Athletics Director Kirby Hocutt welcomes your comments and ideas. Your email will be read by Kirby and answered by either him or a member of the Ohio Athletics staff. Please include your name and hometown, and if you are a Bobcat let us know your class year. Thank you for your interest, your participation and your support of Bobcat Athletics.
June 9, 2006
Dear Bobcat Fans:
I hope this column finds you doing well and enjoying the beginning of summer! As the spring academic quarter comes to a close, it is time for us to look back at some of the tremendous accomplishments our 537 student-athletes have achieved over the course of the 2005-2006 academic year.
First and foremost, our student-athletes continue to perform extremely well in the classroom! In the 2005-06 competition season, 24 student-athletes were recognized as Academic All-MAC selections for their focus and performance in the classroom. I applaud each of these student-athletes for this wonderful honor.
I would like to draw attention to just a few of the many successes each of our sports teams have earned and enjoyed:
Baseball:
Bryant Witt had a 19-game hitting streak, the longest for an Ohio player since the MAC began tracking the statistic in 1975.
Anthony Gressick became the first Bobcat since 1979 to earn three-straight All-MAC First Team selections
Gressick finished his career ranked third all-time at Ohio with 36 home runs and fifth in career doubles with 44.
Earlier this week, Gressick was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds and teammate Derek Witt was chosen by the Detroit Tigers
Men's Basketball
Second consecutive season with 19 or more wins
Advanced to the semifinals of the MAC Tournament
Mychal Green and Leon Williams were named Honorable Mention All-MAC
Jerome Tillman was named to the MAC All-Freshman Team
Women's Basketball
Advanced to the quarterfinals of the MAC Tournament
Rachel Frederick earned MAC Freshman of the Year
Men's Cross Country
Won the Central Collegiate Championships and the Ohio Invitational team titles
Placed third at the MAC Championships, best finish since 1996
Three Academic All-MAC selections
Women's Cross Country
Carime Reinhart finished fourth in the MAC Championships, earning first-team MAC honors
Placed fourth at the MAC Championships, best finish since 1998
Two Academic All-MAC selections
Field Hockey
Eight overall wins, the most since 2003; six MAC wins, the most since 2001
Finished second in the MAC
Three Academic All-MAC selections
Lindsay Rothenberger earned MAC player of the year honors
Football
Set a Peden Stadium single-game attendance record with 24,545 fans on hand to watch the Bobcats defeat Pittsburgh in the home opener
Dion Byrum earned first-team All-MAC, AFCA All-American Team, and both Associated Press and Sports Illustrated All-American second-team
One Academic All-MAC selection
Six of the Bobcats' 11 games were on national television, including two Friday night games on ESPN2 that each drew more than 1 million viewers
The Sept. 9 game versus Pittsburgh had a 1.6 rating which equaled 1,401,080 households and ranked among the top 15 most viewed regular season college football telecasts on ESPN2 since the network debuted in 1994. It was the highest rated and most viewed Friday night game in ESPN2 history.
