» BEACON SPORTS™ Year in Review ~ AMCC Champ Women’s Cross Country The 2004 women’s cross country team and AMCC Champions By Brooke Dodds from the Nov. 5 issue The women’s cross-country team captured the AMCC Championship title last Saturday when the cross-country teams traveled to Frostburg State University for AMCC Championships meet. The blue and white faced tough competition from schools such as Penn State Altoona, Pitt-Greensburg, Mt. Aloysius, La Roche, Medaille, Lake Eric, Pitt-Bradford, Frostburg State and Hilbert. On the women’s side, they earned 19 points for a first place finish, giving the Lions the 2004 AMCC Championship title they fiercely fought for. Penn State Altoona earned 50 points for a second place finish and Pitt-Greensburg fin ished third with 113 points. Taking the first place finish was our very own Jessica Knapp who also tabbed this week’s Runner of the Week honors. As senior captain of the women’s team this year, she helped set the standard. Knapp blew away the competition covering the soggy 6K course at Western Maryland 4-H in a time of 25:01. “I am proud that our girls team has come together and was so successful,” said Knapp. “We are building a Behrend Cross Country dynasty under Coach Cooper.” Sophomore Leslie Gentile took the By Jenna O’Block from the Oct. 15 issue The golf team just had their last match of the season at Pine Acres Golf Course in Bradford. Pitt Bradford was the host of the AMCC men’s championship. There were only five guys that played in the AMCC championship. Josh Loaney, Josh Hull, Kevin Grignol, Jeff Black and Tom Omer. Josh Lot vidual medalilst. After a sudden death away with runner’s-up honors. Kev : 80, Josh Hull recorded an 82, " Jeff Black carded an 88. The others who - Pagliari, Dan Kevin Thieman contributed to the successful season that the golf team had “These guys have come along way,” said assistant coach Bowen. “Their hard work and dedication paid off in bring ing home the AMCC title.” “It was very exciting to get a win down in Bradford to cap of an outstanding year for Behrend Golf,” said sopho more Josh Hull majoring in MIS. This year the blue and white has had one of the most suc cessful years in team history. “It was also nice to get this win for our co-captains Jeff Black and Anthony Pagliri, who will be leaving us at the end of spring semester on such a positive note to end their athletic career, and I am proud to help them achieve their goal of winning AMCC’s,” said By Jenna O’Block from the Oct. 22 issue This past Sat. the team played in the AMCC Tournament Title, and won the first four AMCC championships in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000. They had wins in six single flights; two of three were double flights. The team has improved a lot between last year and this year, and has got some new strong play ers that helped the team to do very well this season. “Our freshman played well all year which was a great boost,” said Coach Barger. “I see good things for this group if we can keep them together. We play well as a team and everyone gets along which makes it a lot more enjoyable.” The team won almost all of their match es and also won the AMCC tournament. runner’s up place with a time of 25:57 in the women’s individual category. Senior Claire Manelick finished fifth with a time of 27:29, sophomore Willa Paterson came in sixth place with a time of 27:39 and finally freshman Leisl Soergel finished in 28:46. “1 think that everyone did a great job on Saturday. It was a hard course, but we dug down and finished where we wanted to,” said Manelick. “All the hard work that we’ve put in since this summer has paid off. “ Head Coach Dave Cooper and Assistant Coach Greg Cooper have done a great job in preparing the team for the AMCC Championships and now they are preparing for the NCAA Regional race at Allegheny College, which is slated to take place November 13. The men took a second place finish, not being able to bump Frostburg State out of their top spot. Frostburg earned 25 points, Penn State Behrend scored 33 points and Penn State Altoona came in third with 89 points. Behrend’s top run ner was sophomore Brad Ruffo. He came in second place out of fifty male runners with a time of 29:01 on the 8K course. Freshman Eric Diluzio came in fourth place with a time of 29:42.00 and soph omore Craig Davis followed closely coming in sixth with a time of 29:54. Men’s Golf Women’s Tennis “I don’t think that has ever been done before,” said sophomore Jenna Yankowski who plays number 5 singles and 3 doubles for the tennis team. “Along with having a very strong team, all of the players got along really well which helped us to do even better.” The first three Players of the Week out of five weeks were also from Behrend, which was Jenna Yankowski, Allison Mudrey, and Mindy Calvert. Freshman Allison Mudrey has been named the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference tennis athlete of the week. The Lions took first place in each divi sion, except at first doubles where we took second. “That was a disappointment to go undefeated all year and then to lose in the finals, but Mindy and I will get it Senior Tim Schultheis took 10th place at 30:13 with teammates Harry Balwick and Andy Marshall coming