Covenant News - Two NPU Athletes Receive All-Conference Awards

Covenant News

Two NPU Athletes Receive All-Conference Awards

CHICAGO, IL (February 9, 2005) - North Park University (NPU) athletes Henrik Wihlborg and Erin Neises were recently honored as recipients of the 2004 Fall Jack Swartz Academic All-Conference Award.

Wihlborg, a senior defender from Ljungby, Sweden, anchored the North Park defense on the way to the Vikings' first-ever College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin (CCIW) men's soccer championship. The biology/pre-med major holds a 3.79 grade-point average and was named second-team Academic All-North Central Region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA). The NSCAA also named Wihlborg to the All-Region team in the North Division of the Central Region and he was named to the All-CCIW men's soccer team for the second time.

Neises, a junior from Junction City, Wisconsin, led the North Park women's soccer team with 10 goals, five assists and 25 points. She carries a 3.46 grade-point average. Last fall, Neises was third in CCIW play in goals, fourth in game-winning goals and goals per game, and fifth in points and points per game. The Athletic Training major played primarily as a goalkeeper her first two seasons at North Park before breaking through as a striker in 2004.

In other NPU sports news during the last week:

-Senior guard Lamar Townsend of Chicago scored 16 points, including the 1,000th of his career, during a 74-61 CCIW men's basketball loss to visiting Augustana College last Saturday night. Townsend is now 20th on the all-time career scoring list, passing Jim Schultz, who scored 1,000 points before graduating in 1983. The last Vikings player to score his 1,000th point was Rick Alspach, who graduated in 2000. Along with leading his team in scoring, Townsend also grabbed six rebounds and had four assists. He scored his 1,000th point on a layup with 16:55 left and had eight points in a row for his team during the middle of the second half. Townsend now has 1,008 points for NPU (4-15, 0-8 in CCIW play) heading into Wednesday's 7:30 p.m. home game against CCIW opponent Millikin University. NPU tied the game twice in the final 10 minutes, getting a 3-point basket by Cory Wilks to deadlock the game at 53-all and tying it at 55-55 at the 6:31 mark on a layup by Eric Samuelson. But Augustana scored the next eight points during a 2:43 span and made six consecutive foul shots to ice the contest.
In track and field action in the Chicago Duals last Saturday, NPU received strong performances from Lucia Abel and Dante Britten in a meet hosted by the University of Chicago. Abel won two events and provisionally qualified for the NCAA Division III indoor nationals by leaping 11.21 meters in the triple jump as one of Saturday's top individual performers. Although Abel's leap didn't automatically qualify her for nationals, if her triple jump standard remains among the best Division III athletes, she will be invited to compete at the national event March 11-12 at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois. In the long jump, Abel's 5.33 meter leap bested University of Chicago's Appie Hirve (5.13). Teammate Liz Podczaski leaped 4.82 meters to place fifth in the event. Abel also placed third in the 55 meter dash and was fifth in the 200 event. Allison Weller was the other top-5 finisher for the women's team, running the mile in 5:41.40. In the men's competition, Britten placed second in the 55-meter dash and was fourth in the long jump. He ran 55 meters in 6.77 seconds, just behind Elmhurst College's Cedrick Jones, who was clocked in 6.71 seconds. He leaped 6.09 meters in the long and also ran a 24.02 for the 200 meter race, placing eighth. Benj Ecker placed third in the 55 hurdles in 8.58 seconds at the meet. Ecker was fifth in the high jump while teammate Brian Edmonson finished seventh.
The women's basketball team lost a 71-57 conference decision at North Central College on Tuesday despite 15 points apiece by Megan Slattery and Shandrel Young. Slattery led the Vikings (11-10, 4-7 in conference) with seven rebounds while Laura Mount had a team-high four assists to go with 13 points.
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