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Senior left fielder DJ Gee (3) slides into second base with a double in the Herd’s Conference USA tournament-opening victory over FIU. It was
one of his three doubles in Marshall’s four games in the tourney at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss. Gee, from Seattle, was an All-C-USA
first team selection this season and batted .307, with 5 homers, 32 RBIs and 24 steals
Photo by Joe Harper/C-USA
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HerdInsider.com
Features
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Top 10 times
Steve Cotton: The Voice of the Herd picks his top 10 Marshall
sports happenings of 2015-16 in no particular order … but saving
the best for last
Golleee!
Jack Bogaczyk: Borrowing from Gomer Pyle, the soon-retiring HI
Editor finds a way to explain the 2015-16 Marshall sports year in his
last column for this publication
Six pack
Woody Woodrum: The veteran Herd Insider scribe selects six Herd
athletes to remember from 2015-16, so see if you agree with his list
of stars from the Herd galaxy
Baseball fever
Keith Morehouse: With a special season in 2016, Herd baseball has
fans wondering how good things might be in the program if a nomadic life ever ends
A fishy whopper
Chris Dickerson: Maybe you didn’t know Marshall has a fishing
team, and maybe you didn’t know the MU anglers also qualified for
the national championship
Dan’s dad
Mark Martin: Life rolls on for Lewis D’Antoni at age 102, as the patriarch of a successful family now gets to watch his oldest son coach
very close to home
Going on 40
Braxton Crisp: Marshall men’s soccer coach Bob Gray approaches
his 40th season as a head coach with resilience and enthusiasm, as
the Herd hosts the 2016 C-USA Tournament
Cody and Curt
Marshall football newcomer Cody Mitchell won the Curt Warner
Award as the state’s top high school running back, and now he’s
ready to follow in family collegiate footsteps
Digging deep
Herd broadcaster Steve Cotton doesn’t just talk a good game; he
researches one, too. See some of what he’s found in the archives in
Morrow Library to update the record book
13 Three seasons
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Editor Jack Bogaczyk provides recaps of the Herd’s fall, winter and
spring sports seasons, sorting through the names and performances
that made up a solid year
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All-Conference USA
The Herd had plenty of stars in 2015-16, and here’s a rundown of
Marshall’s selections for Conference USA honors
Freshman left-hander Patrick Murphy (36) tries to boost the Herd
with his ‘Mad Hatter’ rally-cap act during Marshall’s Conference USA
Tournament run in Hattiesburg, Miss.
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HerdInsider.com
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Columnists: Bill Cornwell, Steve Cotton, Chris Dickerson,
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The Herd Insider Magazine
For Herd in 2015-16, these 10 are tops
HUNTINGTON — It’s time for our annual Top 10 wrapup of the Herd’s
athletic year, and what a year it has been.
Marshall teams and individuals accomplished many things that hadn’t been
done in decades, if ever. Frankly, it’s too hard to rank them from 1-to-10 this
time around, so let’s just take them in chronological order.
Football beats a Big Ten team for the first time
It would be difficult to start an athletic year any better than Marshall did
with 41-31 win over Purdue on Sept. 6. Under sunny skies and in front of a
packed stadium, has there ever been a greater roar on the Marshall campus
than when the Thundering Herd took the lead over the Boilermakers just
seven seconds into the season?
The win sparked the Herd to a third consecutive 10-win season that
culminated in Marshall’s fifth straight bowl victory. The Herd’s winning
percentage at Edwards Stadium is once again the very best in college
football, as is Marshall’s all-time bowl game winning percentage.
No other team in C-USA history has won 10 or more games three years in a
row, and the Player of the Year honors received by linebacker Evan McKelvey
and wideout/kick returner DeAndre Reaves now give the Herd 10 of the
league’s major individual awards in the last five seasons.
Women’s soccer logs best season in program history
After losing its season opener, Coach Kevin Long’s team went 9-0-3 in its
next 12 matches, marking the longest unbeaten streak since the program
was established in 1998. By the time the season closed, the team logged
program bests with both an overall record of 15-4-2 and a 6-2-2 C-USA
ledger. Seniors Kelly Culicerto, Jenna Dubs and goalkeeper Lizzie Kish rewrote the school record book as Marshall outscored the opposition 32-16 on
the way to making its first appearance in the C-USA Tournament title game,
while Long was named the league’s co-Coach of the Year.
Men’s soccer also plays for C-USA title
While the women’s soccer team looked strong from the season’s onset, the
men’s team saved its best for last. Bob Gray – in his 40th season as a college
head coach – led his team to finish the season with a tie against New Mexico,
an overtime victory against UAB and then a 1-0 road win at fourth-place Old
Dominion just to snare the last berth at the league tournament in Charlotte.
Once there, the Herd beat the host and 24th-ranked 49ers on penalty kicks,
and then downed No. 17 South Carolina 1-0 in the semifinals before finally
falling to FIU in the title match.
Best all-time season of Marshall swimming
The fact that Marshall swimmers broke 12 school records is good, but it was at
the C-USA championship meet in Atlanta that the Herd broke through. Through
its first 10 years in the league, most Marshall teams finished sixth or lower.
This time, the Herd finished in third place and made a dozen podium appearances
including five silver medals, five bronze and golds for junior diver Megan Wolons
in the three-meter dive and
freshman Caroline Wanner in the
400-yard IM. The two golds this
year matched Marshall’s previous
total over 10 years.
The season was capped
when divers Kelly Toner,
Heather Lonkert and Wolons
were selected to compete at
the NCAA Zone A regionals
in Annapolis, Md.
Women’s basketball gets
its most wins in 29 years
Marshall has increased its win
total in each year of Coach Matt Daniel’s tenure, to the point that this year’s
squad went 21-12 … and the only Herd team to win more games was Judy
Southard’s 1986-87 team, which finished 24-5.
Predicted in the preseason poll to finish 10th in the league, Marshall was
led to a sixth-place finish in C-USA and to the C-USA Tournament semifinals
behind the play of two 1,000-point scorers in Leah Scott and Norrisha
Victrum. Scott became the first Marshall player in the C-USA era to receive
first-team all-league recognition, and the Herd reached postseason play for
the second straight season – and only the third time in school history – as it
received a WNIT bid.
Men’s hoops shatters records, entertains the masses
Not only in the Henderson Center, but all across Conference USA and
beyond fans enjoyed the excitement provided by Coach Dan D’Antoni’s Herd.
C-USA records fell by the wayside, including a new standard established
when Marshall averaged 92.0 points per game in league play – smashing the
previous mark of 81.2 established by TCU 14 years ago.
The Herd scored 90 or more points 16 times, led by James Kelly, who
became the first Marshall player selected all-conference first team in 11
seasons in C-USA. Kelly also became the first member of the Herd to score
600 points and pull down 300 rebounds in a season since Russell Lee did so in
in the 1971-72 season, not to mention the first with an in-game 360-degree
slam dunk in who knows how long? Ever?
This was yet another Marshall unit that over-achieved based on preseason
projections, after Marshall was picked ninth by the coaching prognosticators.
See COTTON, Page 26
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HerdInsider.com
A good year … and a long goodbye
HUNTINGTON — For Marshall Athletics, you might say it’s been a
Gomer Pyle Year.
You know … “Surr-prize … surr-prize … surr-prize!”
That’s how 2015-16 should be remembered for the Herd.
“Shazam!” Or maybe “Golleee!”
Baseball is picked to finish last in Conference USA and not only reached the
eight-team tournament bracket for the first time in six years, but finished
second, a half-game away from a regular-season title and with a season
record 34 wins as Jeff Waggoner lands the C-USA Coach of the Year honor.
Men’s soccer struggles just to land the last seed in the C-USA field … then
goes to the title match before falling in a 1-0 struggle with coach Bob Gray
having his own battle with medical issues.
Men’s basketball is forecast for ninth place and finishes in a tie for
third and with a No. 3 tournament seed. Women’s hoops is picked 10th
by C-USA coaches in a 14-team race, but finishes tied for sixth and gets
a WNIT bid with 21 wins … and both Herd hoop teams played into the
C-USA semifinals, too.
Herd swimming and diving had a program-best third-place finish in the
C-USA Championships. Marshall reached the podium 12 times and won two
titles … matching the total number from Marshall’s first 10 appearances in
the C-USA poolfest.
OK, there were tough surprises, too … like in softball. The Herd was picked
to finish second, but then lost star centerfielder Morgan Zerkle for 22 games
due to a high ankle sprain and ligament damage suffered on a home plate
slide. Still, Marshall got the No. 5 tournament seed and won 30 games.
Or in tennis, where a semester-break defection by a quality player left
Coach John Mercer’s club to battle through a tough spring schedule with
the minimum six players required … and still finish .500 with the C-USA
Player of the Year.
Then, there were some happenings that weren’t stunners at all … like Herd
women’s soccer winning a school-record 15 matches, having a 12-match
unbeaten streak and reaching the C-USA Tournament final.
Or, how about football going 10-3 with a fifth straight bowl victory? Coach
Doc Holliday’s team produced a third straight season of 10 or more victories,
standing alone among 61 Group of Five programs in that regard … and Doc
called it “good, not great” because Marshall didn’t win or even play for a
conference championship.
Names like Boster, Kelly, Reaves, Turhan, Wolons, Greene, Scott,
Culicerto, Butler and many more made this school year one to remember
for Marshall. The Herd also produced record numbers on the academic side
as well, with its best performances in the C-USA grade-point honors and
the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate.
There was a lot to like about Marshall’s athletic year that is ending, and
there’s a whole lot to look forward to in 2016-17 … plenty of returning
athletes from those successful teams … seven regular-season football
home games … hosting the
C-USA Tournament in men’s
soccer at “The Vet” … men’s
hoops playing Ohio State,
Cincinnati and Pitt …
But before 2015-16 gets too
distant in the rear-view mirror,
this Herd Insider issue takes a
look back at that recent history
on our 40 pages.
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Another Herd connection also
had a pretty good year. In case
you missed it, former Marshall
star defensive end Vinny Curry has signed a five-year, $47.25 million contract
with the Philadelphia Eagles, through the 2020 season. Of that, $10 million
was a signing bonus and $23 million is guaranteed.
Curry, 27, is entering his fifth NFL season in 2016. His base salary this
coming season is $1 million, then climbs to $7 million each in 2017 and ’18,
then up to $9.25 million in 2019 and $10 million in 2020.
He ranks among the top 10 in average annual salary among NFL
defensive ends. As most who follow the Herd know, Vinny came from tough
circumstances and lost his mother to cancer while he was at Marshall. He’s
not only made it, but prospered big time.
Congratulations, Vinny!
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As some readers are aware, this is my last issue as Editor of the Herd
Insider. I am retiring from Marshall Athletics and Kindred Communications –
the publisher of HI – at the end of June.
My four years with the Herd athletic department and this publication mark
the end of a 50-year career of sportswriting that began when I was 16 and a
sophomore in high school.
It’s been a long ride, but mostly a fun one. I got to do what I wanted to do
in a profession that interested me. I like sports, but I love writing. I always
tell young people who say they want to be sportswriters that they need to
want to be a journalist first and a sports fan second, and not the reverse … or
they won’t be very good at this.
And I was truly appreciative on May 15 when I received the 2016 Gene
Morehouse Memorial Award from the West Virginia Sports Writers Association.
The award is presented for distinguished service to our profession in the state
in honor of the late Herd broadcaster and sports information director, who
died in the November 1970 football team plane crash.
I’d like to thank Marshall Athletic Director Mike Hamrick and Mike Kirtner,
See BOGACZYK, Page 26
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Marshall’s big year produces Herd ‘Super Six’
HUNTINGTON — It is not stretch to say Marshall had as good an overall
year of sports across the board as has ever been played.
It is hard to top 1946-47, when Marshall won a National Championship in
NAIA Basketball with a 32-5 team, and then advanced to its first bowl game
at the second Tangerine Bowl against Catawba. Basketball has
advanced to five NITs and five NCAA Tournaments, while football won two
I-AA National Championships and 10 of the 13 bowls it has played in. Baseball
has gone to two NCAA Tournaments, 1973 and 1978, while softball went just
a couple of season’s ago.
But overall, you had football win 10 or more games for the third year in a
row, and Doc Holliday’s Herd won its fourth straight bowl game. Men’s and
women’s soccer played for the Conference USA Championships, and the men
will host this year’s tournament.
Dan D’Antoni led his team to a turnaround of epic proportions after three
losing seasons in a row, while Matt Daniel took the women to a secondstraight post-season tournament with the WNIT bid this past year.
Softball contended for a championship, baseball is still having a season
for the ages, track is sending another athlete to the NCAA East Regional
championships while men’s and women’s golf are playing better and better
under relatively new coaches.
But when it comes right down to it, there have to be a best of the best, and
that is why Herd Insider has chosen, “The Super Six” of the Thundering Herd
in 2015-16’s great sports year.
DJ Gee from baseball, Kaelynn Greene from softball, James Kelly from
men’s basketball, Deandre Reaves from football, Derya Turhan in tennis and
Norrisha Victrum from women’s basketball are the “Super Six” in this great
athletic year for the Thundering Herd.
All played well, all have graduated and all went above and beyond for
their teams and teammates in 2015-16 at Marshall. They are what studentathletes are all about.
Here they are, in alphabetical order:
DJ Gee, Baseball
No. 3, D.J.Gee (or “the initial,” as Steve Cotton’s call of Gee, as his initials
and his name sound the same) in second in C-USA and for Marshall in steals
with 22-of-25 (to teammate Corey Bird, 33-of-36) and is third in the league
in doubles with 17, leading the Herd in 51 starts. He is 31st in the league,
with a .301 average, fourth on the Marshall team. His five home runs are tied
for third, his two triples are leading the team, 32 RBIs is fourth on the team
and his 99 total bases are third.
