JCU Athletics Weekly Round-Up

Baseball - By Charlie Duggan

Coach Marc Thibeault’s baseball team took a major step backwards in their pursuit of the postseason on Saturday after JCU was swept by Mount Union College.

If the postseason started today, the Blue Streaks would not qualify. JCU and Mount Union are tied for fourth place as both teams own a 10-6 record in the conference. Mount Union owns the tiebreaker.

The Blue Streaks will be big fans of Otterbein College Saturday afternoon. The Blue Streaks need the Cardinals, who are 11-5 in the OAC, to knock out Mount Union to have a chance at the postseason.

Things started out rocky against Mount Union and they didn’t get better all afternoon. Freshman Tony Evanko, who entered the game with a 6-0 record, fell in a hole early as he surrendered three runs in the first inning.

He would get some help in the bottom of the third when sophomore Bryan Robinett brought home two runs on a RBI single to cut the deficit to one.

After both teams traded runs to make the score 4-3, the Purple Raiders would tack on two more in the top of the seventh and go on to win by a score of 6-3.

The Blue Streaks hoped to rebound in game two as they sent senior Matt Fort to the hill.

Just as they had done to Evanko, the Purple Raiders jumped on Fort early. Mount Union managed seven runs in the first two innings to establish an early 7-2 lead.

After Fort was struck in the leg by a line-drive that forced him to exit the game, the Blue Streaks turned to senior Brandon Kurtz.

Kurtz struggled to contain the Purple Raiders offense as he gave up six runs on five hits over the next five innings.

While the offense was able to put ten runs on the scoreboard, they stranded 13 runners on base.

Unable to shutdown the potent Mount Union offense and drive in runners, the Blue Streaks fell 13-10. The losses marked the first time all season that JCU had been swept in a conference doubleheader.

In order to reach the playoffs, the Blue Streaks will need to return to the form they were in last week when they easily disposed of non-conference foes Case Western Reserve University and Allegheny College.

The Blue Steaks hosted Case Western on Wednesday and put on an offensive show, pounding the Spartans 15-3. The offense racked up 16 hits, led by senior Sean McCarthy who went 3-4 at the plate.

JCU hosted Allegheny College the following day and it would be much of the same. After falling behind 3-1 in the top of the second, the Blue Streaks tied the game in the bottom half of the inning, then went on to outscore the Gators 11-2 over the next six innings for a 14-5 victory.  

JCU will have to play nearly perfect baseball on Saturday during their season finale against Heidelberg College. The Student Princes are ranked No. 24 nationally.
While JCU is playing for their postseason lives, Heidelberg is playing for the No. 1 seed.

Track and Field - By Brian Fitts 

The JCU track program competed well over the weekend at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championships.

The men’s team moved up two positions from the 2007 OAC Championships by placing seventh overall. The women’s team, undermanned due to injuries, placed ninth.
Individually, six Blue Streaks earned all-conference honors.

The women’s squad was well represented by junior Tara Ford, freshman Alicia Giannell and junior Julie Myers.

Ford placed third in the high jump, clearing 1.54 meters, just .08 meters behind the event champion.

Giannell jumped 5.27 meters in the long jump, despite fouling on four of her six attempts. Giannell placed third and earned all-conference honors for the first time. 

Myers, who won the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the All-Ohio Championships earlier in the month, claimed second place in the same event by finishing with a season-best time of 11:48.34.

On the men’s side, senior Kevin McPeek continued a brilliant season by capturing third place in the discuss throw with a toss of 46.36 meters.

Freshman David Hickey earned All-OAC honors by placing third in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.42 seconds.

Senior Brett Cumbo placed second in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 9:44.28 to earn all-conference honors.

Crew - By Tim Ertle

This past weekend, the John Carroll University crew team did their best to honor the legacy of the Rev. Joseph O. Schell, who passed away earlier in the week at the age of 93.

The men’s team, competing at the West Virginia Governor’s Cup, rowed in a boat named after the former JCU president.

The boat was a gift of administration to the crew team. It was dedicated in April of 2005 to honor  Schell’s dedication to the university and its students.

Schell, who served as president of JCU from 1967 to 1970, devoted 58 years of his life to JCU, mostly as a professor of philosophy.

 It is because of his efforts that JCU became more involved in club sports.

Schell would have loved to see what the club crew team was up to this weekend.

The varsity team managed to  capture second place in the four-man boat in West Virginia. Impressive, considering this event included teams such as Ohio University, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University.

Senior Rodney Gallaway, former president of the rowing club, was extremely happy with the results, mentioning that the team dedicated their efforts to Schell.

“We were trying to win this race  to honor Fr. Schell,” said Gallaway.

“Every time we race, we have a pre-race talk with our coach. He tells us to try and find something that really motivates us. After Fr. Schell died, it was easy to have motivation this week.”

Gallaway was extremely impressed that the men’s novice team was able to manage a second place finish in the four-man race.

“The novice team was absolutely amazing,” he said. “They really came out of nowhere and were so close to winning their race. It was really cool to see them succeed like that.”

After a pair of second place finishes last weekend, the team will look to capture a first place title in the next two weeks.

This weekend, the team heads to Athens, Ohio, to participate in the Mid-American Conference Rowing Association Championships. Teams from five different states will be competing.

The following week will be a busy one for the squad. On top of preparing for their finals like everybody else, they have to prepare for the Dad Vail Regatta held in Philadelphia, Pa.

After taking their finals early in the week, the team will join 130 others schools from 35 states  in making the trip to the city of Brotherly Love. Teams from California, Florida and even Brock University in Ontario, Canada are scheduled to compete.

Gallaway is hopeful that the team will be able to closeout the fall season on a positive note.

After defeating neighborhood rival Case Western Reserve University in a dual race on the Cuyahoga River to open the fall season and the second place finishes in West Virginia, they have momentum heading into these next two races.