MSUM crowned a national champion and decorated five athletes with All-American honors at the 2008 NCAA Division II National Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Walnut, Calif. Jennifer Hensel repeated as women’s pole vault champion with a record flight of 13-2 ¼. Ashley Roemer was third in the high jump and tied for sixth in the heptathlon. Anna VanWechel was seventh in the 3000, and Sara Julsrud was eighth in the 400 hurdles. In the men’s competition, Derik Brugger was third in the pole vault. MSUM women finished 13th, their highest national finish, while the Dragon men were 34th.
A league leading 28 MSUM student-athletes have been named to the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Winter All-Academic Team. For the 2007-2008 academic year, MSUM is tied with the University of Mary with 55 All-Academic Selections.
Fifth grade students from Ellen Hopkins Elementary School in Moorhead have dined with Dragon student-athletes. Sponsored by Stop-N-Go Stores Inc., Scorch’s Lunch Bunch provides an opportunity for local elementary students to visit the MSUM campus and spend time with Dragon student-athletes.
Dragon men basketball players and coaches swapped practice gear for work clothes recently to join the Habitat for Humanity effort in Moorhead. Head coach Stu Engen, assistants Jason Beschta and Luke Herbert and players offered a day of community service to the project to revitalize a local project.
Athletic training students, under the direction of Head Athletic Trainer Andy Scott, put their medical mission on hold for a day to assist with the massive cleanup effort in Northwood, N.D., following a late summer ’07 tornado that caused millions of dollars of damage.
Associate Director of Athletics Sylvia Barnier has been appointed chairman of the NCAA Division II Track and Field Committee.
Jessica Trautwein, a former basketball and track letterwinner and an Academic All-American, was named one of eight female regional winners of the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioners Association Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award. She earned one of 58 post-graduate scholarships, valued at $7,500, awarded to a select group of student-athletes in all three national NCAA divisions.
