Athletics Good Stuff – Ohio State Buckeyes
7/30/2008 12:00:00 AM | General
Baseball
Head Coach: Bob Todd
Ohio State junior pitcher Eric Best was named the Alaska Glacier Pilots’ outstanding pitcher for the season and was awarded with its Lefty Van Brunt pitching award. In14 appearances, Best recorded 10 saves and a 1.59 earned run average. He is limiting opposing batters to a batting average of .200 and he has 20 strikeouts and only six walks.
Junior Zach Hurley continues to lead the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s Cincinnati Steam with a .396 average. The Buckeye, who is second in the league overall in hitting, has started 32 times for the GLSCL leaders (27-9) and he has 26 runs scored, 22 RBI and a .550 slugging percentage with four doubles, two triples and three home runs.
Senior Justin Miller, playing for Luray of the Valley Baseball League, is hitting .321 in his 16 starts for the Wranglers. He is slugging at a .429 clip and has driven in 12 RBI.
A trio of sophomore pitchers Drew Rucinski, Alex Wimmers and Andrew Armstrong have combined for an 11-1 record for Luray.
In the pros, J.B. Shuck is hitting .285 in 36 games for Tri-City in the New York-Penn League. He leads the team with 32 runs scored and with four triples. On the mound, Dan DeLucia is 2-1 with a 1.29 ERA in seven appearances for Oneonta.
Men’s Basketball
Head Coach: Thad Matta
Zisis Sarikopoulos, a 7-foot, 265-pound center from Athens, Greece, was named to the Buckeye roster July 17. Sarikopoulos played last season at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. He will sit out the 2008-09 season to satisfy NCAA transfer rules and will have three seasons of eligibility beginning with the 2009-10 season.
Michael Redd scored 20 points in Team USA’s 120-65 victory over Canada July 25. The 2008 USA Basketball Men’s Senior National Team (1-0) defeated Canada at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nev.,
Women’s Basketball
Head Coach: Jim Foster
Incoming freshman Samantha Prahalis added 12 points and four assists in the USA’s blowout of Puerto Rico. The 2008 USA Basketball Women’s U-18 National Team (3-0) defeated Puerto Rico (0-3), 116-36, July 25 in the 2008 FIBA Americas U-18 Championship in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Football
Head Coach: Jim Tressel
Ohio State was selected as the preseason favorite among members of the media attending the Big Ten Conference’s football media day July 24. Members of the media also honored Buckeye running back Chris Wells as the Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and linebacker James Laurinaitis was tabbed Preseason Defensive Player of the Year for the second-consecutive season.
Rex Kern, Ohio State quarterback from 1968-1970, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame July 19 in South Bend, Ind. With Kern as signal-caller, the Buckeyes won the 1968 National Championship, a pair of Big Ten titles and two Rose Bowls.
Buckeye football student-athletes have started a student organization called Uplifting Athletes, joining other college football programs in an effort to make rare diseases better known. The first event will be a college football video game tournament from 4-8 p.m. July 30, at Eddie George’s Grille 27. The event raised funds for the Kidney Cancer Association.
Men’s Golf
Head Coach: Jim Brown
Buckeye Vaughn Snyder won the 102nd Ohio Amateur championship July 18 at Findlay Country Club. Snyder won with rounds of 71, 71, 70 and 71 at a challenging course featuring high temperatures and gusting winds. He finished at 283 and was the only player in the field of 147 to break par.
Men’s Gymnastics
Head Coach: Miles Avery
Miles Avery, 10-year veteran Ohio State men’s gymnastics head coach, was named assistant coach of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team July 21 at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. For Avery, the 2008 USA Gymnastics Coach of the Year honoree, the Beijing Games will mark his fourth-consecutive Olympics serving as an assistant coach for his country.
The Ohio State men’s gymnastics team placed second in the 2008 College Gymnastics Association (CGA) National Academic Team standings July 23. With a collective grade point average (GPA) of 3.415, the Buckeyes were just .006 behind 2008 CGA academic champions William & Mary (3.421).
The Buckeyes had the most gymnasts from any program nab first-team CGA All-America Scholar-Athlete honors with 10 gymnasts securing a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Senior-to-be Jake Bateman and Ohio State graduates Tony Duong and Jimmy Wickham earned their third-consecutive first-team honors. Also named to the first team were Michael Bell, Kevin Brown, Pejman Ebrahimi, Eddie Hay, Justin Myers, Andy Saurber and Shachar Tal. Tabbed as a second-team selection was DJ Bucher who finished his notable collegiate career as a six-time All-American and 2008 Nissen-Emery Award finalist.