His .540 slugging percentage is second to Tyler Ratliff and his .411 on-base
percentage is second to Leo Valenti, his five sacrifice flies are also second
to Valenti and his is third with nine hit-by-pitches to Valenti’s 10 and Sam
Finfer’s 11 — Valenti and Finfer part of the Northwest U.S. migration to
Marshall, along with leading home run and RBI man Tommy Lane and MU
has signed another pitcher from the area from Dan Straily’s home town of
Springfield, Oregon, Brad O’Connor.
“This is a great accomplishment
for DJ,” said Herd Coach Jeff
Waggoner. “He has represented
Marshall University and the baseball
program very well, both athletically
and academically. He is the true
definition of a student-athlete.”
In league play, Gee ranks
in the top 12 of eight batting
categories: batting average (3rd,
.392), runs scored (t-8th, 25),
doubles (1st, 14), total bases
(2nd, 77), slugging percentage
(3rd, .616), hits (t-2nd, 49), on
base percentage (11th, .436)
and RBIs (11th, 24). He is tied for second in stolen bases with 13.
He led Marshall to the first winning season since 1994, the most wins in
conference play in any season in Marshall history, to eight series wins in C-USA
including the last five in a row and to 11-straight C-USA wins in a row — tying a
record set in 1927 and 1978. 32 wins is the most in any MU season.
Gee was named to the All-Conference USA Academic Team 3.52 GPA,
having already graduated in Health Science. He played left field throughout
his senior season.
As a junior, he played in 48 games and started 45, hitting .283 with 45 hits
and 14 RBI. He had 13 multi-hit games, including four games with three hits
and his only home run was at the SEC’s Mississippi State in February. He had
12 steals (on 13 tried), 26 runs, 12 walks and seven doubles.
Gee came to Marshall via Pierce Community College, where he led the
Raiders to the Northwest Athletic Conference championship in 2012, earning
first team All-NWAC honors in 2012 and 2014 (having Tommy John surgery in
2013), as well as being NWAC West Division MVP honors in ’14. He played at
Lakes HS in Seattle, Washington, were he was all-State in 2011 and all-Area
in 2010, graduating with honors and a 3.97 GPA.
Kaelynn Greene, Softball
When USA Softball Elite Team player Morgan Zerkle went down with an
injury this season, No. 21, outfielder Kaelynn Green stepped up to lead the
softball team to a 30-26 record and 13-11 in C-USA. In the postseason, she
was named to the NFCA All-Region team announced by the National Fastpitch
Coaches Association. Greene, from Eastvale, Calif., was named to the first
team along with Zerkle.
“Zerkle and KG (Greene) are two of the top slappers and outfielders in the
country,” Herd assistant coach Kendall Fearn said. “To have them both in the outfield
together and one and two in our lineup has been instrumental to our team.
See WOODRUM, Page 27
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HerdInsider.com
For nomadic Herd, a season to cherish
HUNTINGTON — If were there were a year to borrow a line from the
most quotable baseball personality of all time – and apply it to the Marshall
baseball program – now would be that time.
“The future ‘ain’t what it used to be.” — Yogi Berra
No it’s not.
As the Herd headed to Hattiesburg, Miss., last week for its first Conference
USA Tournament appearance in six years, the MU baseball program already had
compiled history-making firsts and accomplishments that deserve a closer look.
*32 victories (Marshall single-season record) … and then two more in the tourney
*21 C-USA wins (single-season high)
*Marshall’s first winning season since 1994
*Jeff Waggoner – C-USA Coach of the Year
*Tim Donnelly – C-USA Assistant coach of the Year
*First baseman Tommy Lane – C-USA Newcomer of the Year and All-C-USA first team
*Right-handed pitcher Chase Boster – All-C-USA first team
*Left fielder D.J. Gee – All-C-USA first team
*Center fielder Corey Bird – All-C-USA second team
That’s all from a Marshall team that was picked 12th – or dead last – in the
league’s preseason coaches’ poll.
“Compared to last year, this has been an unbelievable season,” said Bird,
the former Herbert Hoover High star. “Chemistry’s a big part of it. There’s not
a single person on this team who doesn’t get along. We compete 1 through 9.
Just the fact that we were picked last, there’s a big chip on our shoulder.”
Waggoner, through his 10th season as the Herd coach, had no idea which
team the pundits were looking at. He might not have predicted this blockbuster
season, but he knew this team was better than 12 out of 12.
“When this team came in,”
Waggoner said, “they had a
little edge about them being
picked 12th. But you have
to earn that respect. Coach
Donnelly did a great job of
bringing in some players who
really fit our kind of mold of
what our team’s about.
“We had a lot of talent last
year and we didn’t get hit by
the (MLB) Draft. Although you
want your guys to go on and
play pro ball – obviously for the
program – but it’s good for the
guys to come back and get their degrees.”
Waggoner didn’t have to say it, but playing lights-out baseball was a nice
byproduct. The Herd won 15 of its last 17 C-USA regular-season games. Talk
about catching them looking, Marshall swept Middle Tennessee, UAB and
Western Kentucky in three straight C-USA series.
Nobody was laughing at this Marshall program. Not this year.
The most astounding part of this equation is that Marshall continues to
live a nomadic lifestyle in one of the top five baseball leagues in the country.
Every game is a trip, literally. Marshall stays closest to home for its nonconference opponents at the Kennedy Center on Route 2. It’s a longer trip
when the Herd entertains its conference brethren at Appalachian Power Park
in Charleston or Epling Stadium in Beckley.
There is always travel involved. But Marshall’s players keep the distractions
out, it’s what goes on between the lines that matters.
“People talk about the field how we don’t really have one,” Herd senior second
baseman Aaron Bossi said. ”But the game’s the game no matter where we play.
The guys know we’re going to be away no matter where we play, but more
people are watching and it’s kind of making every away game a home game.”
These players believe that putting a season together like this might change
what this program looks lik – and where the Herd plays home games –
somewhere down the road.
“We focus on things we can control,” Gee said. “It would be nice to have a
home field on campus, but we work with what we’ve got. A lot of us are going
to be gone by the time Marshall gets a field, but to contribute to the program
and hopefully lead toward that, would be nice.”
In the meantime, the Herd continues its barn-storming tour of Conference
USA, getting noticed at every stop. Maybe some day an on-campus stadium,
packed with Herd fans, will evoke another famous Yogi-ism: “No one goes
there nowadays. It’s too crowded.”
Herd Insider columnist Keith Morehouse, a Marshall alumnus and a fivetime West Virginia Sportscaster of the Year, has covered Herd athletics for
years as the veteran sports director at WSAZ Newschannel 3.
8
This is a ‘whopper’ of a Herd fish story
HUNTINGTON — The adage claims a bad day of fishing is better than a
good day at work.
But sometimes, it takes a lot of work to fish.
Drew Sallada knows all about that.
And this might sound like a whopper of a tale, but Sallada and teammate
Josh Rawson from Sissonville already have qualified for the 2017 Fishing
League Worldwide College Fishing National Championship. They made a
solid showing in their first tournament last month at Smith Mountain Lake in
southwest Virginia.
The duo qualified by finishing 10th with five largemouth bass weighing a
combined 12 pounds, 1 ounce.
Last year, Sallada won the West Virginia High School state championship
at Hurricane High School. He wanted to fulfill his dream of bass fishing
collegiately, but he wanted to stay close to home.
Marshall, however, didn’t have a fishing team or even a fishing club.
So, Sallada decided to start one.
“The team was started back in November of this year,” said Sallada, who is
majoring in nursing. “I quickly was thinking of ideas on how to get a team.
The only schools in West Virginia that had teams were WVU, Fairmont and a
few other small schools.
“I wanted to commute, so I just started one at Marshall. I had a lot of
help from Josh Rawson (club vice president) and Brandon Hunter, who was
involved at the fishing team at Fairmont (State).”
Sallada, who recently was accepting to nursing school, said it was difficult
to get the club started.
“There was a lot of paperwork that needed to be done, including a constitution
for the club,” he said. “The hardest part was finding an adviser for the team.
Luckily, Tim Melvin (professor of social sciences) fixed that problem for us. He
always checks in on the team and helps us with whatever we need.”
Within months, Sallada and Rawson were able to qualify for the national
championship next March. The location has yet to be determined.
Still, Sallada wants more.
“To me, qualifying at Smith Mountain for the national championship was
just a small victory,” he said. “The main focus I have now is competing in the
national championship. This tournament could change our lives forever.
“The event is televised, so it can really get your name out to the fishing
industry if you do well in it. I am hoping for a solid tournament for this event.”
He said the tournament usually is held somewhere in the south.
“Being from West Virginia, we will have to adapt to the conditions,” Sallada said.
“Josh has done an awesome job at adapting, considering this is his first year ever
fishing. He is really into it; for his first year ever he did an awesome job.”
Sallada said a Rawson catch was a big part of why they qualified for the
national championship.
“He managed to catch one fish at Smith Mountain which was a huge factor
for us,” Sallada said. “I was bed fishing the whole tournament,t which means
the fish are spawning on the bank. It usually took me anywhere from five
minutes or up to an hour to catch these fish. We had five fish at 11 o’clock.
After that, we tried to catch a giant fish to add to our bag.
“Well, we found one that would have definitely helped us out. The fish was
located on the back side of this dock. The fish was very catchable … being
able to see her on the bank locked on to her bed. As I was flipping at the fish,
the landowner comes down and starts making a huge scene about us fishing
near this dock stating that it was illegal and everything else.
“He threatened to throw rocks at us and began throwing rocks into the
water at the fish. We left that spot, but after that it was too late. Luckily, that
didn’t affect our tournament and everything played out the way it did.”
The collegiate FLW is broken into different regions. Marshall competes in
the Northern Region. At the Smith Mountain event, for example, Sallada said
there were 80 boats on the lake competing.
There are two more events
later this year in which Marshall’s
club will have teams competing.
Because they already have
qualified for the championship,
Sallada and Rawson won’t be
fishing in those.
“We plan to just fish the FLW
College Northern series for
now,” Sallada said of the team’s
immediate goals. “They have
a few other tournaments for
college teams, but it is hard
for me to access a boat all the
time. That’s the main problem
with the team is finding a boat for us.
“Matt Miller and Skylar Williams both have nice fishable boats that we
have all used this season. For Josh and me, we are fishing out of a 16-foot
aluminum boat. That might not sound bad, but when you are trying to break
down a 100,000 thousand acre lake, it can be tough.
“The other main issue is safety. Bigger boats are definitely required to fish
some of these tournaments.”
Sallada said he thinks the future is bright for the team.
“I think that this group of kids has a lot of potential,” he said. “We should
have an awesome team in 2017.”
He also sees continued growth.
“The team has been a really huge hit,” Sallada said. “I can think of at least
five people with boats joining the team for next year. The team is getting
really big … bigger than I wanted it.
“It’s really hard to fund this by ourselves with no help from Marshall. I am
currently trying to get it sanctioned by Marshall, but I’ve had no luck yet. But,
we are hosting tournaments to raise money for the team and also selling shirts.”
Sallada said his ultimate goal is to become a professional bass fisherman.
But he wants to get the team sanctioned by Marshall.
“Hopefully we just keep winning and fishing and they will get involved,”
he said. “I am very proud of myself for starting this team and raising over
$3,000 for the club. We bought jerseys for the club and had local companies
donate to have their logos on the jerseys.”
Other members of the team – in addition to Sallada, Rawson, Miller and
Williams – are Caleb McComas, Brendan Herrforth, Cody Arnold, Libby Jarvis,
Nick Martin, Jacob Miller, Michael Ashworth, Zak Ballard and Ryan Morris.
The team accepts donations. Anyone interested in helping can contact
Sallada at 304-993-7958. The team also has a page on Facebook.
Chris Dickerson, a Marshall graduate and former sportswriter and city editor
at two West Virginia daily newspapers, is editor of the West Virginia Record
and an adjunct MU journalism professor.
9
HerdInsider.com
No bigger Herd fan than Lewis D’Antoni
HUNTINGTON — At 102, Lewis D’Antoni is still loving life … because life is grand.
He lives with his daughter Kathy. He plays cards virtually every day with
family members. And, like always, he watches a boatload of sports.
What else would you expect from the patriarch of a sports family.
D’Antoni is a living legend in the circles of West Virginia high school
athletics. He was a great coach at old Mullens High School (now Wyoming
East), winning a state title in 1955.
He later enjoyed great success at Chesapeake High School in Ohio.
He is the proud father of four. In addition to Kathy, there are sons Dan, Mike
and Mark. His three sons were incredible basketball players. Dan and Mike are
in Marshall’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Mark was a standout for Coastal Carolina.
Obviously, he’s enjoyed watching Dan and Mike follow in his coaching footsteps.
The past two seasons, he’s sat just a few rows up from Marshall’s bench,
watching Dan – that’s Lewis Joseph D’Antoni II – do a masterful job in
bringing tons of interest back to Herd men’s basketball.
“It’s been special for our family really to get one of them back here and
Danny especially since he was really close to the people of Marshall,” Lewis
said from Kathy’s lovely home near Barboursville. “He was real tickled to get
back here and work with this group of people.”
Dan was a standout for the Herd in the late 1960s. Lewis says he’s amazed
at how his oldest son developed as a player.
“Funny thing, he was so small in high school,” the elder D’Antoni said. “His
sophomore year he was probably 5-6 or 5-7. He finally got to be about 6 feet in
college. His senior year in high school (at Mullens) he had a great, great year.”
