Several Dordt College athletic recruits took part in the Iowa High School State Track and Field meet in Des Moines, Iowa, May 21-23. Here’s how the future Defenders fared.

Jordan Huisman (Football and Track) 12^th in the 2A shot put 47-11.75

Joel Ysselstein (Track) Shuttle Hurdle relay, 1:01.31; High Jump, 6-2, 9^th

Trevor Wolterstorff (Track and Basketball) 100 meters, 7^th, :11.5667. 200 meters, 7^th, :23.07.

Aaron Floen (Football and Track) 4 x 200, 8^th, 1:32.56. 100 meters, 8^th, :11.5695, 7^th. 200 meters, 6^th, :23.05. 4 x 100, 7^th, :44.86.

Henry Byl (Football and Baseball) 1600 medley; 3:42.15, 17^th. 4 x 400; 3:29.29 7^th.

Steph Fykstra (Track and Volleyball) 4 x 800 relay, 4^th, 9:39.55. Distance medley, 4:21.73

Kendra Kroeze (Volleyball and Track) 4 x 800 relay, 4^th, 9:39.55. Distance medley, 4:21.73

Emily Christians (Track) 4 x 200 relay, 5^th, 1:52.42.

Nichole Duncan (Track and Cross Country) Distance Medley, 22^nd, 4:29.72. 800 meters, 10^th, 2:22.54. 1500 meters 15^th, 5:05.41.

The Nebraska State meet was last weekend as well.  We had two athletes there.

Brett Cross (Basketball), Triple Jump, 7th, 42-00

Caleb Miles (Track and Cross Country, 4 x 800 3rd place team, 8:25.115; 3200 meters, 17th place 11:11.353

New Mexico

Tara Postma: Rehoboth Christian,  1^st- 800m run: 2:24.61;  4^th- 400m: 62.58;  1^st-4 x 400: 4:15.57;  11^th-Long Jump: 14’ 1.75”

Arizona 4AI State Champs

Michael Bowman (Football and Track): Prescott High School-1^st-Shot Put: 49’ 4”; 7^th- Discus: 136’ 2”

Idaho

Orrin Burger: Nampa Christian;  4^th-Shot Put: 45’6”; 4^th- Discus: 131’2”

Kaitlin Troost; 1^st- 4 x 400: 4:07.76;   2^nd-4 x 100: 51.55; 4^th- Long Jump: 16’1”  ;  6^th- 400m: 61.37

Michigan

Merissa Harkema: Unity Christian; 7^th- 800: 2:21.36

Rachel Smith;  6^th- Shot Put: 37’5.5”

Washington

David Riley: Mt. Vernon Christian; 2^nd- 4 x 400: 3:29.35;  7^th- 4 x 100: 45.43

This is a work in progress!  I’ll be adding to the list as I receive information.  Check back often.

#####################################

This past year in numbers.  Just got done with the archiving process for action pictures taken through the course of the year.  This office identified athletes in 3104 photos taken by Jamin Ver Velde and his band of photographers.    The office also covered 395 events (football, volleyball, junior varsity volleyball, men’s cross country, women’s cross country, men’s soccer, women’s soccer, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, men’s junior varsity basketball, women’s junior varsity, hockey, basketball, women’s indoor track, men’s indoor track, men’s tennis, women’s tennis, men’s outdoor track, women’s outdoor track, baseball and softball) which included stats and getting results out after the events were completed.  Also wrote 471 releases over the course of the year.  Thanks to the student workers and Dave Schenk who make my job very enjoyable!

Brady Fopma makes my job very manageable with his bang-up work on the website and Jamin Ver Velde’s design work with programs and schedules is invaluable.

#####################################

Nearly 60 boys in grades 1-8 took part in the second annual Dordt College Grade School Football Camp May 27-29.

The camp time was split up between drills and playing football. The Dordt College football coaching staff and current players took part in making the camp a success.

One third grade camper was quoted as saying, “I wish the camp went all summer long!”

The Dordt College football camp marks the start of youth camps on the Dordt campus with the boys and girls camps happening the first week in June while volleyball and soccer camps will be offered in July and August.