Raj Bhavsar, who competed for the Scarlet and Gray from 2000-03, was added to the 2008 U.S. Olympic team for men’s gymnastics July 28 after Paul Hamm resigned earlier in the day. This will be Bhavsar’s second trip to the Olympic Games. In 2004, he served as an alternate at the Athens Games while training with Avery in Columbus.
Men’s Hockey
Head Coach: John Markell
The 2007-08 hockey season saw former Buckeyes play in 10 different professional leagues across the world. Ohio State alums competed in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Denmark.
In NHL action, Ohio State had four players see significant time. Former All-American R.J. Umberger led the Philadelphia Flyers into the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with 10 goals and five assists during the postseason. In the regular season he had 37 assists, fourth-most on the club, and 13 goals. Umberger will be coming back to Columbus as he was traded by Philadelphia to the Blue Jackets during the NHL Draft in June. Dave Steckel had a goal and an assists for the Washington Capitals in the first round of the playoffs. Steckel had five goals and seven assists during the regular season. Ryan Kesler had the third-most goals for the Vancouver Canucks with 21. He ended the season playing 80 games and totaling 37 points. In 58 games for the New Jersey Devils, Rod Pelley had two goals and four assists. Nate Guenin began the year on the Flyers’ roster and saw action in two NHL games during the season.
Women’s Hockey
Head Coach: Jackie Barto
Laura McIntosh and Natalie Spooner, two incoming forwards for the Ohio State women’s hockey team, have been invited to participate in Hockey Canada’s Under-22 Women’s Summer Selection Camp, Aug. 10-19 in Toronto, Ontario. A total of 40 players will attend the camp and Hockey Canada will use it to select 22 players for a three-game series against the USA’s Women’s Under-22 Select Team in Pierrefonds, Quebec, in late August.
Men’s Lacrosse
Head Coach: Nick Myers
For the second-consecutive season, the men’s lacrosse team will play in Ohio Stadium prior to the football team’s spring game. Set for April 25, 2009, the lacrosse Buckeyes will take on Notre Dame, a Great Western Lacrosse League opponent, before the football team takes the field for its intrasquad game.
Former Buckeye Anthony Kelly (2000-03) scored three goals and won 24-of-45 faceoffs, in addition to winning the Fastest Shot event, at the 2008 Major League Lacrosse All-Star Game in Denver July 17. The West team won the All-Star game, 31-15. During the Bud Light Skills Competition at halftime, Kelly, who was making his first all-star appearance, tied the event record with back-to-back shots at 109 miles an hour.
Women’s Soccer
Head Coach: Lori Walker
Ohio State soccer goalkeeper Lauren Robertson was named the Women’s Premier Soccer League’s (WPSL) Midwest Goalkeeper of the Year and was joined on the All-Midwest soccer team by teammate Lauren Steuer.
Both players played for the Ohio Premier Soccer Club this summer. Robertson, who will be a junior for the Buckeyes this fall, didn’t allow a goal this season for Ohio Premier on her way to being named Goalkeeper of the Year. Steuer, a sophomore from Cincinnati, comes off a 2007 freshman season in which she garnered team defensive MVP honors and played a team-high 15 complete games.
Men’s Tennis
Head Coach: Ty Tucker
Bryan Koniecko upset Brendan Evans, ranked 174th in the world, in the opening round July 21 at the Fifth Third Bank Tennis Championships in Lexington, Ky. As a wildcard entry into the tournament, Koniecko, a native of Long Island, N.Y., defeated seventh-ranked Evans, 6-2, 6-7 (8), 6-3.
Men’s Track and Field
Head Coach: Robert Gary
All-American distance runner Jeff See represented Team USA’s U23 team in the 1,500-meter run at the North America, Central America and Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) meet held July 18-20 in Toluca, Mexico.
In addition, Ohio State head coach Robert Gary was selected to the coaching staff for the U.S. National Under-23 team. It served as Gary’s first national team coaching duty as well as the first time See represented the U.S. in international competition.
Women’s Volleyball
Head Coach: Geoff Carlston
Ohio State received kudos for its work in the classroom, receiving the GamePlan/AVCA Team Academic Award July 29. The Buckeyes, who combined to have a 3.6 team grade point average (GPA) Spring Quarter, tallied a cumulative GPA of at least a 3.3 during the 2007-08 academic year to earn the honor.
Wrestling
Head Coach: Tom Ryan
Colt Sponseller, a rising sophomore on the Ohio State wrestling team, was named to the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division I True-Freshman All-Academic Team the NWCA announced July 28. Sponseller, a native of Glenmont, Ohio, is one of just five freshmen named to the list.