While recruiting standout Dallas Blankenship, Marshall Coach Ellis Johnson
also discovered Dan D’Antoni.
“He did a great job and turned out to be a great player (at the collegiate
level),” said Lewis of Dan, who had a tryout with the NBA’s Baltimore Bullets
following his Marshall career.
There’s a twinkle in Lewis’ eyes when speaking of his kids. He fondly recalls
the relationship of his two oldest boys.
“They got along real well. When they would play basketball games on the
outdoor courts he (Dan) would always pick Mike,” Lewis said.
mistakes.’ Danny said, ‘Dad, I
thought I had a great game.’
I said, ‘Danny, you did have a
great game but you still made
mistakes. Nobody’s perfect.’”
Lewis recalled that in that
particular game, the personable
Herd head coach scored 44 points.
After 11 years in
administration, Lewis made
the trek to the Tri-State,
resurrecting his coaching career
at Chesapeake. It was there he
had the pleasure of coaching
his youngest, Mark, who is an attorney in Charleston.
Lewis’ father and mother came to this country from Italy.
After years working in the coal mining business, his father opened a grocery
store in Mullens.
It was a great way to grow up in a small town where people cared and were
passionate about sports.
While living with Kathy, who works for the West Virginia Department of
Education, Lewis can see the closeness of his children. While Mike lives away,
he is in constant contact. Obviously Kathy, Dan and Mark are nearby.
He is proud of his children – and rightfully so – for the success they have enjoyed.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “In thinking back over everything, there are
very few things I’d ever change.”
And his kids, competitive card games and passion for sports continue to
keep him young at the age of 102.
Herd Insider Columnist Mark Martin is the longtime sports director at WCHS/
WVAH Television in Huntington-Charleston, and the football game analyst and
coaches’ TV show host for the Thundering Herd/IMG Sports Network.
The two would move on from their playing careers to coach. Dan spent
several years at Socastee High School in South Carolina (he is a member
of the state’s Sports Hall of Fame) before joining forces with Mike on the
sidelines in the NBA.
“I was in Portland when Mike was an assistant. I was in Denver when he
was the head coach. I was in Phoenix when he was the head coach (and Dan
the assistant) and in New York (with Dan also as an assistant),” said Lewis
proudly. “I got around the country a bit.”
Mike and Dan also worked together with the Lakers. Dan left Los Angeles
to come home to Marshall. Mike, who has a home in White Sulphur Springs,
moved last week from an assistant’s role with the Philadelphia 76ers to
become head coach of the Houston Rockets.
Their playing and coaching prowess comes from a lot of hard work and
determination … just like dear old dad (though their late mother Betty Jo was
also very athletic).
“When I was in high school (at Mullens) I wanted to be an athlete. I decided
to be one of the better athletes,” Lewis said. “I did well in high school and got
a scholarship to Concord.”
He is a member of the Mullens, Concord and West Virginia Sports Writers
Association Halls of Fame.
He played for W.S. Woodell at both Mullens and Concord.
“He was a big influence in my life,” said Lewis, who became a biology
teacher – just like his coach.
While Dan and Mike played for Mullens, Lewis served as principal.
“I sat in the stands and watched them play. I had a notepad and would
write down the mistakes that they made,” he said grinning. “After every game
I would sit down and go over their mistakes.
“One particular game, I said ‘Danny, come in here I want to go over your
Lewis D’Antoni, 102, loves watching his son, Dan, coach the Herd in the
Henderson Center
Courtesy photo
10
Surprise finish in 2015 boosts Gray’s enthusiasm
HUNTINGTON — Aside from their wins and losses, head coaches are often
praised for their longevity on the job. John Wooden, Bobby Bowden and Joe
Paterno are a few coaches that come to mind in that category.
at the conference title atop his
list of great stretches of games
for his clubs.
In conversations about Marshall Athletics, men’s soccer head coach Bob
Gray should be mentioned in that same vein.
“I think that would have
to rank up there as No. 1 as
far as that stretch of games,”
Gray said. “We had a real
good stretch that one year
we made it to the conference
championship as well (2009),
and that was when they
only took four teams to
the championships in our
conference, where we had
beaten teams like SMU and UAB
and Tulsa.”
Gray will enter his 40th year as a collegiate head coach when players report
for training camp in August. His 2016 squad will be trying to match or better
one of the most improbable runs of wins in Marshall soccer history.
Last season’s Herd took down powerhouses UAB, Old Dominion, Charlotte
and South Carolina in succession to qualify for the Conference USA
Tournament, and then go on all the way to the championship match. Marshall
was the No. 7 and last seed in the bracket.
The Herd ended up conceding a goal to FIU in the 75th minute of the
championship game, and had numerous chances to equalize in the final 15
minutes of the contest before falling, 1-0.
“To win in such a fashion as we did, to beat three nationally ranked teams in
a row to get to the finals, including having to beat Old Dominion at their place
on Senior Night just to even qualify, certainly was a pleasant surprise,” Gray
said after his daily elliptical workout last Wednesday morning.
“We actually felt like we underachieved at times in the middle of the
season, losing a lot of close, one-goal games, then finished strong, which is
always what you want to do. We know our conference is one of the strongest
conferences in the country and we always seem to rise to the occasion at the
end when we’re playing some of our toughest matches.”
While his name is in the record book as head coach for that string of five
games, Gray was on the sideline for barely a game and a half of that stretch.
Second-half play against UAB on the evening of Oct. 31 began without him,
as he remained in the locker room with back issues. He eventually made his
way to the bench just before UAB leveled the score at 1 apiece in the 59th
minute, but witnessed his team take the lead and surrender it again in a
matter of 73 seconds … before an overtime goal by the now-graduated Matt
Freeman won it for the Herd.
Gray missed the final game of the regular season at Old Dominion, as well
as the first two matches of the C-USA Tournament at Charlotte, with longtime
assistant Thomas Olivier taking charge.
“I’ve always said I think I have one of the best coaching staffs in the
country,” Gray said. “Thomas has been with me here and he’s my right-hand
guy, and we’ve been very fortunate to hold onto a guy like Alex (Fatovic) for
as long as we did until we were finally able to make him full-time last year.
“They’re both professional. They’re both good at what they do and needless
to say, both of them are good recruiters. They just are very knowledgeable
people who someday will become head coaches – I have no doubt – and are
very effective at what they do.”
One would have to imagine that a coach entering his 40th year in charge
– and approaching his 22nd season at Marshall – has seen more playoff
scenarios pan out than you could shake a stick at, but Gray put last year’s run
However, last season was a bit different than that 2009 campaign.
“Our backs were against the wall when we lost a very tough one to Florida
Atlantic away in overtime and we had basically no margin for error after that,
and I told them it’s never over until it’s over,” Gray said, flashing back to
last October. “We had to come back and play a very good New Mexico team
who is always nationally ranked and was just in the (NCAA) Final Four three
or four years ago, we beat a UAB team that is a perennial top-25 team and
beat them in overtime, and beat Old Dominion at Old Dominion to make the
tournament.
“It just goes to show you how strong this conference is. This is the third
time in the last three years that the No. 7-seeded team made it to the
championship game.”
As for coaching into his fourth decade, the New Jersey native said the key
to longevity as a coach is to cherish the connections built with the players.
“Really, you look back on 40 years of coaching and it’s all about the
relationships that you have and grow with your student-athletes,” Gray
reminisced. “I get emails all the time – even from some of the teams from
early in my career – from former players and it’s just a thrill to see what a lot
of them have gone on to do with their lives and the impact that I’ve been able
to help them, in particular get an education, and for them to pass that on to
their kids and the relationships they have and established throughout their
careers.”
As far as he could remember off the top of his head, Gray said there are
only three other collegiate men’s soccer coaches in this part of the country
who are in the same territory as him in terms of years coacheing – and he
called all three of them friends of his.
They are Penn State’s Bob Warming, College of Charleston’s Ralph Lundy
and South Carolina’s Mark Berson. Warming and Lundy are entering year
No. 41 this fall, while Berson is on-par with Gray at 40 seasons once this
See CRISP, Page 29
11
HerdInsider.com
Herd recruit Mitchell earns Warner Award
By MARK MARTIN
player in his family.
Herd Insider Columnist
His father, Darrell, a tight end, played for West Virginia when current Herd
Coach Doc Holliday was an assistant. Mitchell’s older brother, Derek, played
at Marshall and earned Special Teams Player of the Year honors as a senior in
2013.
CHARLESTON — Marshall football recruit Cody Mitchell was among those
honored May 15 at the West Virginia Sports Writers Association’s 70th annual
Victory Awards Dinner.
Mitchell, a Point Pleasant High School product, was on hand to accept
the second annual Curt Warner Award as the state’s top running back. In
addition, he received his Class AAA All-State first team certificate.
It was a great night for the personable Mitchell.
Unfortunately, there was one key ingredient missing – Curt Warner himself.
The football legend from old Pineville High School was slated to be a part
of this year’s program as one of two inductees into the WVSA’s Hall of Fame
(along with longtime Oak Glen High wrestling coach Larry Shaw).
Warner, who resides in Seattle, was unable to attend due to family
obligations.
“I would have loved meeting him,” Mitchell said outside of the Grand
Ballroom of the Charleston Civic Center, where this year’s VAD was staged.
“It’s an honor to receive this award. I’ve heard that he was a very good
football player.”
Make that a great football player.
As a senior in 1978, Warner garnered the Kennedy Award (another honor in
which Mitchell made a strong run for during the 2015 season) as the state’s
top football player while competing for the Class A Minutemen.
After playing for Pineville (now part of Wyoming East High), Warner
ventured to Penn State and became a record-setting running back for the
Nittany Lions. It was a career that led to his induction a few years ago into
the College Football Hall of Fame.
Warner also enjoyed an outstanding NFL career, including eight seasons
with the Seattle Seahawks. He was a three-time Pro Bowl selection during his
playing days at the highest level.
While he didn’t get to meet Warner in person, Mitchell is grateful for winning
the award, sponsored by Frontier Communications.
“It means a lot,” he said prior to the banquet, which is the longest running
of its kind in the United States. “Being named the best running back in the
state, I don’t really take that upon me if I’m the best running back in the
state or not.
“I know I probably had the best blockers in the state. That’s how I take it.
My teammates all worked hard, that’s how we got where we got.”
Point Pleasant reached the Class AAA semifinals this past season. The
school drops down to Class AA this coming season.
In his final campaign for the Mason County school, Mitchell rushed for 2,332
yards and scored 42 touchdowns. He also excelled at catching the football
and playing defense.
By signing with Marshall, Mitchell becomes the third Division I football
Cody is ready for the next step as a football player. He arrives on the
Marshall campus this month.
“I’ll be going through skill development, lifting a lot and learning the
offense,” said Mitchell, who looks to play running back or tight end. “I’ve got
to get everything down, learn the offense. They’ve got to build my body up
and get me prepared to play bigger people.”
While Mitchell is excited about donning the green of Marshall, he had hoped
to be wearing red once more as a member of the WCHS-TV/FOX 11 NorthSouth All-Star Football Classic. Going to Marshall wiped out the chance of
suiting up for the red-clad South Cardinals in the June 18 showdown at
University of Charleston Stadium.
“My dad and brother both (played in the North-South game),” he said. “But,
I’ve got bigger things to do. I’ve got to take care of other things first.”
While the North-South wasn’t meant to be, Mitchell did, in fact, close out his
high school athletic career at UC Stadium by competing in the 102nd annual
West Virginia High School State Track and Field Meet.
In the process, he joined his father and brother in the category of individual
state champion.
Mitchell captured the Class AAA discus crown with a throw of 173 feet, 6
inches.
“Now we all have a state championship. Dad won the discus (in 1986 for
team champion Point Pleasant) and my brother won a state championship in
wrestling (at the 2009 State Tournament in Class AA’s 171-pound division),”
said Mitchell, who also placed second in the shot put with a heave of 50-8. “Now I have one. That’s pretty neat.”
Mitchell can hardly fathom his days at PPHS are over.
“It was a good time,” he said. “It flew by, it really flew by.”
Now the next journey of his life begins – as a student-athlete at Marshall
University.
As the winner of the prestigious Curt Warner Award, Cody Mitchell is hopeful
his career turns out to be just as productive.
There’s no question Mitchell will work extremely hard to try and make it
happen.
Herd Insider Columnist Mark Martin is the longtime sports director at
WCHS/WVAH Television in Huntington-Charleston, and the football game
broadcast analyst on the Thundering Herd/IMG Sports Network.
12
Building Marshall’s history, one game at a time
By STEVE COTTON
Herd Insider Columnist
same game.
Some nine months later, that is no longer the case.
HUNTINGTON — The Marshall football team has rewritten much of its
record book in recent seasons. This often happens before 30,000 or more
witnesses at Edwards Stadium.
When safety Tiquan Lang took two picks to the end zone against the
Boilermakers, it wasn’t actually the first time that someone had done so … it
was just the first time in 68 years.
The book also gets an annual makeover at this time of year, to much less
fanfare and in reverse chronological order. Let me explain.
The 1947 Herd went 9-2 in the regular season and played in Marshall’s first
bowl game, a 7-0 loss to Catawba (N.C.) in the Tangerine Bowl. Sophomore
fullback Marvin “Bear” Wetzel, early in a career that would land him in the
Marshall Athletic Hall of Fame, scored 18 touchdowns that year, making him
the No. 3 scorer in the nation.
For whatever reasons, Marshall didn’t do a particularly good job of recording
its athletic history over the years. If you listen closely to the Thundering
Herd/IMG Network broadcasts, you might have noticed that we often say
something like, “That’s the (most/longest/etc.) in the record book,” rather
than declaring that it’s the most or longest in school history.