Here’s the link for pictures of the camp…..looks like the kids and coaches are having a ball!

http://www.dordt.edu/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=22020

##############################################

Twitter.

The Twitter feed continues.  We’re up to 50 followers.  Would love to get it above 100 before the summer’s over.

Remember you can get all the Dordt College Athletic releases, scores and blog entries at www.twitter.com/dcathletics

Now, it’s 5:00 on Friday, I’m outta here……………………..

Got a couple phone calls this afternoon from the track coaches, Craig Heynen and his assistant Greg Van Dyke.  Happy would be an understatement after the men’s 4 x 800 team turned in their second top-level performance in as many days and earned All-American status with their sixth place performance at the NAIA National Meet in Edwardsville, Illinois.

The men were clocked in 7:36.66 in  a race where the usual suspects went low to win the event.  Oklahoma Baptist ran the race in 7:26.33 and Oklahoma Christian and Embry Riddle were second and third in under 7:30.  For perspective the top four teams all beat last year’s winning time.  That, my friend, is some serious speed on the track.

There also is a certain amount of strategy that some of these teams can use in that they have enough runners to qualify with  a specific team and then swap out some athletes for the finals in the relays.  Oklahoma Baptist did that, swapping a 1:56 time for a 1:49 half-miler.  Needless to say, Coach Heynen was proud that the quartet, that had Josiah Luttjeboer  running his fourth half-mile in two days,  was able to earn All-American status.

Keep in mind this was a team that had to qualify in for the meet in unlikely fashion, on the track by themselves at the Sioux Falls Last Chance meet, and squeaked in under the required time after several near misses through the season.

Storybook.

Good work gentlemen.

Enjoy your summer, you’ve sent us out on a high note………..

A few notes as we head into the weekend.

It’s transition time again in our office.  Projects that have been on the back burner get a little more attention.  Dave Schenk is working on bringing our career stats up to speed, not just for leaders but for a more extensive list.  Could take this summer and beyond, but we’ll keep chipping away at it.

In the next weeks I’ll get the letter out for advertisors to consider Dordt athletic programs as an avenue…hope to get those out the week of Memorial Day.

###############

Men’s and women’s 4 x 800 meter relays teams are working and preparing for the national meet which is this coming week near St. Louis, Missouri.

###############

Fresno State just won the NAIA National Tournament opening round baseball tournament which was held in Sioux City.  Lost a game on the opening day only to come back and win four “elimination” games in three days to earn a spot in the NAIA World Series coming up in Idaho.  Beat the prohibitive favorite, Bellevue, twice to earn the spot.

###############

Dordt coaches are still working at bringing in athletes for next year.  More releases are up and I anticipate a few more in the next couple of weeks.

##############

Predicted 40 mph winds tonight in Orange City.  Not a good night to be running a District Track Meet!

##############

A little of everything today.  Let me know if you want these posts to continue through the summer as we’re a little less structured.

#############

Still looking for my wooden shoes.  Maybe next year………………………

Another year in the books.  Hard to believe.  Doesn’t seem that long ago the football players and volleyball players were reporting for pre-season practices and it really doesn’t seem that long ago that we had Christmas Break.

Marks the end of a four year career for several athletes that I’ve enjoyed watching over the years.  I run down some of the names in my head and here’s what I think of–

Kristin De Ronde–wasn’t the player that jumped the highest or was the quickest off the floor but she still found a way to knock down the second highest kill total in volleyball in recent history to Tara De Boer.  Came back from a knee injury during her sophomore basketball season to have solid junior and senior seasons in volleyball.

Kelsie De Nooy–Turning in a player of the year season on defense for the Dordt soccer team, helping them to a national tournament appearance and then following that up with a very good basketball season.  Took the challenge of Dordt soccer coach Dave Schenk seriously enough to get herself in great physical shape for her senior season and that work paid great dividends for her personally and for the teams she was on.

Mark Rowenhorst– A player who quietly waited his turn and kept working for the men’s basketball team.  Finally got his shot at starting regularly this season only to have his season cut short by a back injury.  Re-habbed and kept working and closed his season and career on an up note with some strong games at the end of the year.