Men's Golf
Mark Cimarolli won individual medalist at the Big/East MAC Challenge with a personal best of 207
Ohio led all MAC teams with a third-place finish at the Big/East MAC Challenge
Grant Christman was one of only seven golfers named to the Academic All-MAC Team
Women's Golf
Tied for second at the Wachovia-Great Smokies Invitational with Julie Tomlinson finishing runner-up after posting a school-record 66 in the opening round
Ana Brown broke the school record for 54-holes with a 221 after the first three rounds of the MAC Championship
Brown was named to the MAC All-Tournament team after finishing third
Lacrosse
Jen Heup was named American Lacrosse Conference Goalie of the Year and first-team All-ALC
Shannon Hadaway was named to the second-team All-American Lacrosse Conference
Soccer
10 members had GPAs of 3.6 or higher, and five were above the 3.8 mark
Two Academic All-MAC selections
In eight years, the team has achieved three regular season championships and appeared in the MAC semifinals six times
Softball
Completed the season with 27 wins, most since 2002
Earned their first conference tournament victory since 2002 by eliminating Central Michigan
Two MAC Players of the Week and one second-team All-MAC selection
Men's Swimming & Diving
Third-place finish at the MAC Championships, best under Coach Greg Werner
572.5 points at MAC Championships, most under Coach Werner
Posted 71 personal-bests out of 85 opportunities
Matthew Bey earns third consecutive Academic All-MAC selection
Women's Swimming & Diving
Led the conference with seven event wins at MAC Championships
Eight conference champions
Posted 44 personal-bests out of 64 opportunities
Five first-team All-MAC selections and two Academic All-MAC selections
Emily Wylam set a school and conference record in the 100 backstroke
Indoor Track & Field
Men's and Women's teams both take first place at the Marietta Open
Men place second at the All-Ohio Championships
Five Academic All-MAC selections
Jaclyn Lugaila sets school record in the 20-LB Weight Throw
Outdoor Track & Field
Scott Mayle earned first-team All-MAC honors for winning the long jump at the MAC Championship
Five NCAA qualifiers
Jaclyn Lugaila qualified for NCAA Regionals in both the shot put and hammer throw, breaking the school record in each event
Mayle won the NCAA Mideast Regional long jump competition and just this week qualified for the finals at the National Championships
Volleyball
Three consecutive MAC regular season and Tournament Championships
Two straight NCAA Tournament appearances, including the program's first-ever trip to the Sweet 16
Finished season ranked 14th in the nation
33 wins ties Ohio for the most in the nation and were the most ever by a MAC team
The Bobcats own the nation's longest home winning streak with 37 straight victories
Ohio has won 43 straight MAC regular-season matches
Geoff Carlston received MAC Coach of the Year honors for the third straight year and Mideast Region Coach of the Year for the second time
Julia Winkfield earned MAC Player-of-the-Year, the fourth straight Bobcat to win the award
One Academic All-MAC selection
Wrestling
Joel Greenlee earned his 100th career coaching victory
Four Bobcats placed at the MAC Tournament
Jake Frerichs was named to the national All-Freshman Team by Amateur Wrestling News
It was indeed a very good year for Bobcat Athletics and I know you are equally proud of our student-athletes' success in the classroom and in competition!
Looking forward, I am pleased to communicate to you that our football season ticket renewals have been coming back at a rapid pace. If you have already renewed your tickets, thank you. If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to reserve your season tickets right away! We need each of you in Peden Stadium creating our home field advantage! The 2006 season promises to be exciting and by working together we can continue to make Peden Stadium the best game-day atmosphere in the MAC!
Speaking of football tickets, we are very excited about the positive response to the Bobcat Family Package. To date over 200 new season tickets have been sold! We anticipate this number increasing when we launch our marketing initiatives as the football season draws closer.
I hope each of you have received information introducing the Ohio Bobcat Club. This program is vital to our future success. We need every Bobcat Fan to join the Ohio Bobcat Club and assist us in enhancing the student-athlete experience for all 537 student-athletes. As the cost of operating a Division I-A athletics program continues to escalate, we need your help to achieve our goal of becoming the model athletics program in the Mid-American Conference. We will not accept anything short of that goal and the foundation is in place to accomplish some very special things! If you have not received information on the Bobcat Club, please send me an email and we will mail you a brochure and contribution form.
Renovation of Peden Tower continues to progress in a timely manner. Demolition is now complete on the fifth floor of the tower, all framing has been installed and we are beginning to see some dry wall. Completion is scheduled for mid-August. Once completed, we will have the finest football support facilities (sports medicine area, team auditorium, position meeting rooms, coaches' offices and recruiting space) in the MAC!
In closing, I hope each of you have a great summer and we thank you for your continued support of Ohio Athletics. There are great days ahead for the Bobcats and I look forward to September 2, as we kick off the 2006 football season and set out on another academic and athletic year!
