. He's a VU grad from the dark ages, a long-time poster with an attitude. He's having a little fun with the computer in his old age. And posting on this message board, too.
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Post by rlh on Jun 27, 2007 9:13:41 GMT -5
It's actually kind of funny to see the "newer" posters fall for JJ's old tricks. Unlike the infamous Rick, JJ isn't normally malicious in his opinions, just looking for some laughs. There's a big difference....the best defense is just to ignore him as much as possible. He's like most of us "older" posters....basically harmless
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Post by jj on Jun 27, 2007 19:09:38 GMT -5
:-/Damn '89 and rlh, you're spoiling my fun. Oh well, my wife and I ('54 & '55) will be out for homecoming this year.We'd love to buy you guys a "beer' or two if things can be worked out. Is that good Italian resturant in Chesterton still open?And yeah, despite my bark, I'm still a member of the Crusader Club and we do contribute to the Valpo Fund. GO VALPO!
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