Athletics Good Stuff – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/24/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
July 24, 2006
Robert Gary was named Ohio State’s seventh men’s track andfield head coach Monday in an announcement made by MiechelleWillis, Ohio State’s senior associate athletics director. Men’scross country head coach at Ohio State since his graduation fromOSU in 1996, Gary succeeds Russ Rogers, who retired in June after19 seasons with the Buckeyes.
A two-time Olympian (1996 Atlanta Games and 2004 Athens Games) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Gary was named 2005 Great Lakes Region Cross Country Coach of the Year last season. He led the men’s cross country squad to a runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships, third place in the Great Lakes meet and a No. 11 standing at the 2005 NCAA Championships.
On the track, Gary has mentored 11 All-Americans and 16 Big Ten champions.
The men’s soccer team returned June 28 from a 10-day trip inGermany that included attending three World Cup matches and playingthree exhibition matches, which the Buckeyes won 7-0, 2-0 and 6-2,respectively. With eight returning starters, Ohio State begins the2006 season Aug. 13 with an exhibition match against Dayton at 7p.m. in Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. Eight fencers competed at theSummer National Championships in Atlanta June 30-July 9, with fourearning Top 10 finishes and three placing in the Top 3. SophomoreAndras Horanyi won Division I men’s foil, while senior ChristianRivera tied for third in Division I men’s epee. Junior EileenGrench took 10th in Division I women’s sabre. Ty Schaub, asophomore on the men’s tennis team, advanced to the finals of the2006 USTA/ITA National Hardcourts earlier this week at the StickneyTennis Center in Columbus. Schaub fell to Michael McCarthy (6-3,7-5) in the title match. McCarthy plays for Indiana. Schaub went5-1 in the 64-player event. Teammates Dominic Ozanne and MikeO’Connell also participated at the tournament. Ozanne, a junior,was 3-1 while O’Connell, a redshirt freshman, was 1-1. Greg Oden,who will be a freshman on the men’s basketball team, was selectedthe 2006 Gatorade National High School Male Athlete of the Yearduring a ceremony in Los Angeles earlier this month. Oden was afinalist for the same honor following his junior season in 2005. Healso was invited to participate in the USA Men’s Senior NationalCamp this week in Las Vegas. Unable to play because of injury, Odenattended the first couple days of orientation and practice as aspectator. Rifle team members Kelly Lake and Stacie Collinsrecently competed at the 6th annual NRA/Pyramid Air National JuniorAir Gun Team Championship held July 5-9 at the Deschutes CountyFairgrounds and Expo Center in Redmond, Oregon. Lake competed as amember of the air rifle squad that repeated as team champions witha team score of 4,669. Washington was second at 4,665. Lake shot a1,155 to finish 31st overall, helping the team to a new women’sthree-position air rifle national record for the second straightyear. Stacie Collins (So. Waterford, OH) competed as an alternatemember of the air pistol team, finishing 35th overall in thecompetition. Tamarah Riley, who will enter her junior season withthe women’s basketball team this season, will play on the 2006 BigTen Foreign Tour July 18-28. The 12-member squad will play fourgames in Denmark, Norway and Sweden.
Riley, a forward from Detroit, joins senior teammates Stephanie Blanton and Jessica Davenport as Buckeyes selected for Big Ten Foreign Tour teams. Blanton played on the Tour last July in Belgium and the Netherlands. Davenport was a member of the 2004 squad that traveled Australia. Both Blanton and Davenport helped their respective Big Ten tours complete undefeated schedules.
Ohio State has been selected as a first- and second-round hostsite for the 2009 NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at NationwideArena. The NCAA Division I Women’s Basketball Committee announced2009 hots sites July 6. The 2009 Women’s Final Four will be playedin St. Louis.
Ohio State last played host to the first and second rounds of the NCAA tournament in 2004.
Incoming men’s hockey freshmen goalie Joseph Palmer anddefenseman Kevin Montgomery both were selected in the fourth roundof the 2006 NHL Entry Draft in Vancouver. Palmer, from Yorkville,N.Y., was drafted by Chicago with the 96th pick, while Coloradopicked Rochester, N.Y., native Montgomery at No. 107.
Palmer and Montgomery played for the U.S. National Team Development Program the past two seasons. The duo was part of the gold-medal winning squad at the 2006 IIHF Under-18 World Championship in April.
