Spotlight
National champions run into Hall of Honor
Don’t blink, because the Hornet cross country teams
from 1958 and 1959 are as quick as they ever were.
Those teams won back-to-back national championships
and were on hand for induction into the ESU Athletic
Hall of Honor during Homecoming celebrations. The
core group of Lynn Reed, Gonzalo Javier,
Dennis Matheson, Paul Whiteley, David Oblie, and
Warner Wirta, was together again for the first time in
nearly 50 years.
Most are still running, and all are quick with their wit.
They recalled specifics from long-ago races, like the time coach Fran Welch saw Whiteley, after winning a race in
Chicago’s 20-degree, spitting-snow winter, taking his sweats off so a photographer could get a picture of him
in uniform. The guys said Welch yelled, “What the hell’s
going on?” and shoved the photographer. These days,
some of them still compete. David hasn’t lost a 5K race
in his age bracket for three years. Dennis wins, usually. “I got beat by a 60-year-old and that ticked me off! But
that was at altitude,” Matheson said, “so it doesn’t count– he was a native (to that altitude).”
The five other 2006 Hall of Honor inductees, joining
139 former student-athletes, coaches and administrators
in the Hall, are Alvester Bobby, football, 1987-90; Tom
Fincken, track and field, 1957-61; Kim Kline, softball
and basketball, 1977-81; Wade LeDuc, football, 1989-
92; and Mark Majors, track and field, 1989-92.
ESU athletics winning off the court
We see our Hornet athletes in uniform so often it’s
easy to forget how much they do off the courts
and fields. As some of ESU’s finest ambassadors, the
student-athletes engage in a comprehensive community
service program offered by the athletic department that
seeks to develop the community and the students. Major
projects by the student-athletes include:
• Christmas in April – Emporia-area home-repair
project to benefit disadvantaged persons
• Special Olympics – facilitate, supervise and
officiate games for community members with
special needs
• National Student-Athlete Day – interact with
high school and middle school students
• Make a Wish Foundation – hold fundraisers
• MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) – baby-sit
children while mothers attend MOPS meetings
• Canned Food Drive – door-to-door collections
for local food pantries
• HPER Recycling Program – collect the campus’s
paper, cardboard, newspapers and magazines
• Youth Fun Run – teach local children about the
sport of cross country
Each sport also works on its own in the community.
In the 2005-06 academic year, student-athletes
performed 2,456 hours of community service. The
football team led the way with 372 hours, followed by
baseball with 282; women’s basketball, 205; men’s
basketball, 132; Stingers, 85; track, 78; volleyball, 76;
softball, 74; soccer, 51; cheer squad, 47; and tennis,
46.5. The Student-Athlete Advisory Committee donated
another 329.75 hours, while 677.75 more hours were
netted when various sports cooperated on projects. In
terms of hours per athlete, the women’s basketball team
led the way with 14.6 hours per player.
Fall sports recap
Football
A promising start to the football
team’s 2006 season ended in
disappointment with a seven-game
losing skid and the resignation
of its coach, Dave Wiemers. The
Hornets opened the season at 3-1
and 2-0 in the MIAA before hosting
Pittsburg State, then ranked #13
in the nation, for one of the most
scintillating football games ever to
be played at Welch Stadium.
The teams battled into four overtimes. Our fans and the team exploded on the south end of the field when it looked like a two-point conversion was caught to win the game, but a referee saw otherwise. The Gorillas scored a touchdown to tie it in the fourth OT at 57-57, and ran in the two-point conversion for a 59-57 win.
Fans and players left feeling
like the pizza that was waiting
for the players in a delivery van
that surely arrived at the end of
regulation – cold. Which happens
to be an unfortunate metaphor for
the Hornets’ remaining games. The
Hornets ended the season at 3-8.
Wiemers was 35-32 in six years as
the head coach, leading ESU to a
Mineral Water Bowl victory in 2002
and a share of the school’s first
MIAA Championship in football in
2003.
On a brighter note, Garin Higgins
was announced in December as the
new coach. Higgins (BS 1992), a
former Hornet football letterman,
compiled a 51-9 record (.857) as
the head coach of Northwestern
Oklahoma State University from
2000 to 2004.
“Emporia State can and
will compete for conference
championships in football,” said
Higgins. “And the MIAA is hands
down the best conference in the
nation. We are going to recruit
kids that want to come to ESU
and represent this university well
on the field, in the classroom and
in the community. Emporia State
provided me a wonderful experience
as a student-athlete and I hope to
do the same for my players.”
Volleyball
The ESU volleyball team
finished its season at 15-16, 7-6
in league play, after losing 3-0 to
#1 Truman in the first round of
the MIAA tournament. Falling
under .500 cost the Hornets
their eligibility for the NCAA
Tournament. Senior Leah Griswold
had eight kills and 17 digs against
Truman to end her career ranked
as the Hornets’ all-time leader
in attempts, second in digs, and
third in kills. Arica Shepard was
named the MIAA Freshman of the
Year and honorable mention all-league.
Mandy Chutskoff earned
second-team All-MIAA honors
while Griswold, Courtney Aguilar
and Jennifer Remmeried earned
honorable mention honors.
Cross country
Jonel Rossbach earned All-American honors by placing 17th at
the NCAA Division II Cross Country
Championships in November
in Pensacola, Fla. She reached
nationals by finishing third at the
NCAA South Central Regional
Championships to become the
first Emporia State cross country
athlete to qualify for the national
meet since 2001.
In the South Central Regional
team competition, the Hornet men
placed 10th led by Skyler Delmott’s
28th-place finish. The ESU women
were 12th, led by Krysta Fennewald
in 21st place.
Soccer
The ESU soccer team ended
their season with a 1-0 loss at
home to Southwest Baptist. In
Jim Schneiderhahn’s first season
as head coach, ESU was 3-15-
1 overall, 1-12-1 in the MIAA.
Despite the record, the women
were competitive in most of their
contests and recorded a two-game
win streak against Avila
and Missouri Western. They also
won their fifth home opener in six
years.
See the story in the electronic magazine, page 26
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Last Updated April 17, 2008