For the last few years I’ve undertaken a project in an attempt to change
that.
When the broadcast season slows, I spend some time in the archives
at the Morrow Library. It’s a painstaking process of going back through
game reports, yearbooks, yellowed and brittle copies of the Parthenon and
microfilm … reels upon reels of microfilm.
Working backwards, I’ve been able to compile about 20 years each summer
into more complete accounts in which we can have greater confidence.
Slowly but surely the game-by-game history is being rebuilt. So far this year
the work has gone from 1960 back through the reinstatement of a football
program following World War II.
Without fail, the findings are interesting, and it’s time to share some of this
year’s “new” entries into the old book.
One of the great thrills of the 2015 season came with the packed-house win
over Purdue on opening day – including the “first time in the record book”
that a Marshall player had returned two interceptions for touchdowns in the
The campaign began at Fairfield Stadium against the College of
Steubenville, which had just started a football program. Marshall spoiled the
Barons’ inaugural game 60-6 and Wetzel made it into the end zone three
times – once on a rush and twice on interception returns, one of 35 yards and
another covering 25 yards.
So Lang’s day wasn’t a first, and one of these years we’ll know if it remains
as the second, or third, or fourth …
The College of Steubenville is today known as Franciscan University and
competes in NCAA Division III, although it had dropped its football program
by 1950.
Remember Marshall’s 48-7 victory over Rhode Island in 2014? The game
where the Herd ran roughshod over the Rams to the tune of 432 rushing
yards? It was reported at the time as the second-highest rushing total in the
record book.
Marshall rushed for 576 yards against Detroit Tech in 1940 and that was
See HISTORY, Page 30
13
HerdInsider.com
Football bowls again; soccer in finals times two
By JACK BOGACZYK
Herd Insider Editor
HUNTINGTON — It was a prosperous fall sports season in 2015-16 for
Marshall. Herd football continued its streak of 10-win and bowl success, and
the promise of what might be when the Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex
opened in 2013 was realized in a way.
Herd women’s soccer reached the Conference USA Tournament title match –
as expected – to end a record-setting season for Coach Kevin Long’s program.
The Marshall men climbed from their offensive drought with some late season
surprises, and then stunningly reached the C-USA title match, too, as the
lowest seed in the tournament bracket.
Here’s a look back at the start of the 2015-16 Herd athletics year, with
the fall sports:
Football
Coach Doc Holliday’s sixth Herd team became the third straight Marshall
squad to reach double digits in victories, with a 16-10 St. Petersburg Bowl
victory over Connecticut capping a 10-3 season. Holliday called it “good, but
not great … because we didn’t win a (Conference USA) championship.”
The bowl win was the fourth in five years for Marshall and fifth in a row for
a program that is 10-3 in bowls – a mark that tops all major colleges.
With consecutive seasons of 10, 13 and 10 victories, Marshall is one of
only seven FBS programs – and alone among 61 Group of Five conference
programs – to have three straight seasons of at least 10 wins. The only
schools with more consecutive double-digit seasons of success intact are
Alabama (8), Clemson (5), Ohio State (4) and Florida State (4).
Marshall also is the first team in the 20-season history of C-USA to reach
three straight 10-win seasons – a group that includes programs with
successful runs like Houston, Southern Miss, East Carolina, UCF, TCU, Tulsa,
Louisville and Cincinnati.
Marshall opened the season with its first victory against a Big Ten
Conference team, 41-31 over Purdue, in the league’s first football visit to
Huntington. The Herd also showed its mettle by outlasting Kent State in a
double-overtime road win.
The Herd lost the Battle of the Bell rivalry to Ohio for the fourth time in
five years, and also fell in road conference games at Middle Tennessee and
Western Kentucky. But the losses of key performers like running back Devon
Johnson, offensive tackle Clint Van Horn and quarterback Michael Birdsong
were overcome by younger players stepping up with success.
In particular, true freshman Chase Litton took over at QB after Birdsong
went down after two games, and the Herd defense provided plenty of
toughness by finishing among the nation’s top 10 in seven categories.
Marshall won two of the top Conference USA awards, as linebacker Evan
McKelvey was voted Defensive Player of the Year and Herd-record setting
kick/punt returner and receiver Deandre Reaves was selected as Special
Teams Player of the Year. Those two and offensive guard Sebastian “Swede”
Johansson were picked by C-USA coaches as all-conference first teamers.
Reaves, punter Tyler Williams, guard Michael Selby, long snapper Matt
Cincotta and nose tackle Jarquez Samuel made the second team, while Ryan
Bee, who emerged at defensive end early in the season, reached the AllFreshman Team. Cincotta was honored on the All-Academic squad.
Women’s soccer
A senior-laden team lost its opener, 1-0, at Monmouth (N.J.), then
went unbeaten in its next 12 matches (9-0-3) for the longest unbeaten
streak in school history (since 1998). Long’s team went 7-2-2 in road
matches and finished 15-4-2 overall and 6-2-2 in Conference USA play –
both school records.
Long was voted by his peers as the league’s co-Coach of the Year, and the
Herd gained the No. 2 seed in the C-USA Tournament, playing its way past
Nos. 7 and 6 seeds Louisiana Tech and Old dominion, respectively, by 2-1
scores. Then, in the championship match at Miami, North Texas nudged the
Herd, 1-0, as Marshall made its first appearance in a C-USA title game.
Marshall landed two All-C-USA first team selections in midfielder Kelly
Culicerto and defender Jenna Dubs, while keeper Lizzie Kish and forward
Sydney Arnold were second team picks. Forward Jayne Lawman and
midfielder Ashley Seltzer made the All-Freshman Team.
Culicerto also was an All-Academic first team pick and was joined
among teammates on the C-USA All-Tournament squad by Arnold and
forward Erin Simmons.
Arnold led the Herd offensively with 9 goals, 5 assists and 23 points.
Dubs set school records for career starts (80) and season starts (22) and
Culicerto rewrote marks for career game-winning goals (10), career shots
(236) and season shots (95). Kish established records for season (9) and
career shutouts (21), and the senior’s 0.59 goals-against average in the Herd
season mark, as is the team’s 0.70 goals-against average.
Marshall outscored foes 32-16, and outshot opponents 385-240.
See FALL, Page 31
14
Hoops, swim success warm the winter
By JACK BOGACZYK
the previous season.
Herd Insider Editor
Leah Scott, one of only two seniors on the roster – joined by starting point
guard Norrisha Victrum - was an All-C-USA first team selection, a first for
Marshall in 11 seasons in the league.
HUNTINGTON — If it seemed more toasty than usual in the Henderson
Center — and in Fitch Natatorium — this winter, it had nothing to do with the
air-flow system in the building.
Marshall’s two basketball squads and a historic season for the swimming
and diving team made it a winter worth remembering the Herd sports.
So, here’s a look back at the middle third of the Marshall 2015-16 athletics year:
Men’s basketball
In Coach Dan D’Antoni’s second season on his alma mater’s sideline, highscoring Marshall finished 17-16, including a 12-6 Conference USA regular
season – the best league finish for the Herd since going 12-6 in the MidAmerican Conference in 2000-01.
The Herd ranked in the top five nationally in scoring and tempo, and
finished in a third-place tie and received the No. 3 seed for the C-USA
Tournament, falling in the semifinals to eventual champion and NCAA
Tournament entry Middle Tennessee. The No. 3 seed was MU’s best in 11
seasons in C-USA and came after D’Antoni’s club was predicted to finish ninth
in the league preseason poll.
Marshall scored 90 or more points 15 times this season, ranking No.
2 in program history. The only team to do so more often was the 197172 squad (17 times). That NCAA Tournament club was Marshall’s last
nationally ranked hoops team.
It didn’t look like things were going to turn so rosy after a tough 0-6 start,
but the Herd improved significantly once transfer point guard Jon Elmore
became eligible in mid-December. Marshall was 2-8 without Elmore, and 15-8
with him in the lineup.
The Herd played only five of 13 non-league dates at home.
Senior transfer James Kelly became Marshall’s first All-C-USA first team
pick and also was voted the C-USA Newcomer of the Year. He was chosen as
one of 64 seniors to play in the tradition-rich Portsmouth (Va.) Invitational
Tournament, which annually is one of the top NBA scouts’ evaluation events.
Kelly also was voted all-district by the NABC (coaches).
The Herd set numerous school, C-USA and Henderson Center record during
the season, and Kelly’s 663 points and 324 rebounds were the most in that
combination by a Herd player in history. He also had a 20-20 game (27
points, 23 rebounds vs. Charlotte, Feb. 18), the first 20-20 by a Marshall
player since Randy Noll against Eastern Kentucky in 1972-73. He was one of
only two seniors on the team.
Junior Ryan Taylor continued to be a main cog for the Herd, and heads into
his senior season already as a member of the “1,300/700 Club.” In Marshall
history, only the storied Hal Greer, Charlie Slack, Russell Lee, George Stone
and J.R. VanHoose have reached that combination of numbers.
Women’s basketball
In Coach Matt Daniel’s fourth season, the Herd’s uptick continued.
Marshall finished 21-12, the most wins for a Marshall women’s team since a
24-5 season in 1986-87. With a roster dominated by freshmen – and several
of them from the region – Daniel lightened the non-conference schedule to
give the team a chance to win while maturing. The result was a 10-1 start,
the best for the program since 11-1 by that ’86-87 club.
Then, the Herd – picked 10th in the Conference-USA preseason poll
– finished in a tie for sixth place (9-9) and had the No. 6 seed for the
tournament, where the Herd went 2-1, upsetting Western Kentucky in a
quarterfinal before falling in the semis to Middle Tennessee.
Marshall accepted a bid to the 64-team WNIT and lost a first-round game
at Ohio. It was the Herd’s first WNIT appearance in program history and
came on the heels of the Women’s Basketball Invitational quarterfinal trip
Scott, from Detroit, finished her career ranked No. 5 in Herd career scoring,
with 1,371 points. Victrum, of Columbia, S.C., closed at No. 3 in career
assists with 394. Her eight points in the WNIT loss at Ohio gave Victrum
1,003 points in a Marshall uniform – the 20th player in Herd women’s hoops
history to reach 1,000 for a career.
Swimming and diving
Marshall made the Conference USA Swimming & Diving Championships
historic for the program from Feb. 24-27 in Atlanta, closing in third place –
the highest finish in the Herd’s 11 seasons in the league.
In the six-team competition, Marshall’s 618.5 points trailed secondplace Rice, with 636. FIU defended its 2015 title with 954 for a
second straight championship.
Coach Bill Tramel’s Herd had 12 podium finishes in the championship, with
two individual titles, five silvers and five bronze. The two titles – by junior
Megan Wolons in 3-meter diving and freshman Caroline Wanner in the 400yard individual medley – matched the total of golds Marshall had won in its
first 10 C-USA meets combined.
When Wolons won her diving gold, it was Marshall’s first individual C-USA
championship in eight years – since Michaela Sceli won the 100 breaststroke
in 2008. The only other C-USA title for MU had come in its first meet, in 2006
by Milla Kuurto in the 200 butterfly.
In 2015, the Herd won only three medals, two of those by Wolons in diving.
The C-USA Championships performance capped a special season in the pool
for the Herd, which loses only one senior from the roster.
Marshall competes in 22 swimming and diving events in the NCAA Division I
and Conference USA seasons. Of those 22, the Herd has set school records in
19 over the past two seasons. Twelve of those marks were set in 2015-16.
Among the school records broken in the C-USA meet was one in the
ultimate sprint, the 50 freestyle. Gloriya Mavrova became the first Herd
swimmer to go sub-23 seconds, at 22.96. Wanner, of Stafford, Va., won the
400 IM title in 4:15.07. Wolons, of Williamsburg, Va., captured Marshall’s first
C-USA diving crown with a 316.70 score on the 3-meter board.
Sophomore Madi Pulfer, of Ottawa, Ontario, qualified to compete in three
events in the Canadian Olympic Trials in Toronto from April 5-9. In another
recognition of the improvement in the Herd program, assistant coach Ian
Walsh was hired as an assistant at Cal, which has won four of the last eight
NCAA Division I women’s championships.
Indoor track and field
Senior Asia Bange and freshman Elena Marchand provided points as the
Herd completed its indoor track and field season at the C-USA Championships
at Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala., on Feb. 24-25.
Marshall finished last in the 13-team women’s field, with eight points. UTEP
won the crown with 120 points, with Western Kentucky second at 106 and
Rice third at 102.
Bange finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.46 seconds – just .04
off her school record she set a week earlier at the Buckeye Tune-Up in her
hometown of Columbus, Ohio.
Marchand, of Hickory, Pa., placed sixth in the shot put with a toss of
13.90 meters (45-7¼).
The Herd also hosted three indoor events on the Jeff Small Track in the
Chris Cline Athletic Center. Marshall entertained 15 other women’s teams
and 12 men’s squads in the Thundering Herd Invitational. Thirteen women’s
teams and eight men’s teams competed in the Chipotle Marshall Invitational.
The Herd also downed Ohio and Radford in a tri-meet to open the indoor
season in early December.
15
HerdInsider.com
Herd baseball springs forward in a big way
By JACK BOGACZYK
Herd Insider Editor
HUNTINGTON — Clocks at Daylight Savings Time weren’t the only thing
springing forward in recent months. How about Marshall baseball!
Playing home games in Huntington, Charleston and Beckley as a new
ballpark remained only a dream, Coach Jeff Waggoner’s Herd highlighted the
spring portion of the Marshall 2015-16 sports year with a special season.
