Posted 5/3/07
*The CBS NCAA III winter sports wrapup show, which features UW-Platteville wrestler Zach Chambers (Sr., Mineral Point), airs at noon Saturday. WISC-3 in Madison will carry the national broadcast . A CBS crew spent about six hours with Chambers the day before the national championships then chronicled his every move at the championships, covering the Iraqi war veteran's successful bid to earn all-America honors.
*The Pioneer baseball team closes its first season on the new Kendall Murray Field playing host to UW-Stout Friday and Saturday, with both nine-inning doubleheaders beginning at noon.
*The adjacent softball diamond was not enough to contain Nikki Hansen (Jr., Moline, IL) Tuesday night, as the shortstop became the first player in the 11-year history of the facility to hit a home run not only over the 210-foot fastpitch fence but also the 275-foot slowpitch fence. The Pioneers swept Edgewood College 7-5 and 12-4 behind six home runs. The previous longest blast at the field belonged to UW-Superior's Sarah Tarasewicz, who hit the base of the right-field slow-pitch fence during the 2003 WIAC tournament. The Pioneers have slugged a school-record 37 home runs this season.
*Congratulations to UWP photographer Andy McNeill, whose picture of softball player Maggie Digman (Sr., Dickeyville/Cuba City) won first place in the monthly University Photographer's Association of America (http://www.upaa.org/winners.php) contest.
*Marcia Taddy (Jr., Two Rivers) ran 4:23.75 to finish third in the 1,500 run at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational at Stanford Sunday night, which is impressive enough, but even more impressive considering Taddy got tripped trying to pass the leader. She popped back up and still recorded the second-fastest time in NCAA III this year. And yes, she already has the fastest mark.
*Enzo Fuschino makes his UWP soccer coaching debut Saturday with spring season games. The men play host to Loras at 11:30 a.m., and the women face UW-Milwaukee at 1:30 p.m. in Ralph E. Davis Pioneer Stadium. Admission is free to these games.
*The deadline to purchase tickets for the annual athletics award banquet is Friday. The banquet is Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in Williams Fieldhouse. For more information, call 608.342.1567.
*The Pioneer football and volleyball teams begin practicing next week for their May 20-31 trip to Switzerland, France and Germany. The educational trip, for which both teams spent a semester studying the culture and history of the region, includes a cogwheel railway trip up Mt. Pilatus (Switzerland), a winery tour in Strasbourg (Germany), a visit to the salt mines in Rothenburg (Germany), a walk through the World War II prison camp in Dachau and a tour of Munich. The football team faces the Schwaebisch Hall Unicorns on May 26, while the volleyball team plays Club Voleya Obwalden May 23 in Giswil, Switzerland and a Schwaebisch Hall all-star team.
*Links for this weekend activities:
http://www.uwrf.edu/sports/sports0607/T&F.WIAC.Meet.2007.html = WIAC outdoor track and field meet at UW-River Falls
http://www.uwec.edu/athletics/soft/0607/wiac/index.htm = WIAC softball championships at UW-Eau Claire