GROVE CITY COLLEGE 100 CAMPUS DRIVE GROVE CITY, PA 16127 Winter 2009 Vol 3. No. 3 Swim team records historic finish The Grove City College Inside ... men’s swimming and diving Harris earns coaching honors 2 team recorded the program’s Hall of Fame honors standouts 3 best-ever national finish at the NCAA Division Gibson joins 1,000-point club 3 III Championships in Swimmers dominate PAC 4 Minneapolis March 18-21. Cagers earn All-PAC, ECAC 5 Grove City accumulated 168 Carter receives NCAA award 6 team points over the four-day event to finish sixth. Eleven Grove City athletes earned Quick Click... Bookmark these links on NCAA All-America honors. the Grove City College Senior Caleb Courage Web site, located at highlighted the four-day www.gcc.edu. event for Grove City by Caleb Courage ’09 ended his Grove City career as an 18-time NCAA All-American. capturing the national title in n Sports Carter recognized by NCAA for sportsmanship the 100 freestyle March 21. 100 free with a 43.60 clocking. finished second in the 50 free www2.gcc.edu/sports n Dept. of Physical Education The NCAA honored traught meet worker and Courage won the NCAA Courage won the 100 free with a Grove City-record www.gcc.edu/ crown with a time of 43.62 national title in 2006 and 2007. time of 19.97 seconds and Grove City College senior assured her that she was not Physical_Education.php cross country runner Kristen upset by the error. seconds in the finals. In the He also earned All- also placed 10th in the 100 n Alumni & Friends Carter with the organization’s PAC Executive Director preliminaries, Courage set a America honors in two other backstroke. www.gcc.edu/alumni 2007-08 Division III Sports- Joseph M. Onderko nominated new Division III record in the individual events. Courage See NATIONALS, page 4 n News & Media manship Award Feb. 7, dur- Carter for the Sportsmanship www.gcc.edu/news ing the College’s basketball Award after witnessing her doubleheader with Thomas actions. Honorees inducted into Hall of Fame grove city college More College. In his nomination, Grove City College inducted its halftime of the men’s basketball Varsity G Carter received the honor Onderko wrote, “It was third class of honorees into the game against Thomas More College. See page 3 for Editor for her compassionate actions one of the most refreshing College’s Athletic Hall of Fame on More than 200 guests attended more info and Ryan Briggs ’01 following the 2007 Presidents’ and heartwarming acts of Feb. 7. the dinner and induction ceremony Sports Information Director Athletic Conference Cross individual sportsmanship I photos of the Cross country runner Kristen Carter ’09, right, receives the Division III Retired head coaches John Barr that evening. College President Country Championships in have personally witnessed in Feb. 7 festivities Design Sportsmanship Award from Fredina Ingold, Penn State Altoona athletic (men’s basketball/cross country) and Richard Jewell ’67 served as master Rebecca Miller ’04 Latrobe, Pa. director, on Feb. 7. over 15 years as a full-time Patti Zbell-Henry (women’s tennis) on campus. of ceremonies. Communications Associate Carter owned a sizeable lead athletic administrator.” joined former standout athletes Ross The College has now inducted 29 Printer and appeared to be on her The meet director real- got back on track. Penn State Altoona ath- Emerson ’57 (soccer), John “Dutch” total individuals and one team into Sharon Commercial Printing & Mailing way to setting a new course ized the error and re-directed Carter recovered to win the letic director Fredina Ingold Leonard ’59 (basketball), William McGarry ’66 (swim- the Athletic Hall Fame. Sharon, Pa. record. With about a half-mile Carter onto the proper race and after learning that represented the NCAA and ming), Charles Purdue ’70 (football/wrestling), Jerry In June 2006, Grove City established an Athletic Varsity G is the official newsletter remaining in the race, a meet course. Carter’s lead had the meet worker had been ad- presented Carter with her Smoyer ’62 (football/track) and Natalie (Sutyak ’83) Hall Fame to honor men and women who have of the Grove City College Department worker inadvertently pointed diminished significantly and monished for her error, Carter award. Carter is the first of Physical Education and Athletics. It is Watkins (volleyball/basketball) to make up the Class achieved excellence in the field of athletics or coaching published three times a year following each Carter in the wrong direction any shot at a course record sought out the employee. Grove City student-athlete of 2009. at Grove City College or who have made a significant athletic season: winter, spring and fall. on the course. evaporated by the time she Carter consoled the dis- to