Here’s a look back at Herd spring sports, with baseball – no pun
intended – leading off:
Baseball
The Herd posted a record-setting season, finishing 34-21, breaking the
school record for victories (30 in 2008). It was MU’s first winning season since
1994. Marshall finished second in the Conference USA standings (21-9), a
half-game behind champion Florida Atlantic, after being picked to finish 12th
(last) in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Coach Jeff Waggoner was named C-USA Coach of the Year, the first such
honor for Marshall since Jack Cook was the Southern Conference Coach of the
Year in 1989. Marshall also had the C-USA Assistant Coach of the Year in Tim
Donnelly and the Newcomer of the Year in junior first baseman Tommy Lane.
Lane, senior pitcher Chase Boster and senior left fielder DJ Gee were allconference first team picks (Gee also made the 12-man All-Academic Team).
Centerfielder Corey Bird was a second team pick and pitcher Joshua Shapiro
made the C-USA All-Freshman Team.
The Herd reached the eight-team C-USA Tournament bracket for the first
time since 2010, and reached the semifinals, going 2-2 with both losses to
nationally ranked host Southern Miss.
And certainly not to be overlooked were Boster getting to 20 career victories
– breaking the MU career record – and second baseman Aaron Bossi hitting
for the cycle back in the first six innings of an April 3 win over Louisiana Tech
at Appalachian Power Park.
That’s believed to be the first cycle in the Herd’s long baseball history.
Softball
The Herd set a season record with 154 stolen bases and senior Kaelynn
Greene set the single-season thefts mark with 51, but Marshall’s roller
coaster spring finished 30-26 (13-111 Conference USA). MU was ousted in
the second round of the C-USA Tournament.
Coach Shonda Stanton gained her 500th Marshall victory on March 13
against UTEP, but it came with a steep price as star center fielder Morgan
Zerkle suffered a serious right ankle injury in a home plate slide and was lost
for 22 games.
Zerkle eventually returned for the final 14 games, and now heads for
summer national-team duties with the USA Softball Elite Team. Left fielder
Greene finished her career with a .486 season at the plate to lead the club.
Greene and Zerkle were joined on the All-Conference USA first team by
catcher Taylor McCord.
Zerkle also made the C-USA All-Academic Team for a second straight year.
Junior pitcher Jordan Dixon was an all-league second team pick following a
season that included her first no-hitter (March 22 versus Ohio). The right-hander
is now the Herd’s career pitching leader in wins (76) and strikeouts (821) and is
the first MU pitcher with three seasons of 20 or more wins and 200 strikeouts.
Stanton had two infielders on the C-USA All-Freshman Team in first
baseman Briana Daiss (22 extra-base hits, including 10 homers) and second
baseman Samantha Loose.
See SPRING, Page 32
16
All-Conference USA and the Herd, 2015-16
HUNTINGTON — A recap of Marshall student-athletes and coaches who
received All-Conference USA honors in 2015-16 (compiled by Herd Insider
Editor Jack Bogaczyk):
Baseball
Keith LeClair Conference USA Coach of the Year – Jeff Waggoner
Conference USA Assistant Coach of the Year – Tim Donnelly
Conference USA Newcomer of the Year – Tommy Lane, Jr., 1B (Pendleton, Ore.)
First Team – Chase Boster, Sr., RHP (Stafford, Va.); DJ Gee, Sr., LF
(Seattle); Tommy Lane, Jr., 1B (Pendleton, Ore.)
Second Team – Corey Bird, Jr., CF (Elkview, W.Va.)
All-Freshman – Joshua Shapiro, LHP (Columbus, Ohio)
All-Tournament – Aaron Bossi, Sr., 2B (St. Louis); Corey Bird, Jr., CF
(Elkview, W.Va.); Chase Boster, Sr. RHP (Stafford, Va.)
All-Academic – DJ Gee, Sr., OF (Seattle), 3.52, Health Science
Men’s basketball
Conference USA Newcomer of the Year – James Kelly, Sr., F (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
First Team – James Kelly, Sr., F (Ann Arbor, Mich.)
All-Academic – Jon Elmore, So. (Charleston, W.Va.), 3.60, public
communications, management; Austin Loop, r-Jr. (South Webster, Ohio),
3.63, biomechanics/clinical exercise/psychology
Women’s basketball
First Team – Leah Scott, Sr., F (Detroit).
Men’s cross country
All-Academic – Tony Hayes, Jr. (Fairmont, W.Va.), 3.89, biology
Women’s cross country
None
Football
Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year – Evan McKelvey, r-Sr., LB
(Moncks Corner, S.C.)
Conference USA Special Teams Player of the Year – Deandre Reaves, r-Sr.,
KR-PR (Sterling, Va.)
First Team – Sebastian Johansson, r-Sr. OL (Karlstad, Sweden); Evan
McKelvey, r-Sr., LB (Moncks Corner, S.C.); Deandre Reaves, r-Sr., KR
(Sterling, Va.)
Second Team – Michael Selby, Jr., C (Sandersville, Ga.); Jarquez Samuel,
r-Sr., DT (Valdosta, Ga.); Tyler Williams, Sr., P (Fort Wayne, Ind.); Deandre
Reaves, r-Sr., KR (Sterling, Va.); Matt Cincotta, Sr., LS (Charlotte, N.C.).
Honorable Mention – Ryan Yurachek, So., TE (Myrtle Beach, S.C.); Davonte
Allen, r-Sr., WR (Belle Glade, Fla.); Gary Thompson, r-Jr. DE (La Mesa, Calif.);
D.J. Hunter, r-Sr., LB (Middletown, Ohio); Taj Letman, Sr. S (Elberton, Ga.);
Corey Tindal, r-Jr., CB (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.); Tiquan Lang, Jr., S (Valdosta, Ga.)
All-Freshman – Ryan Bee, DE (Ashland, Ohio)
All-Academic – Matt Cincotta, Sr., LS (Charlotte, N.C.), 3.60, biology.
Men’s golf
None
Women’s golf
None
Men’s soccer
Second Team – Nick Edginton, Sr., D (Wellington, New Zealand); Rimario
Gordon, Jr., F (Kingston, Jamaica).
All-Academic – Jack Hopkins, Sr., MF/D (Birmingham, Ala.), 3.63, biology.
All-Tournament – Rimario Gordon, Jr., F (Kingston, Jamaica); Dominik
Reining, So., GK (Frankfurt, Germany); Arthur Duchesne, Jr., D (Piegut
Pluviers, France).
Women’s soccer
Conference USA co-Coach of the Year – Kevin Long
First Team – Kelly Culicerto, Sr., MF (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.); Jenna Dubs, Sr.,
D (Sr., Green Lane, Pa.)
Second Team – Sydney Arnold, Jr., F (Jr., Stafford, Va.); Lizzie Kish, Sr., GK
(Sr., Boyertown, Pa.)
All-Freshman – Jayne Lawman, F (Winfield, W.Va.); Ashley Seltzer, MF
(Knoxville, Tenn.)
All-Tournament — Kelly Culicerto, Sr., MF (Sr., Charlotte, N.C.); Sydney
Arnold, Jr., F (Jr., Stafford, Va.); Erin Simmons, Sr., F (Gahanna, Ohio).
All-Academic – First Team: Kelly Culicerto, Sr., MF (Charlotte, N.C.),
3.77, business management; Second Team: Jenna Dubs, Sr., D (Green
Lane, Pa.), 3.57, biological sciences; Jordan Parkhurst, Jr., MF (Scottsdale,
Ariz.), 3.96, healthcare management
Softball
First Team – Kaelynn Greene, Sr., OF (Eastvale, Calif.); Taylor McCord, So.,
C (Gilbert, Ariz.); Morgan Zerkle, Jr.., OF (Milton, W.Va.)
Second Team – Jordan Dixon, Jr., P (Edmond, Okla.)
All-Freshman – Briana Daiss, 1B (Clermont, Fla.); Samantha Loose, 2B
(Anaheim Hills, Calif.)
All-Academic – Morgan Zerkle, Jr., OF (Milton, W.Va.), 3.68, clinical exercise physiology
Swimming & Diving
First Team – 3-meter diving: Megan Wolons, Jr. (Williamsburg, Va.); 400
IM: Caroline Wanner, Fr. (Stafford, Va.)
Second Team – 200 medley relay: Chloe Parsemain, Jr. (Fos-sur-Mer, France),
Mikaya Reynolds, Jr. (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Gloriya Mavrova, So., (Alexandria,
Va.), Lauren Cowher, So. (Roanoke, Va.); 200 freestyle relay: Lauren Cowher,
So. (Roanoke, Va.), Gloriya Mavrova, So. (Alexandria, Va.), Maggie Stovall,
Fr. (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Chloe Parsemain, Jr. (Fos-sur-Mer, France); 1,650
freestyle: Anna Lynch, Fr. (Oakwood, Ohio); Platform diving: Megan Wolons, Jr.
(Williamsburg, Va.); 200 butterfly: Chloe Parsemain, Jr. (Fos-sur-Mer, France)
Third Team – 800 freestyle relay: Maggie Stovall, Fr. (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Madi
Pulfer, So. (Ottawa, Ontario), Brittany Wilkerson, Fr. (Mechanicsville, Va.), Anna
Lynch, Fr. (Oakwood, Ohio); 200 IM: Caroline Wanner, Fr. (Stafford, Va.); 1,650
freestyle: Madi Pulfer, So. (Ottawa, Ontario); 100 freestyle: Gloriya Mavrova, So.
(Alexandria, Va.); 200 butterfly: Shir Wasserman, Fr. (Yehud, Israel)
All-Academic –Alex Black, Sr. (Palm Bay, Fla.), 3.67, marketing; Madi Pulfer,
So. (Ottawa, Ontario), 3.78, criminal justice
Tennis
Conference USA Player of the Year — Derya Turhan, Jr. (Bad Salzuflen, Germany)
First Team Singles — Derya Turhan, Jr. (Bad Salzuflen, Germany)
First Team Doubles – Derya Turhan, Jr. (Bad Salzuflen, Germany) and Anna
Pomyatinskaya, Jr. (Sochi, Russia)
Third Team Singles – Rachael Morales, Jr. (Columbus, Ohio); Anna
Pomyatinskaya, Jr. (Sochi, Russia)
All-Academic – Derya Turhan, Jr. (Bad Salzuflen, Germany), 4.00, psychology
Track & field
Indoor
None
Outdoor
Second Team – Heidi Heiniger, Fr., javelin (Sabetha, Kan.)
Third Team – Elena Marchand, Fr., discus (Hickory, Pa.)
All-Academic – Alexandra Phares, Sr., distance (Morgantown, W.Va.), 4.00, geography
Volleyball
First Team – Ally Kiekover, Jr., MB (Grand Rapids, Mich.)
All-Academic – Allie Kellerman, Jr., L (Louisville, Ky.), 3.90, accounting; Ally
Kiekover, Jr., MB (Grand Rapids, Mich.), 3.75, biological sciences
HerdInsider.com
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Bir
the w
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HerdInsider.com
rd is
word
Herd center fielder Corey Bird finished his junior season strong, going 8-for-19 for a .421 batting
average in four Conference USA Tournament games last week as Marshall finished 2-2 and reached
the semifinals at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss. Bird, who was an all-conference second team
selection during the season, was joined on the All-Tournament team by two MU teammates – senior
right-hander Chase Boster and senior second baseman Aaron Bossi. Bird, from Elkview, W.Va.,
started all 55 Herd games this season and batted .300 with 22 RBI. He led Coach Jeff Waggoner’s
team with 34 stolen bases
20
Senior Robert Fajardo (28) returned to his regular right field role in the
Conference USA Tournament and closed his career having played in 130
Marshall games, with 100 starts
Ryne Dean (8) homered and drove in two runs in the Herd’s victory
over FIU in the first round of the Conference USA Tournament at Pete
Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Miss. The senior batted .288 for the season
with 4 homers and 25 RBIs
HerdInsider.com
Junior lefty Parker Danciu (18) finished his first Marshall season with a 5-4 record in 15 starts as a regular in the weekend rotation
21
22
Herd second baseman Aaron Bossi (left) celebrates his home run in the Herd’s Conference USA Tournament-opening win over FIU. The senior
second baseman closed his career with an outstanding four games in the tourney, leading Marshall with a .471 average (8-for-17) with two
doubles a homer and 7 RBIs. He was chosen to the All-Tournament Team
HerdInsider.com
23
Herd catcher Sam Finfer (27) tries to corral a throw in Marshall’s first of two losses to Southern Miss in the Conference USA Tournament. Finfer
started 46 games for the Herd this season, and threw out 15-of-24 potential base stealers this season
24
Herd first baseman Tommy Lane was selected as the Conference USA
Newcomer of the Year and also made all-conference first team. The
junior from Oregon batteed .296 with 13 homers and 48 RBIs
Third baseman Tyler Ratliff’s absence from all-Conference USA honors
was a surprise, since the sophomore batted .327 with 12 homers and
47 RBI – and did most of his hitting in C-USA play, as Marshall finished
in second place, a half-game behind regular-season champ FAU
HerdInsider.com
Senior left-hander Caleb Ross (21) capped his Marshall career in fine
fashion in the Conference USA Tournament, throwing 3 2/3 scoreless
innings of relief and allowing only three hits with four strikeouts. The
Barboursville, W.Va., resident finished the season 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA
in 18 innings from the bullpen. He made 87 appearances in his Herd
career, 85 of those in relief
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COTTON
From Page 4
Double buzzer beaters versus Southern Miss
The last home game of the Marshall basketball
season warrants its own space here. It’s not uncommon to go several
seasons without a meaningful buzzer-beater shot that’s literally in the
air when the final horn sounds, but those in the Henderson Center on
March 5 saw it happen twice.
The first came with the Herd down by two points and only four-tenths of
a second remaining in the game – just enough time for Jon Elmore’s lob to
James Kelly for a tip-in to send the game to overtime.