Sarah Visser–Taking the ball when she was handed it on the mound.  Taking her pitching turn and competing even if the run support or defensive support wasn’t always there.  Second most strikeouts in a season–ever.  Lots of  eight and nine strikeout games for her this season.

Dillon Peters-Single the opposite way with two strikes on him.  As good a hitter with two strikes in the count as I’ve seen.  Never give up on an at-bat and never give in.

Jen Kempers–Coming back for a ninth semester this fall and earning all-American status in cross country.  Not bad for an athlete who came here intent on playing volleyball.

Jared Rempel–Scraping together another par round in golf.  Not afraid to hold his ground on defense for the Blades hockey team.

Craig Humpreys and Tim Walstra–The backbone of a Dordt soccer defense.  Humpreys’ presence was intimidating on the field.  Walstra had the knack for winning balls.

The list goes on for the seniors.  Thanks for the memories.  It’s been a privilege to watch you grow up over four years of college.

############################

Speaking of memories, here are some of mine from 2008-2009.

Football-First varsity win over Concordia after a lightning delay.

Women’s soccer advancing to the NAIA National Tournament and losing in a shootout.  Watching Dave Schenk on the bench during the shoot-out, refusing to lift his head to watch it.

The narrow miss for the women’s cross country team qualifying for the national meet.  Lots of questions after the rankings came out….no real solid answers.

Volleyball earning a spot in the NAIA National Tournament and beating Indiana Wesleyan to move on to the final site in Sioux City.

Women’s basketball beating then nationally ranked Doane and taking eventual national tournament semifinalist Northwestern to overtime.  Watching Kelsie De Nooy go in for a lay up with time expiring in that game for what would have been the game winning basket and not getting a foul call after a lot of contact with the Raider defensive player.

Men’s basketball losing on a last second shot to Northwestern.  Beating the RedRaiders in Orange City.  Losing to Morningside after holding a lead in Sioux City for much of the second half.  Mark Taatjes’ runner missing as time expired in the regular season finale with Morningside in Sioux Center.  Watching the two teams battle to double overtime.  A last second win at Concordia and the final post-game interview with Coach Greg Van Soelen at the Corn Palace.

Softball’s nine game winning streak midway through the season that helped vault them into the GPAC play offs.  A split with Morningside.

Dillon Peters earning the all-time hits record in the last game of the season, fittingly on a single the opposite way.  Dordt getting an unlikely double play to hold on for a win over GPAC Champ Nebraska Wesleyan earlier in the season.

Both 4 x 800 meter relay teams qualifying for the national meet…the men waiting till the final meet, a “Last Chance” meet in Sioux Falls.  Ran unchallenged and still beat the time needed by a little over a second.

Rick Vander Berg coming to my office in late September telling me this would be his last year as Dordt athletic director.

There are many more.

That’s my year in a nutshell.

####################################

Congratulations graduates and parents of graduates.  Underclassmen, we’ll see you in the fall.

####################################

Time to fire up the Toro and mow the yard

Softball completed the 2009 season yesterday at the Great Plains Athletic Conference tournament with a win and two losses.  After dropping game one 14-0 to Morningside the women and coaches did a great job of re-grouping and winning a 6-5 decision over Doane.  Got a timely hit from Megan Huizenga in that one.  Lost a 3-2 decision to Midland Lutheran in an elimination game that went nine innings.

Marked the end of a career for Sarah Visser, the lone senior on this year’s team.  Visser logged over 120 innings this season and struck out 138 batters–second all-time for a single season to Dawn Van Kley’s single season mark of 148 in 2001.  She recorded ten career wins and pitched 288 total innings which ranks seventh all-time and had 254 career strikeouts which is third all time to Ruth Draayer’s 279 (1985-1988) and Van Kley’s 499 (2000-2003).

21 wins this season is the high water mark since 31 wins in 2000.  The 2005 team had 20 wins.

###########################

Signed a basketball player this afternoon.  Here’s  a link to an article written about him by the Siouxland Sports Authority.

http://www.siouxlandsportsauthority.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=83&Itemid=1

###########################

As of right now track and men’s tennis are the only teams still competing.  What am I going to do with my time…………….