receive that honor. The College recognized the eight inductees during impact on its athletic program. Harris earns honors Basketball players earn All-PAC Women’s basketball head coach Sarah Harris earned Coach of the Year recognition from the Welcome to ‘Varsity G’ Three Grove City College men’s honor. He led Grove City in scoring Presidents’ Athletic Conference and D3Hoops. basketball players earned All- average (12.8) and rebounding (4.6) Dear alumni, parents, friends and athletes, com after guiding Grove City to its best PAC Presidents’ Athletic Conference while finishing second on the squad season since 2005. recognition from the conference’s head with 57 assists. O’Keefe also blocked a We recently completed a very successful winter The Wolverines finished fourth in the PAC, coaches while two members of the team-high 23 shots this year, helping sports season here at Grove City College and are with a 7-7 record in conference play, and women’s basketball program received the Wolverines lead the conference in enjoying the start of spring sports competition. hosted a PAC Championship Tournament postseason recognition. field-goal percentage defense. Both the men’s and women’s swimming and game for the first time since 2004, despite Senior guard Ryan Gibson earned O’Keefe started all 25 games this diving teams won Presidents’ Athletic Conference having just seven healthy First Team All-PAC honors while year and shot 59.0 percent from the titles in February after three days of record-breaking players for the majority junior center Andy O’Keefe is field, which ranked second in the action. The men went on to record a historic sixth- of the season. a Second Team selection. Senior conference. He also placed fourth in place finish at the NCAA Division III Championships. Harris, who completed Donald L. Lyle guard Joe McCoy earned Honorable the conference in blocked shots. The men’s basketball team qualified for the ECAC her third year as head Mention. McCoy led the conference in foul Championship Tournament for the third straight year, and the women’s coach, is the first Grove On the women’s side, sophomore shooting by draining 90 percent (74 of basketball team finished 7-7 in the PAC. The women also hosted a PAC City women’s basketball forward Christine Slater earned 82) of his attempts at the line. For the Championship Tournament game for the first time in five years. coach to earn PAC Second Team All-PAC and head coach season, McCoy fired in a team-high 48 Our baseball, softball and golf teams all traveled south in late February Coach of the Year since Sarah Harris captured the conference’s three-goals this year and averaged 11.0 Sarah Harris and got off to promising starts in the spring season. Melissa Lamie received Coach of the Year award. points per game. He shot 46 percent We inducted our third class of honorees into the Athletic Hall of Fame the award at the end of the 2002-03 season. Gibson averaged 12.4 points per from the field. on Feb. 7. The inductees were recognized during halftime of our men’s Grove City opened the season 0-5 but game this season for the Wolverines, Slater is a Second Team All-PAC basketball game with Thomas More during the afternoon. rebounded by winning six of its next nine which ranked second on the squad. He selection for the second consecutive That night, the College also presented the inaugural Grove City College games. The Wolverines (11-15 overall) swept also led Grove City in assists (62) and season. This year, Slater led the Athletic Heritage Awards in conjunction with the Hall of Fame induction longtime rivals Geneva and Westminster this minutes played (791) while starting all conference with 11 double-doubles. Christine Slater ’11 led the Presidents’ Athletic ceremony. year. Grove City also defeated North Coast 25 games. She ranked third in the league in Conference with 11 double-doubles and ranked In addition, the College dedicated its newly-refurbished Heritage Hall, Athletic Conference runner-up Allegheny. Gibson is 17th all-time at Grove scoring, averaging 15.4 points per third in scoring. which is located in what many of you remember as the mail hall. Heritage Senior guard Raeann Szelong led the City with 1,079 points. His 325 game. Hall contains numerous photos, news clippings and other memorabilia of conference in minutes played, averaging 36.5 career assists are fourth in Grove City Her 9.9 rebounds per game ranked This year, Slater became the fifth our athletic history going back to the 19th century. per game. The Wolverines allowed just 58 points history. He earned Second Team All- second in the conference. Slater Grove City player to score 400 points It was a truly exciting, successful and memorable day for the College per game this year.