Then, exactly five minutes of clock time later, Austin Loop’s final shot was at
the height of its arc when the horn sounded and the backboard lit up, and a
split second later it swished through the net for an incredible 108-106 victory
that locked up a No. 3 seed for the C-USA Tournament, Marshall’s best since
entering the league 11 years ago.
Derya Turhan named C-USA Women’s Tennis Player of the Year
Not since three-time C-USA Player of the Year and current Marshall
assistant coach Kellie Schmitt wrapped up her career in 2009 had a
Thundering Herd tennis player dominated the competition the way Turhan did
this season. Her 15-3 singles record was Marshall’s best since Schmitt went
21-4 in her senior season.
Turhan won all-league first team honors in singles and in doubles (with teammate
Anna Pomyatinskaya), and was even named the most improved senior player in the
ITA’s Atlantic Region. In addition, Turhan was named to the league’s All-Academic
Team after graduating in three years with a degree in psychology.
Kaelynn Greene’s superlative career
When the Marshall softball season came to a close at the C-USA Tournament
in Denton, Texas, so too came the end to the record-setting career of outfielder
Kaelynn Greene. The Eastvale, Calif., product departs as the Herd’s all-time
leader with 299 base hits, 141 stolen bases and 38 sacrifice bunts.
Her .410 career batting average is also No. 1 in school history among
those who’ve finished their careers (Morgan Zerkle is at .442 with a year of
eligibility remaining). From the time Greene received All-C-USA first team
honors and helped Marshall to a league title and NCAA Regional Tournament
berth by hitting .335 and stealing 32 bases as a freshman, her batting
average rose each season up to this year’s .486 mark.
Her 51 stolen bases as a senior also is the best in school history. Greene helped
Marshall win 129 games, a total bettered by only three senior classes in school history.
Herd baseball breaks records … and new ground
No. 1 among this year’s overachievers is without a doubt Coach Jeff
Waggoner’s Herd of baseballers … chosen 12th and dead last in the preseason
poll but headed to the Conference USA Tournament as the No. 2 seed,
finishing only a half-game behind regular-season champ FAU.
The Herd posted the most wins (34) in school history, the most conference
victories in school history (21-9 record) and the first winning season since
1994. Waggoner was the C-USA Coach of the Year – a Marshall first since
Jack Cook was the Southern Conference coach honoree in 1989.
Tim Donnelly was the C-USA Assistant Coach of the Year and first baseman
Tommy Lane as the Newcomer of the Year. Lane and four other players were
honored with all-league recognition, too.
The Herd reached the C-USA tournament semifinals in their first appearance
in the bracket in six years, losing twice to nationally ranked tourney host and
NCAA entrant Southern Miss.
The Herd was barely on the outside looking in for one of the 33 at-large
NCAA berths … all in all, an outstanding year.
Veteran play-by-play broadcaster Steve Cotton – a record 10-time West
Virginia Sportscaster of the Year — is in his 23rd season on the Thundering
Herd/IMG Sports Network.
BOGACZYK
From Page 5
the chief of Kindred Communications, for their
support as I tried to reshape the Herd Insider into
more of a feature- and column-driven publication, with less game coverage.
Readers can get that immediacy plenty of places on the worldwide web. Few
want to read a week-old game story in a weekly publication. So, we tried to
go with a better-crafted personal feature approach in the 100-some issues
since I’ve been involved.
In my four years and two weeks with Marshall and Herd Insider, I have
written nearly 1,100 stories, the majority of them on Herd athletes and
coaches for Herdzone.com, HerdInsider.com and the print version of HI.
Those folks have been great to deal with on a regular basis, not to mention
interesting copy. I’ve seen the construction of facilities and programs and
gotten to know a lot of good people.
I have tried to present an across-the-board approach, too, because having
been in the daily newspaper business for a long, long time, I understood how
collegiate Olympic sports often are ignored.
There are some people to thank here besides Mike K. They’re the folks
I’ve worked with on this publication since May 2012. Our design men – Alex
Hackney then and Adam “Spanky” Rogers now – have been real pros and
great at their craft.
Woody Woodrum has been with Herd Insider forever – or so it seems.
Woody welcomed me when I arrived and we’ve worked together over those
years. He’s the senior guy here – even if he isn’t as old as me – and he’s
battled health issues, but WW continues to hang in there to provide Herd fans
the coverage they want.
The columnists whose names and prose you’ve seen on our pages have
been more than solid. Steve Cotton (he’s graciously shared an office with
me), Mark Martin, Keith Morehouse, Chris Dickerson, Bill Cornwell, Braxton
Crisp … all have been dependable and readable – a great combination
when you’re an editor. Former HerdNation.com Publisher Jacob Messer has
helped greatly with our football recruiting issues. We couldn’t have done it
so well without him.
Our primary photographers – formerly Brad Helton and now Rick Haye
and Crisp – have provided the great images that have graced our pages on
a regular basis. You can’t do a tabloid like this one without a cover shot,
right? My hat’s off to them, as well as Jason Corriher and the Marshall sports
information staffers and Conference USA staff and member schools who have
arranged for shots and contributed to the photo bank, too.
Those people know I appreciate their work. But I want you – the reader
and the advertiser – to know I appreciate you being there, too. Without you,
what’s the purpose? We tried to do this well not only because we were paid to
do so. We did it because we cared.
Thanks to all in Herdland!
Retiring Herd Insider Editor Jack Bogaczyk, winner of the 2016 Gene
Morehouse Memorial Award for distinguished service to sports journalism
in West Virginia, is a three-time West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year,
and a Football Writers Association of America and U.S. Basketball Writers
Association award winner.
27
HerdInsider.com
WOODRUM
From Page 6
For Greene it was her third time being honored but
her first selection to the first team. The senior set
career highs in her final season hitting .486 with 86 hits (both second most in
Herd history), 41 runs scored and a Herd single season record 51 stolen bases.
Greene hit an inside-the-park home run at home against Radford for her
first career homer. She became Marshall’s all-time career leader in hits (299),
stolen bases (141), sacrifice hits (38) and stolen base attempts (169). Her
career .410 batting average is second in team history.
“KG has a near perfect touch on her short game causing teams to bring an
outfielder into the infield to match her speed,” Fearn said. “It’s going to be
hard to replace such a special player as she stole 51 bases this season.”
As a junior and sophomore, she was NFCA second team, All-Conference
USA first team as a junior and senior and was also named to the All-C-USA
Tournament team in 2014. She was named to both first team All-C-USA and
All-C-USA Freshman team, hitting .335 with 32 runs and 32 stolen bases. As a sophomore, Greene hit .397 and had 81 hits, 40 runs and 31 steals while
as a junior, she hit .429 with 70 hits, 31 runs, 19 RBI and 27 steals.
Greeen played for club ball in California where she held a batting average
of .418 and on-base percentage of .475, with 18 stolen bases for the
Scorpions Gold summer club team. In the fall, she hit a .404 clip, had an
on-base percentage of .466 and swiped 13 stolen bases for Orange County
Lionettes club team. Also a track standout, Greene holds all the records at
Eleanor Roosevelt High School in the 4x100 and 4x400 relays and 100 and
200 meter sprints.
James Kelly, Basketball
No. 24, James Kelly, from Ann Arbor, Michigan, was named to the National
Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division I All-District 11 first team.
Kelly is the first Marshall player to earn NABC All-District first team honors
since Herd Hall of Famer Tamar Slay in 2001 and 2002. The selections are
voted on by member coaches of the NABC and represent the finest basketball
players and coaches across America.
The award lengthens a list of Kelly’s accolades that includes Conference USA
Newcomer of the Year and All-C-USA first team honors. He led the Herd in
scoring (20.1 points per game), rebounding (9.8 per game), steals (1.3 per
game) and blocks (1.1 per game). He became one of two players in Marshall
history (Russell Lee, 1971 and 1972) to record at least 600 points and 300
rebounds in a single season, posting a program-record combination of those
statistics (633/324). He had 15 double-doubles and was named C-USA Player
of the Week three times.
The Miami (Fla.) transfer graduated from Marshall having made his mark on
the record book, owning the Henderson Center high for single-game rebounds
with 23 against Charlotte (Feb. 18). His 260 season field goals made rank
No. 5 in Herd history; his 663 season points rank No. 7 and his 324 season
rebounds rank No. 12.
Kelly hit a lay-up on Senior Day with less than a half-second left to send the
Herd’s game with Southern Miss to overtime, while teammate Austin Loop won
the game with a three, the top moment of the year in the HerdSPYs.
Kelly averaged 17.9 points and 10 rebounds per game at Owens Community
College, where he was a teammate with Herd teammate Justin Edmonds.
He was the first player at OCC to record 1,000 points, 678 rebounds, 105
blocks, 104 steals and 70 assists in two seasons. He played at the senior-only
Portsmouth Invitational Tournament after his final Marshall season, and hopes
to play pro basketball either in the U.S. or overseas.
“It’s a really prestigious honor for James, and for all the guys in the (Portsmouth
Invitational) Tournament,” Herd Coach Dan D’Antoni said. “I’m happy that he’s
getting this opportunity. It’s a big deal for him and his basketball career.”
Deandre Reaves, Football
No. 19, Deandre Reaves, was the Team MVP and Offensive MVP, a redshirt
senior from Sterling, Va., who was named the Conference USA Special Teams
Player of the Year. Reaves is one of the nation’s top kickoff and punt return
men – scoring three touchdowns on returns this season – and also added 47
receptions for 617 yards and four touchdowns as the Herd’s slot receiver.
Marshall football secured its fifth consecutive bowl victory on Saturday with
a 16-10 win over the UConn Huskies at the St. Petersburg Bowl. The Herd was
first to strike with a two-play drive that was set up by Reaves’ punt return.
After bobbing and weaving out of tackles, Reaves found a crease and returned
the punt for 26 yards to the Huskies’ 20-yard line.
Reaves had 88 yards receiving on nine receptions in the bowl game, tied the
St. Petersburg Bowl reception record of nine that was originally set in 2013 by
East Carolina’s Justin Hardy.
“So far I’m very happy with what I’ve done to help the team out. What more
could you ask for?” Reaves said during the season. “I go out there every day
and work my tail off. It’s fun seeing your teammates smile; it’s fun seeing
your teammates happy. So, whatever I can do to continue to make that
happen, that’s what I’m going to continue to do (in the future).”
During his career, he played running back, insider slot receiver, outside wide
receiver and cornerback, ran back both kicks and punts and is Marshall’s alltime leading all-purpose yardage leader with over 3,000 yards — most since
Ray Crisp set the record in 1978 with just over 1,900.
Reaves finished with 3,579 all-purpose, a total of 64 receptions for 773
yards with four scores. His kick returns were 92 for 2,548 yards and three
touchdowns (a long of 97 yards) and his punt returns were 20 for 255 yards
and 1 touchdown (a long of 69 yards).
Reaves was born on April 30, 1992, graduating with a Marketing degree.
He starred at Dominion High School in northern Virginia, running for 5,620
yards and scored 68 touchdowns (including three of kick returns) as fouryear starter. As senior, rushed for 1,780 yards and 28 touchdowns and was
selected All-Metro second team by The Washington Post and was the Offensive
Player of the Year in Dulles District, Group AA All-State first team (with Herd
teammate Devon Johnson, of Richlands) by AP, VirginiaPreps.com and Virginia
High School Coaches Association as well as All-Region II. Just like at Marshall,
Reaves played numerous positions, including running back, quarterback,
cornerback and kick returner.
Reaves signed with the San Diego Chargers as a free agent this spring as a
kick returner and receiver, and is headed to camp in July at press time.
Derya Turhan, Tennis
Derya Turhan finished a great third year of tennis by being named the ITA
Atlantic Region Most Improved Senior Player, announced by the Intercollegiate
Tennis Association. This followed being named the Conference USA Player of
the Year, and All-Conference USA first team in singles and doubles.
The Bad Salzuflen, Germany, resident capped off her final season at Marshall
by being named the Conference USA Player of the Year and a singles first
team selection. Turhan ended the year with a 15-3 (.833) singles record,
the best winning percentage in the No. 1 spot for the Herd since 2009 when
current Herd assistant Kellie Schmitt was 21-4 (.840).
Turhan finishes her collegiate career with a 37-25 singles record in dual matches.
Marshall finished 11-11 this season, and was the No. 5 seed in the C-USA Tournament.
She was named to the 2016 Conference USA Women’s Tennis All-Academic
team with a 4.0 GPA in Psychology.
Turhan entered the season with a 22-22 overall singles record. As a
freshman, she held a 12-10 record while primarily playing in the No. 2 spot in
the Herd lineup. She moved into the No. 1 spot as a sophomore and posted
10-12 record. In her final season at Marshall, she collected 15 wins in the No.
1 spot and was undefeated against nationally ranked opponents.
Turhan graduated from Marshall with a degree in Psychology in only three
years, passing on a fourth year of eligibility to return home to Germany.
“I’m going to miss Marshall a lot,” Turhan told Herd Insider just before the
C-USA Tournament. “I just loved playing for the Herd. It’s a different feeling
because we don’t have this in Germany.
“We don’t have college tennis and when I came here, I didn’t know what to
expect. Tennis is usually an individual sport, so it’s completely different here.
You’re not playing for yourself; you’re playing for the team. And that’s exciting
and I’ve really enjoyed it. I’m going to miss it a lot, yes.”
“It’s tough to lose her,” Herd Coach John Mercer said. “It’s been a while
since we’ve had a No. 1 player who has been as dominant as she has.
It was really great this year that she’s been able to step it up a notch,
become that type of player.”