Eight members of the women’s tennis team represented Ohio Statein the 2006 USTA/ITA National Hard Court Championships at theStickney Tennis Center on the OSU Campus. Incoming freshmanChristina Keesey advanced to the semifinals before falling to No.1-seed Elizabeth Lumpkin of UCLA.The other incoming freshman, AllyMueller of Roswell, Ga., also fell to Lumpkin, losing in the thirdround in three sets. Also representing Ohio State were seniorsCiara Finucane and Kristin Messmer, juniors Sonia Ruzimovsky andCaitlin O’Keefe and sophomores Angela DiPastina and JulieBlackmore. Blackmore and DiPastina advanced to the quarterfinals,while Messmer, Ruzimovsky and O’Keefe each reached the third round.At the USA Men’s Gymnastics national championships qualifier lastSaturday in Colorado Springs, Colo., senior Kristopher Kline(Westerville, Ohio/Hocking Valley Gymnastics Center) was the loneBuckeye to qualify for the 2006 VISA USA Championships. Kline willbe joined at the national meet by former Ohio State gymnast RajBhavsar (2000-03), who also qualified for the nationalchampionships slated for Aug.16-19 in St. Paul Minn. Kline finishedin the Top 10 on three of four events he competed in during thesecond session of competition. The Buckeye earned a 14.90 on floor(6th), 14.10 on pommel horse (t-10th) and 15.55 on vault (4th). Onrings, Kline finished with a 13.45 (25th). Ron Lewis, a senior onthe men’s basketball team, will travel to Australia for four gameswith the Big Ten Foreign Tour team Aug. 8-18. Lewis will representthe Buckeyes on the 11-player squad. Lewis is the top returningscorer for the Buckeyes. He averaged 11.2 points a season ago.Jason Lammers has been named an assistant coach for the Ohio Statemen’s hockey team, effective Aug. 1, head coach John Markellannounced. Lammers spent last season as the head coach at SUNYGeneseo, his alma mater, where he led the Knights to the NCAADivision III tournament. In 2005-06, Lammers led Geneseo to a19-9-2 ledger, the State University of New York Athletic Conference(SUNYAC) tournament title and to the NCAA Division III tournament.Prior to taking over the helm of the Geneseo program, Lammersserved as an assistant coach at a number of schools. He began hiscoaching career as the volunteer assistant at Clarkson in 2000-01,before serving as the top assistant at Hobart the following yearand returning to Clarkson for the 2002-03 campaign. Lammers spenttwo years as an assistant coach for Guy Gadowsky, coaching atAlaska in the Central Collegiate Hockey League in 2003-04 and atPrinceton in 2004-05. Baseball freshman utility player J.B. Shuck,who was named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American, also wasnamed a second team Freshman All-American by Baseball America andthe Rosenblatt Report. The women’s swimming team was named anAcademic All-American Honor Team by the College Swim CoachesAssociation of America for its 3.14 team grade point average.Additionally, two swimmers, Gulsah Gunenc and Griet Buelens, earnedindividual honors. To receive CSCAA Academic All-American status,swimmers must earn a cumulative grade point average of 3.5 orbetter and also qualify for the NCAA championships. Two moreBuckeyes, Annie Rennebohm and Elaine Chan, earned the distinctionof Honorable Mention Academic All-American Honors by meeting NCAA”B” qualifying standards to go with a cumulative GPA of 3.5 orbetter. The men’s swimming and diving squad earned AcademicAll-American Team Honors by the College Swimming CoachesAssociation of America for its 3.16 team grade point average.Additionally, the organization awarded three Buckeyestudent-athletes – Kellen Harkness, Joe Doyle and Nate King – withAcademic All-American Honors. To earn CSCAA All-American honors, astudent-athlete must carry a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better andhave qualified for the NCAA championships. Mike Tomes and MatthiasSigrist earned the distinction of Honorable Mention AcademicAll-American Honors by meeting NCAA “B” qualifying standards to gowith a cumulative GPA of 3.5 or better. Former diver Mitch Richesonteamed with Troy Dumais to win the silver medal in the men’s3-meter springboard synchro at the FINA Diving World Cup July 21 inChangshu, China. The tandem scored 428.43 points and finished 18.30points behind Wang Feng and He Chong of China (446.73). “This isthe premier world championship of the year. If those two guys cancontinue to work together and grow, they will be gold medalhopefuls in Beijing in 2008,” Vince Panzano, the OSU diving coachwho continues to train Richeson, said. Women’s hockey defensemanLisa Chesson has been invited to the U.S. National Women’sFestival, USA Hockey announced. Chesson, a native of Plainfield,Ill., is one of 40 players under 22 years of age to attend thefestival August 15-22 in Lake Placid, N.Y. Following the festival,a final roster of 20 players will compete in a three-game seriesagainst Canada’s Under-22 team August 24-27 in Ottawa, Ontario.
Chesson, who will be a junior during the 2006-07 season, had a breakout sophomore year with the Buckeyes. She tied for third on the team with 17 points and also ranked third in assists with 14. Chesson finished sixth in the WCHA in defenseman scoring and was a Third Team All-WCHA honoree as well as Ohio State’s Most Valuable Defensive Player.