in directly behind him to take the 11^ 1 and spots, respectively. “Our team this year is the closest knit team I’ve ever been on, and we are the best Men’s Cross Country team Behrend has ever had, said junior Brent Beauseigneur. “We are looking to place in the top ten at Regionals in two weeks which a men’s team has never accom plished.” “We put our heart and souls into it and nobody should feel bad about their performances,” said senior Mike Barlett. “It is really nice to be in a con ference where there is this tight rivalry among teams, especially between Behrend and Frostburg, because it makes people hungry for a win.” This marks only the second time in school history that the Behrend women have won AMCC’s, once in 2001 and now in 2004. Knapp has taken three AMCC first place finishes during her stellar career, in 2001, 2003 and 2004. The Runner of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Coach of the Year awards will be announced later this week. Knapp was predicted to keep her title as Runner of the Year again this season and with her first place performance many would say this was the right pre diction. “I credit and send out my thanks to each individual on this team for making it the most successful season in Behrend golf history,” said senior Jeff Black, MIS major. This year the team had six new freshmen, and two of them have played in every match. “This year my co-captain Jeff Black and I were excited always do the best we could at the matches, while constantly working to improve our game,” said freshman Hilary Neal, Mechanical Engineering major. “We had a fun season, and we hope to recruit a couple more girls for the spring!” The other women who played are Shelly Leonard and Brittany Gray. Shelly Leonard placed first in the Pitt Greensburg tournament reaching a milestone and became the first woman to have a first place finish in a golf tourna ment. “I feel that the both teams had a good season overall. Both the men and women teams are looking forward to the spring season,” said assistant coach Bowen. next year,” said Mudrey. “I really liked coaching this team this past season,” said Coach Barger. “Everyone did as asked with no ques tion. We set out to win the conference and do well in our regional matches and that is what we did.” “I think that our team not only had tal ent but we put our heart into it to get where we ended up, which was AMCC champions” said Freshman Shelley Goodpastor who played 6th singles and 2nd doubles. The blue and white played very well all year, and the team’s final 2 matches were against Thiel and Westminster. They beat Thiel 9-0 and Westminster 6- 3. All of the girls got to play against Thiel which was nice for the seniors. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO ce major. a blast this year. It was the most competition.” ;fing f or Behrend has been Black. “It’s a great and be honored Men’s Basketball By Kyle Woodside from the March 4 issue Men’s basketball lost Thursday evening to Lebanon Valley in the first round of the NCAA tournament. The 71-53 loss comes after Behrend defeated Lake Erie and Pitt- Greensburg to win the AMCC title. According to D3Hoops.com, the Lions were a huge underdog even though they were a higher seed than Lake Erie. Behrend was referred to as “a group of very average players at best” who can't shut down Lake Erie point guard Reggie Richardson. This mockery of the Lions seemed to get them fired up instead of getting to their heads. In a very tight ballgame, Behrend prevailed, 56-55. Both teams were struggling to find the bottom of the net, but the Lions managed to find a way to pull it out with senior Tom Lulich making a clutch layup with 3 seconds left in the game. Senior Jared Clough scored 17 points to lead the way for Behrend. Senior Cam Mascara continued to be a strong force of late off the bench by adding nine points. Senior Joe Lucas also had nine points. Behrend managed to take Lake Erie’s best player, Richardson, by storm (no pun intended). He only Senior Tom Lulich Beacon I April 29.2005 ions managed to score three points in 37 minutes The Lions were probably under dogs the next night also because they had to face the number one seeded Pitt-Greensburg squad on their home court. After trailing by 10 points at halftime, things looked bleak for Behrend. However, they managed a way to claw their way back into the game and win 52-49. On a night that no Behrend starter scored in double digits, the bench decided to show why they could probably start for any other AMCC squad. Mascara, who continued his impersonation of Andl’s “Half Man. Half Amazing,” scored 16 points. Freshman Kevin Buczynski, who has also been hot of late, chipped in with 10 points and three blocks. Behrend was able to shut down AMCC Player of the Year, Kevin Conlon, who played the whole game only scored six points and grabbed three rebounds. D3hoops.com did not given Behrend a chance in the Thursday night game. The opponents proved D3hoops.com right after Lebanon Valley took Behrend out of NCAA play. J.B. Byers scored 31 points in against the Lions which lead to the Lebabon Valley win and an end to the Lions’ season. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
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