See WOODRUM, Page 28
28
WOODRUM
From Page 27
Norrisha Victrum, Basketball
Norrisha Victrum, No. 20, nicknamed “Ree-Ree,”
a senior point guard from Columbia, S.C., signed with the Marshall program
under Coach Royce Chadwick in November of 2011. He left Marshall for UTCorpus Christi before she got on the floor for the Herd.
With new Coach Matt Daniel, hired in May of 2012, Victrum helped the Herd
to turn around the program from a 9-21 and 3-13 in Conference USA as a
freshman to 11-20, 3-13 as a sophomore before the team posted a 17-15
record in her junior season, 8-10 in C-USA and an appearance in the postseason for the first time since 1997 for the program, upsetting No. 1 seeded
host Northern Kentucky before losing to No. 4 seeded Mercer, 73-71, as the
No. 8 seeded Herd impressed observers around the nation. Seventeen wins
were the most for Marshall since 2005-06.
Victrum was instrumental in an even better senior season, moving Marshall
to 21-12, 9-9 in Conference USA and advancing to the semifinals of the
Conference USA Tournament with wins over FIU (76-44) and WKU (66-63)
before falling to eventual champ Middle Tennessee (69-41) in the semis.
Marshall earned a bid for the WNIT, but once again was on the road when the
Herd fell at longtime rival Ohio, 76-68.
It was the most wins at Marshall in 29 years, back to the 1986-87 team
that finished 24-5 for Coach Judy Southard. It was only the third postseason
appearance for the program since leaving the AIAW for the NCAA in 1981-82
… and two of those came for Daniel and his point guard Victrum.
In the game with the Bobcats, Victrum scored eight points to give her 1,003
points for her career. She becomes the program’s 20th 1,000-point scorer, and
as a point guard Victrum’s 394 career assists will have her third in the school’s
all-time records. She played in 120 games at Marshall.
“I think about how Coach Daniel and I came in together and we’ve been
through everything together,” Victrum told Herd Insider late in her senior
season. “I’m going to be his first four-year player here, ever. I think when I
leave here, Coach and I, we’ll always have that relationship. I’ve seen a lot of
changes here at Marshall, in the team and program. It’s a blessing to be here
for all of the positive changes he’s made in the team.
“I just feel like I’ve been living the dream. Graduating, it’s great, wonderful.
It’s been a great opportunity. I can’t thank Marshall enough for what they
did to help me with my education and basketball. Then, next, I want to go
overseas. I’m putting in applications to do that; I’m going to go to some
combines, try everything I can to continue my basketball career and if I
doesn’t continue, I know it’s not me.
“I’m going to put every effort into it. If it doesn’t happen, I want to coach,
probably college level if I can. But I’ll start my way up, AAU, whatever,
something to get my resume up. I just want to stay close to the game.”
She graduated from Marshall with a degree in Management and a minor
in Sports Management.
Victrum hit the game-winning shot at Louisiana Tech late in the season, a
floater with 1.1 seconds left to win the game 54-52, scoring 12 points with six
rebounds and six assists.
As a senior, Victrum averaged 9.1 points per game (third on the team), 3.5
rebounds (at 5-foot-5), fifth on the team, and her 3.9 assists per game led
the Herd. She also led the Herd with 51 steals after bouncing back from knee
surgery for an ACL tear suffered late in her junior season.
As a junior, she finished the season with 10.4 points per game, 3.5 assists
per game, 2.9 rebounds per game, and 1.2 steals per game, ranked seventh
in Conference USA with 3.5 assists per game and fifth in the conference in
assist to turnover ratio (1.6). Victrum set career-highs with 25 points and
eight field goals made at Rice, and her 86 threes in this season were 11th
most in MU history.
As a sophomore, she appeared in all 31 games, starting 24, and led the
team with 3.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 30.3 minutes per game. Victrum was
fifth on team in scoring with 7.6 points per game.
Victrum played 30 games as a 2012-13 freshman, starting 28, and was the
fifth-leading scorer for the Herd by averaging seven points per contest. She
grabbed 3.5 rebounds per game, led the team in minutes played with 928.
Victrum came to Marshall after playing point guard from Columbia, South
Carolina, where she played basketball for the Columbia High School women’s
basketball program. She was recognized as one of the top-five female
basketball players in the state of South Carolina for the 2011-12 season and
was the Defensive Player of the Year in the state.
29
HerdInsider.com
CRISP
From Page 10
upcoming season starts.
He did say there may be more out there, but still, to
have four men’s soccer coaches on the East Coast who have a combined 162
years of coaching experience is remarkable.
“It’s been a long run for sure,” Gray admitted. “I look back and there’s not
so many coaches that have said they’ve been a head coach for 40 years.
That’s new water for this day and age when you’re accountable to everything
you do and different athletic directors and all that. I’m truly blessed to have
done this for as long as I have.”
Of course, when a coach has been around for as long as Gray has, people
start wondering about when he might retire. That question was floated around
among supporters and media members after Gray missed those three games
last season.
To that, Gray said: “It’s just a year at a time now. I think I’ll continue to do
it as long as I enjoy it. I’m looking forward to this fall for sure because we’re
hosting the Conference USA Championships. That new facility(Hoops Family
Field at Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex) has been phenomenal, so I want
to stick around at least a few years to enjoy it. I’ll reevaluate at the end of the
fall and decide then.”
Gray said excitement is building for this coming fall, with plenty of
underclassmen who have played returning to campus, plus a slew of new
recruits. Gray mentioned a group of junior college recruits he hopes can come in
and be effective immediately, given their two years of collegiate play already.
Plus, there’s Paul Whitener, the product of MLS club Sporting Kansas City’s
development academy. According Marshall Sports Information, Whitener
participated in some practice sessions with Sporting KC’s reserve club, Swope
Park Rangers, and attended training camp for the U.S. Men’s Futsal National
Team this spring in Urag, Croatia. Futsal is an indoor soccer-variant, with five
players per side and a smaller, harder ball.
“This year, we think we have a good nucleus for sure, especially on the
defensive side. We need some of our top recruits to come through and have
an impact,” Gray said. “Last year, Rimario Gordon obviously was the one
player who stood out at the end of the year, and we would have loved to have
him back this year, but he decided to turn pro, so that was a big loss for us.”
As for the upcoming season’s schedule, Gray said to expect the usual cast of
Conference USA teams set to come into Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex.
The Herd will be visited by Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, FIU and Old Dominion,
and go to Kentucky, South Carolina, New Mexico and UAB.
“Hopefully this year we’ll make life a little easier on ourselves and get
off to a stronger start within the conference and carry it on through to the
conference championships,” Gray said.
Gray added that the Herd picked up a midweek date (Oct. 11) at Wake
Forest, which finished last season ranked No. 1 in both the RPI and NSCAA
polls. The Demon Deacons fell to eventual-champion Stanford, 2-1, in
overtime in the national quarterfinals.
On top of that, Veterans Memorial Soccer Complex will play host to the 2016
Conference USA Men’s Soccer Championships, which will take place Nov. 9-13.
A lot of memories are made and stories written in 40 years, and Marshall’s
Bob Gray certainly hopes to add many memories and stories to his collection
next season in Huntington.
Herd Insider Columnist Braxton Crisp is a recent Marshall graduate, earning
his degree in Broadcast Journalism. He covered Herd Athletics for four years
as a staff member at WMUL-FM, and hopes to find a job covering sports in the
Tri-State area, or return in the near future.
30
HISTORY
From Page 12
— and remains — the highest total on record.
However, the most recent round of research has
uncovered 512 ground yards during a 46-7 win over
Morris Harvey at Laidley Field in 1955, and 450 in a 47-13 win over Western
Michigan at Fairfield Stadium in 1954.
The Rhode Island yardage stands as fourth best … for now.
was John Carroll’s starting halfback that day?
A 74-yard screen pass and run from John Chmara to Marshall Hall of Famer
Len Hellyer at Youngstown State in 1952 stands at No. 38 among the longest
Marshall touchdown passes, and it’s bound to fall several more notches.
What’s worth noting is that something good did happen during that 6-6 tie, a
game that just might be the worst in Herd history.
Among Marshall’s runs against Rhode Island was a 63-yard quarterback
keeper by Rakeem Cato. It was, at the time, the third-longest run “in the
book” by a Marshall quarterback, topped only by a 76-yard carry by Danny
Wright against Furman in 1978 and a 75-yard touchdown run by Bernard
Morris versus East Carolina in 2007.
Marshall fumbled 10 times, losing seven to the Penguins, and threw two
interceptions. Youngstown lost three fumbles and threw one interception.
The lone Penguin score came after Marshall fumbled on the third play of the
game. YSU missed the extra point, but Marshall was offside. They missed it
again on the second try.
That next week, a family member of former Marshall quarterback Jim
Maddox told me that he remembered rushing for a touchdown of more than
80 yards in Toledo’s Glass Bowl one season. I assured them that we’d be
working to get that into the book.
Hellyer’s long touchdown tied the game in the third quarter, but Marshall
missed the extra point. Youngstown was offside. Right on cue, Marshall
missed it again.
It’s there now – officially an 82-yard TD run in 1959 and the critical play
in a 20-13 Thundering Herd victory. Cato’s run is now listed at No. 7 on the
chart, also bettered by a 78-yard touchdown run by Ogden Thomas against
Western Kentucky in 1951, a 71-yarder by Bob Wagner at Bowling Green in
1958 and a 65-yarder by Bill Zban against Western Michigan in 1954.
Speaking of the Broncos, work remains to find an exact number but one of
the greatest performances by any Marshall opponent was turned in by WMU
running back Lovell Coleman at Fairfield Stadium in 1958.
Marshall already knew about Mr. Coleman; the previous season he had
taken a kickoff two yards deep in the end zone and returned it all the way for
WMU’s only touchdown during a 12-7 Herd win in Kalamazoo.
Prior knowledge of Coleman’s skills didn’t help as Western beat Marshall 3024 in ‘58. His 152 rushing yards included a 72-yard touchdown run. He also
returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and a punt 61 yards for a score.
That’s a documented 298 all-purpose yards for Coleman, but there’s likely more.
So far, nothing has turned up to show if he had any more punt or kickoff
return yards – and a 30-24 score would indicate a good chance that he might
have had some of both, not to mention any potential receiving yards.
For the time being, the highest all-purpose yardage number by any Marshall
opponent is 326 by Eastern Kentucky running back Markus Thomas on the day
he ran for 300 yards and caught a 26-yard pass against the Herd in 1989. More
work might, one of these days, move Coleman to a higher perch on that list.
Incidentally, Coleman’s day does not show up in Western Michigan’s own
record book, either. The Broncos need to do some research, too.
Until a few weeks ago, the fewest total yards Marshall had allowed to any
opponent in a game had been listed as the 63 yards gained by Ohio in 1997.
That was until the revelation that Tennessee Tech managed only 27 total
yards – 14 rushing and 13 passing – during a 13-0 Marshall win at Fairfield
Stadium in 1950. Tech gained only two first downs, both right at the end of
the game against the Marshall reserves.
Other nuggets from this era include what (for now) stands as the longest
punt return against Marshall – a 94-yarder in 1949 by a John Carroll
University Blue Streak by the name of Burrell Shields. Trivia question: Who
The weather must have been horrendous, right? The field was a mud
hole and the rain blew sideways the entire time? National weather service
records show us that it was 50 degrees and sunny, with a breeze of 5-to-7
mph. Yeesh.
Not long after, Marshall radio announcer Jack Bradley took a new job and
moved to the Pacific Northwest. Who could blame him?
Trivia answer: Don Shula was the halfback for John Carroll University in
1949, and a good one, who helped the Blue Streaks top Marshall, 26-7.
Finally, the Herd played at Delaware Oct. 24, 1959. The Blue Hens won
30-6 in a nondescript game, part of a 1-8 season under rookie Coach Charlie
Snyder. It’s what happened the night before the game that caught my
attention, a story I’m surprised I’d never heard.
Marshall traveled to the game in two DC-3 propeller planes. Assistant
Coach Spike Underwood took half of the team on one, which made a stop in
Pittsburgh. Snyder and the rest of the team went first to Washington, D.C.
A foggy rain clouded the Newark, Del., airport and as the D.C. crew made
its approach, the plane’s generator conked out. The pilot lost radio contact
with the outside world and also lost his lights, so he could not see the
instruments. He made the decision to abort the landing and find a safer place
to put the plane down.
They turned back toward Baltimore and the generator kicked on just long
enough to let the tower know of their predicament, then fizzled again. The
plane landed safely, chased down the Baltimore runway by a convoy of
fire trucks and ambulances. Snyder’s group bused the rest of the way to
Wilmington, arriving at 2:30 a.m.
This wasn’t treated as a big deal at the time, warranting only a couple
of paragraphs at the end of sportswriter Fred Burns’ game recap in
Sunday’s Herald-Advertiser. But more than 56 years later, tucked away
in a corner of the Morrow Library archives, it shivered the spine of one
Thundering Herd researcher.
Veteran play-by-play broadcaster Steve Cotton – a record 10-time West
Virginia Sportscaster of the Year — is pointed toward his 24th season on the
Thundering Herd/IMG Sports Network in 2016-17.
31
HerdInsider.com
FALL
From Page 13
Men’s soccer
The Herd finished 8-9-2 (2-5-1 C-USA) and
struggled offensively for most of the season – with 20 goals in matches —
but won when it counted and reached the Conference USA Tournament title
match.
Veteran Coach Bob Gray – in his 40th season as a collegiate head coach and
21st with the Herd – had a club that needed to win its final two regular-season
matches to reach the seven-team Conference USA Tournament bracket, and
after tying New Mexico, 1-1, MU downed UAB, 3-2 in overtime, at Veterans
Memorial Soccer Complex, then won at Old Dominion, 1-0.
