NPU Banquet Honors Athletes of the Year

CHICAGO, IL (May 5, 2004) - Track and field athlete Will Mejia and softball player Kim Walker were named Senior Male and Female Athletes of the Year for North Park University (NPU) during an awards ceremony held at Viking Hall.

Mejia was the indoor conference track and field shot put champion this winter and has earned All-College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) honors nine times. He also has the weight throw and the hammer throw records at the school. An education major, Mejia earned a 3.0 grade point average on a 4.0 scale and has juggled student teaching and his class responsibilities while competing this spring. He is one of the favorites in the shot put at this weekend's conference track and field meet.

Walker is at the top or near the top of almost all of NPU's hitting and pitching records, said softball head coach Dan Gooris. She won 41 games and struck out 306 opposing batters on the mound in four years for the Vikings while setting school marks in homers (12) and runs batted in (77). The CCIW Player of the Year as a freshman, she earned her third All-CCIW award for her performance as a pitcher/third baseman for NPU this spring.

North Park also honored Chris Edquist and Sarah Burnett respectively with the Male and Female Sportsmanship awards. Edquist is a four-year player for the men's basketball team who earned his team's Spirit Award while compiling a 3.4 grade point average in Biology. Burnett was one of the team captains for the women's soccer team and lettered in all four years she played at the school.

A total of 39 athletes, including 21 four-year letter winners, were honored by their coaches Monday night.

North Park's rowing, softball and golf teams have just completed their seasons. The baseball team plays a conference series against North Central College this weekend and the track and field program competes at the CCIW track and field meet at Illinois Wesleyan University beginning Friday. Following is a review of how North Park teams performed last week:

• Rowing: The women's novice four-person crew won their event at the Mid-American Collegiate Rowing Association (MACRA) Championships last weekend in Athens, Ohio, beating 11 others in the process. Coxswain Erikka Treatch led her crew in the finals to a first-place finish over competing crews from Northwestern University, John Carroll University of Ohio and two boats from Duquesne University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Other members of the team included co-captains Annika Safstrom and Alli Koubski, and sisters Cori and Becca Bowman.
• Golf: Matt Lindahl placed second and North Park University teammate Peter Johnson was third individually as the Vikings placed fourth among eight teams at last weekend's College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) golf championships at the Pontiac Elks Club. Lindahl had a two-round score of 149 to finish one stroke behind individual medallist Trent Martin of Augustana College. It was the second straight year he has finished as the runner-up. Johnson shot a 151 for two rounds as North Park shot a 628 as a team. Illinois Wesleyan won the team title with a 618, while Augustana (623) and Millikin University (626) finished second and third. Other North Park golfers competing last weekend included Joel Youngberg and Seth Awes, who tied for 22nd with a two-day score of 164, and Carl Edgren, who shot 176.
• Softball: At Wheaton College, the Vikings won their final game of the 2004 season beating host Wheaton College 8-5 in the second of two games played last Wednesday (April 28) to finish 11-25 overall. Walker won the final game of her career on the mound with a complete game eight-hitter and helped her cause with two hits and two runs scored. Kelly Nelson was 3-for-3 with two runs batted in to pace the offense as coach Dan Gooris' team finished 1-11 in College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) play. Nelson hit a two-run double and Angie Willner added a run scoring double in a four-run second inning to get North Park rolling offensively. Then Wheaton's defense faltered, helping the Vikings score four unearned runs for the win. The Vikings had dropped game one of the double header by a score of 10-7 despite a RBI single by Deb Rusthoven and a two-run double by Stacy Salihovich. Along with Walker and Willner, four-year letter winners Stephanie Thompson and Carrie McKee closed out their North Park careers last week. Willner had 18 runs batted in this year while Thompson hit .283.
• Baseball: North Park dropped three games at Augustana College last weekend, losing 9-0 and 3-2 on Saturday and 9-6 on Sunday. Jeff Hanson pitched the middle game and got the loss despite allowing just seven hits in eight innings and striking out eight. Augustana led 2-0 before the Vikings tied the contest in the top of the fifth inning on the strength of a run scoring single by Jose Morales. The home team took the lead, however, on an unearned run in the bottom of the sixth inning. In the final game of the weekend, Brandon McHugh had two RBI singles and added a run scoring sacrifice fly in a losing cause.

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