Spartan Sports Roundup
11/24/2008 12:00:00 AM | General
Nov. 24, 2008
Spartan Sports Roundup provides a brief overview of the Olympic sports teams in action. Read a recap of last week's action, look ahead to this week's action and find key notes on each team in this weekly recap.
 | Cross Country |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The Spartan women's team received an at-large bid to this year's NCAA Championships.
This Week: The women's team is competing at 12:10 p.m. today in the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
Notes: Nicole Bush (Wyoming, Mich.) was named Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year by the USTFCCCA ... Bush ran to a first-place finish at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional meet with a time of 20:48.5 ... Finishing not far behind were Lisa Senkiewich (sixth) and Emily Langenberg (15th) ... The Spartan women's team is making its 10th consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships ... Bush was named Big Ten Athlete of the Year by the conference office ... She is the fourth Spartan to earn the award and first since Danette Doetzel in 2004 ... The Spartan women's team is currently ranked No. 10 in the nation ... Bush and Lisa Senakiewich (Davison, Mich.) earned first team All-Big Ten honors after finishing in the top 10 at the Big Ten Championships ... Bush finished as the runner-up in last year's meet, making her a first team All-Big Ten honoree in back-to-back seasons ... Bush was the top Spartan finisher at Pre-Nationals on Oct. 18, taking sixth place with a time of 20:19.1 ... The women's team has two first-place finishes this season (Colonia Inter-Regional and Notre Dame Invitational) ... Both Bush and Senakiewich have earned Big Ten Runner of the Week awards this season ... Senakiewich won her first career cross country title at this year's Colonial Inter-Regional ... Sophomore Spencer Beatty (Harbor Springs, Mich.) has been the men's top finisher at the Spartan Invite, Colonial Inter-Regional and the Big Ten Championships... Sophomore Pat Grosskopf (Corunna, Mich.) was the first Spartan to cross the finish line in back-to-back meets to end the season (56th at Pre-Nationals and 26th at NCAA Regionals).
| Men's Soccer |
Roster | Schedule | Statistics
Big Ten Standings | Big Ten Statistics | Big Ten Schedule
Last Week: After defeating Indiana to win the Big Ten Championship, the Spartans received a No. 4 overall seed in this year's NCAA Championship and a first-round bye.
This Week: The Spartans are the No. 4 overall seed in this year's NCAA Championship. They will take on Illinois-Chicago on Tuesday, Nov. 25 at 1 p.m. at DeMartin Stadium.
Notes: MSU is making its 12th NCAA Championship appearance and fourth since 2001 ... The Spartans defeated then-14th-ranked UIC earlier this season, 3-1 ... MSU is 8-0-1 in its last nine games and has surrendered just one goal in that span ... The Spartans' 13 wins this season tie the school record, last achieved in 2001 ... MSU won both the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles, the first team to accomplish the feat since Indiana in 2006 ... Senior Doug DeMartin (Mason, Mich.) was voted Big Ten Player of the Year and is the first Spartan to win the award since Reid Friedrichs in 1996 ... DeMartin joins sophomore goalkeeper Avery Steinlage (Grand Haven, Mich.), senior defender Dave Hertel (Holland, Mich.) and senior midfielder Zac Scaffidi (Geneva, Ill.) as First Team All-Big Ten selections ... Domenic Barone (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and Cyrus Saydee (Lansing, Mich.) were selected to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team ... In eight games against teams ranked in the NSCAA/adidas Top-25 this season, the Spartans are 6-2 ... DeMartin's 17 goals ranks third in the NCAA and his 37 points rank in a tie for fifth ... DeMartin now has 38 career goals, moving him into fifth place on MSU's career list while his 85 career points also rank fifth ... DeMartin's 17 goals this season are the most since Tony Keyes scored 28 in 1968 ... Steinlage has not allowed a goal in 695:03 of play ... He now has nine shutouts this season and ranks second in the NCAA in save percentage (.919) and eighth in the nation in saves (91) ... Senior Louis Stephens' (Saginaw, Mich.) 12 points this season are good for a tie with fellow senior Scaffidi for second on the team ... Scaffidi is tied for first in the conference in assists with six ... The Spartans 36 goals this year are the most since 2004 when they scored 38 ... MSU is 7-1-1 at home this year and it marks the third time since 2001 they have won seven games at home ... This season marks the third-consecutive year MSU has recorded at least 11 wins ... MSU finished the conference regular-season with their best mark ever, 5-1, and most wins since 2000 when they went 4-1-1 in league play.
| Swimming & Diving |
Roster | Schedule
Last Week: The Spartan men's and women's teams both competed at the TYR Conference Cup in Evanston, Ill. The men's team took second place with 1211 points while women's team also took second with 1259.5.
This Week: Both the men's and women's teams are off until Dec. 13 when they host Ball State.
Notes: There were seven new MSU records set this weekend as kevin Puskaric (200 breaststroke), Jon LaRocque (50 freestyle & 100 backstroke), the men's 200 medley relay team, Marcus Poteete (100 butterfly), Heather Kiluk (200 IM) and the women's 400 medley relay team all set new school marks ... LaRocque's new record in the 50 free broke an 18-year-old mark set by Mark Lisenby ... Senior Heather Kiluk (Libertyville, Ill.) picked up two wins in MSU's win over Houston, in the 1,000 freestyle and 200 IM ... Sophomore Rebecca Ebner (Okemos, Mich.) has won eight of ten butterfly events she has competed in this year ... Ebner also broke a pool record vs. GVSU, swimming the 100 fly in 56.09 ... Puskaric won both the 100 and 200 breaststroke in his first meet of the season against Iowa ... Six Spartan divers, senior Danielle Williams (Dorchester, Ontario), freshman Sarah Clay (Fishers, Ind.), junior Kayla Kalmbach (Grand Rapids, Mich.) and most recently, Jordan Jackson (Flushing, Mich.), Alycia Mokedanz (Pickering, Ontario) and David Garry (Warren, Mich.) have qualified for NCAA Zones ... Two Spartans, senior Marcus Poteete (Santa Cruz, Calif.), 400 IM and 100 fly, and junior Sho Koba (Ann Arbor, Mich.), 100 and 200 free, each won two events in MSU's win over GVSU ... True freshman Kerry Sodonis (Troy, Mich.) won both the 100 free (vs. Illinois) and the 100 breast (vs. Iowa).
| Wrestling |
Roster | Schedule
This Week: The Spartans will travel to Lock Haven, Pa., for the third-annual Mat Town Open this Saturday, Nov. 29.
Notes: With his three wins at the ACC-Big Ten Clash, Franklin Gomez (Brandon, Fla.) extended his record to 7-0 on the season ... Coming into the week, the Spartans had two wrestlers ranked in the USA Today/NWCA/InterMat Top-20 in their respective weight classes - Gomez (No. 3, 133) and senior Rex Kendle (Edwardsburg, Mich.) (No. 14, 165) ... Gomez is ranked second in the country by Amateur Wrestling News and third by Intermat in their preseason rankings.
Players Mentioned