As the last seed in the field, the Herd was anything but done. It opened with
a 1-1 tie with second-seeded host Charlotte, but advanced on penalty kicks,
5-3. In the semifinals, Marshall upset No. 3 seed South Carolina, 1-0.
The final was one of lower-seeded advancement, as fifth-seeded FIU
managed to edge the Herd, 1-0, for an NCAA Tournament berth. It was the
Herd’s first C-USA final since a 2009 loss to Tulsa.
Marshall put three players on the all-tournament team in keeper Dominik
Reining, defender Arthur Duchesne and forward Rimario Gordon. Senior
defender Nick Edginton and Gordon were all-conference second team
selections, while senior midfielder/defender Jack Hopkins reached the C-USA
All-Academic squad.
Gordon’s seven goals led the Herd.
Volleyball
Conference USA allows eight of its 13 volleyball schools to play in the league
tournament. Entering the final regular-season match and mired in a five-game
losing streak, Marshall went to Middle Tennessee – where the winner would
get the last seed in the bracket in San Antonio.
Marshall survived in a five-setter with the Blue Raiders, rallying from an 0-2 deficit
to clinch its spot. Alas, in the tournament opener, Coach Mitch Jacobs’ team fell, 3-1,
to 24th-ranked and top-seeded Western Kentucky, the eventual champion.
After an 8-1 start, the Herd finished 16-14 (7-9 C-USA) in Jacobs’ 14th
season on the Marshall sideline (255-190). The Herd had one All-C-USA first
team selection in middle blocker Ally Kiekover, while Kiekover and libero Allie
Kellerman made the C-USA All-Academic team.
Kellerman established a new school record for single-season digs, with 555,
topping Ashley Barnard’s 530, set in 2003.
Cross country
On Halloween morning in Bowling Green, Ky., Marshall finished eighth of 11
teams in the Conference USA Cross Country Championships, while the Herd
women placed ninth of 13 schools.
In the men’s 8K race, freshman Nick Schmidt was the top Herd finisher, with
a time of 25:51.9 for 26th place. He was the Herd’s lone top-40 finisher.
The women competed over 5K, and Marshall had a pair of top-30
performances. Freshman Adriana Cook finished in 18:36.6 for 23rd place, while
junior Andrea Porter was five spots behind Cook, with a clocking of 18:44.4.
UTEP rolled to the men’s title with its top five runners all in the first seven finishers,
while Rice had three top-10 runners in gaining the women’s championship.
Cook, of Crab Orchard in Raleigh County, earlier had won the title in the
Cross Country Only Invitational in Mechanicsville, Va. (Oct. 17), leading
Marshall to the women’s team title among six schools.
Cook became the first Herd women’s runner to win a cross country event
since September 2002, when junior Shelby Pride won in a dual meet against
Ohio University in Ona. Cook’s triumph was the first by a Herd freshman
woman since Maureen Hackett won the VMI Invitational in 1995.
Sophomore Tony Hayes was the Herd’s only postseason award selection in
C-USA, reaching the men’s All-Academic squad.
Herd sports with split seasons (tennis, men’s golf, women’s golf) are reviewed
in the 2016 spring sports story, since that is their main season of competition.
32
SPRING
From Page 15
Greene and Zerkle were selected as All-Mideast
Region first team picks by the National Fastpitch
Coaches Association, while Dixon was named to the second team.
Tennis
Led by junior Derya Turhan – who graduated with an MU degree in
psychology in three years and headed home to Germany – Marshall pushed
through a season of resilience with only a six-player roster.
Coach John Mercer’s team finished 11-11 against a tough schedule – 10
foes were nationally ranked – as Turhan’s 15-3 record at No. 1 singles was the
program’s best since current assistant coach Kellie Schmitt went 21-4 in 2009.
Marshall was eliminated in the C-USA Tournament quarterfinals by
No. 75 Old Dominion.
Turhan was voted as the Conference USA Player of the Year and also was
named the ITA Atlantic Region’s Most Improved Senior Player, an honor for
which she was eligible since it was her final season. Turhan also was an
All-C-USA first team selection in singles and doubles (with teammate Anna
Pomyatinskaya) and made the league’s All-Academic Team.
Rachael Morales moved from No. 6 singles in 2015 to the No. 2 spot and
finished 12-6, while Pomyatinskaya overcame injury and joined Morales as AllC-USA third team selections.
Outdoor track and field
Junior Antonique Butler was the final Herd track and field participant this
spring, as the lone Marshall qualifier for the NCAA Outdoor East Preliminaries
in Jacksonville, Fla., last week. Butler, of Nassau, Bahamas, entered triple
jump competition with her 12.76-meter leap (41-10½) at the same facility as
the NCAA prelims used – at the UNF Spring Break Invitational in March.
Butler’s entry ranked 34th among 48 NCAA East qualifiers. She finished in 38th place in
the NCAA prelims, with a leap of 12.40 meters (40-8 ¼). That closed the Herd season.
It marked the ninth straight year coach Jeff Small’s program has had at least
one NCAA preliminaries entry. The Herd has had 19 entries since 2006.
A young Marshall squad placed 10th among 13 teams in the Conference
USA Championships from May 12-15 at Middle Tennessee. The Herd scored 31
points and posted a pair of top-three finishes – both by freshmen.
In her first C-USA meet, the Herd’s Heidi Heiniger, of Sabetha, Kan., finished
second in the javelin with a throw of 43.01 meters (141-1½). In the discus,
freshman Elena Marchand, of Hickory, Pa., finished a solid rookie season with
a third-place finish at 46.60 meters (152-11).
Those two performances earned all-conference honors for the pair.
At the tradition-rich Penn Relays in late April, Marshall’s 4x100 team won
its event in the College Division, with a 46.25-second effort by Kametra Byrd,
Shanice Johnson, Asia Bange and Hope Julmiste.
Alexandra Phares, of Morgantown, was honored on the CoSIDA Track &
Field/Cross Country Academic All-District II Team in late May. Phares posted a
4.0 and gained her degree this semester in geography.
Men’s golf
It was a building year for the Herd under fourth-year Coach Matt Grobe,
as sophomore Alex Weiss posted a team-best 73.17 season stroke average,
which ranks No. 4 in Marshall history. Logan Lagodich was the Herd’s lone
senior, and redshirt junior Davey Jude also finished his career and graduated.
Marshall’s top team finish was a second place among 11 teams in the fall
portion of the schedule, at the Hummingbird Intercollegiate hosted by Western
Carolina. In the Conference USA Championships last month in Texarkana, Ark.,
Marshall placed eighth among 13 teams.
Weiss, of Pickerington, Ohio, posted four top-10 finishes in 11 events, including
a third-place tie at the Patriot Intercollegiate in the fall in northern Virginia. The
best individual finishes were by juniors Will Evans and Clark Robinson.
Evans was second at Guyan Golf & Country Club back in September in the
Joe Feaganes Marshall Invitational, while Robinson finished in a second-place
tie at the Hummingbird – two weeks after he tied for third at the inaugural
Mountaineer Intercollegiate hosted by West Virginia’s new program at the Pete
Dye Club in Bridgeport.
Women’s golf
In Coach Tiffany Prats’ second year in charge of the program, the Herd
continued to battle its way forward, and Marshall’s finish in a tie for seven at
the season-ending Conference USA Championships last month matched its
best in 11 years in the league.
Individually, redshirt freshman Sarfina Seretharan posted the top season
scoring average, at 78.0 strokes. The Malaysian bounced back from a
right ACL tear and surgery. Her 71 in the fall-opening Bluegrass Kickoff at
Richmond, Ky., was the team’s low score for the year.
Ylva Forslund, one of five freshmen on the seven-player roster, was
Marshall’s top finishers in the C-USA Championships – tied for 16th place
at 11-over-par 227 at The Verandah Club in Fort Myers, Fla. The Herd’s top
individual finishes were a pair of fourth places, by sophomore Pimrawee
Huang at the Bluegrass Kickoff and by freshman Leigha Holt at the Bearcats
Spring Classic in late March in Florida.
Prats likes her team’s future. The lone senior on the 2015-16 roster, transfer
Sierra Everson, played in only five of 11 events.
33
HerdInsider.com
2016-17 Herd Fall Sports Schedules
(Schedules tentative, subject to change; times ET where available)
Sept. 2
at Bowling Green
Bowling Green, Ohio
7 p.m.
Home events in bold type
Sept. 4
at Eastern Illinois
Charleston, Ill.
3 p.m.
Sept. 10
Appalachian State
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Football
Sept. 14
at High Point
High Point, N.C.
7 p.m.
DateOpponentSiteTime
Sept. 17
at UAB
Birmingham, Ala.
7 p.m.
Sept. 10
Morgan State
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Sept. 21
Northern Kentucky
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Sept. 17
Akron (HF)
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Sept. 25
Florida Atlantic
Veterans Complex
1 p.m.
Sept. 24
Louisville
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Sept. 28
at Evansville
Evansville, Ind.
7 p.m.
Oct. 1at PittPittsburghTBA
Oct. 2
at South Carolina
Columbia, S.C.
7 p.m.
Oct. 8
at North Texas
TBA
Oct. 8
Liberty
Veterans Complex
1 p.m.
Oct. 15
Florida Atlantic (HC) Edwards Stadium
TBA
Oct. 11
at Wake Forest
Winston-Salem, N.C.
7 p.m.
Denton, Texas
Oct. 22
Charlotte
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Oct. 16
FIU
Veterans Complex
1 p.m.
Oct. 29
at Southern Miss
Hattiesburg, Miss.
TBA
Oct. 22
at New Mexico
Albuquerque, N.M.
9 p.m.
Nov. 5
at Old Dominion
Norfolk, Va.
TBA
Oct. 26
Old Dominion
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Nov. 12
Middle Tennessee
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Oct. 29
at Kentucky
Lexington, Ky.
7 p.m.
Nov. 19
at FIU
Miami
TBA
Nov. 4
Charlotte
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Nov. 26
Western Kentucky
Edwards Stadium
TBA
Nov. 9-13
Conference USA Tournament Veterans Complex —
HF – Marshall Athletics Hall of Fame Game
Women’s soccer
HC – Homecoming
Cross country (men’s and women’s)
Aug. 12
Dayton (EX)
Veterans Complex
5 p.m.
DateEventSite
Aug. 14
at Ball State (EX)
Muncie, Ind.
2 p.m.
Sept. 3
Purdue Invitational
West Lafayette, Ind.
Regular season
Nashville, Tenn.
Sept. 17
Commodore Classic
Aug. 19
at Purdue
West Lafayette, Ind.
7 p.m.
Sept. 30
Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational South Bend, Ind.
Aug. 21
at Michigan
Ann Arbor, Mich.
2 p.m.
Oct. 14
Wake Forest Invitational
Aug. 26
at Longwood
Farmville, Va.
7 p.m.
Oct. 29
Conference USA Championships Charlotte, N.C.
Sept. 2
IUPUI
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Nov. 11
NCAA Mid-Atlantic regional
Sept. 4
East Tennessee State Veterans Complex
4 p.m.
Sept. 9
at Ohio
Athens, Ohio
4 p.m.
Men’s soccer
Sept. 15
Western Kentucky
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Sept. 18
at William & Mary
Williamsburg, Va.
1 p.m.
Aug. 16
Rio Grande (EX)
Veterans Complex
4 p.m.
Sept. 22
at North Texas
Denton, Texas
8 p.m.
Aug. 20
Radford (EX)
Veterans Complex
4 p.m.
Sept. 25
at Southern Miss
Hattiesburg, Miss.
2 p.m.
Sept. 30
at Louisiana Tech
Ruston, La.
8 p.m.
Winston-Salem, N.C.
State College, Pa.
Regular season
Aug. 26
Western Michigan
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Aug. 28
Detroit
Veterans Complex
1 p.m.
See SCHEDULES, Page 34
34
SCHEDULES
From Page 33
Sept. 7
Oct. 7
UAB
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Oct. 9
Middle Tennessee
Veterans Complex
2 p.m.
Oct. 14
at FIU
Miami
7 p.m.
Oct. 16 at Florida Atlantic
Boca Raton, Fla.
1 p.m.
Oct. 20
UTEP
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Oct. 28
Charlotte
Veterans Complex
7 p.m.
Nov. 2-6
Conference USA Tournament Charlotte, N.C. —
EX — Exhibition
Volleyball
Hoosier Invitational
Aug. 26
Evansville
Bloomington, Ind.
5 p.m.
Aug. 27
Northern Kentucky
Bloomington, Ind.
10 a.m.
Aug. 27
at Indiana
Bloomington, Ind.
7 p.m.
Ohio
Henderson Center
6 p.m.
—
Aug. 30
West Virginia Capitol Classic
Sept. 2
Morehead State
Charleston CC
12:30 p.m.
Sept. 2
West Virginia
Charleston CC
7:30 p.m.
Sept. 3
Indiana State
Charleston CC
1 p.m.
—
at Bowling Green
Bowling Green, Ohio
7 p.m.
Toledo Rocket Invitational
Sept. 9
IPFWToledo, OhioNoon
Sept. 9
St. Francis (Pa.)
Toledo, Ohio
5 p.m.
Sept. 10
at Toledo
Toledo, Ohio
TBA
at Stetson
Deland, Fla.
7 p.m.
—
Sept. 14
Gator Invitational
Sept. 16
Florida A&M
Gainesville, Fla.5 p.m.
Sept. 17
Jacksonville
Gainesville, Fla.10 a.m.
Sept. 17
at Florida
Gainesville, Fla.7 p.m.
Sept. 23
Charlotte
Henderson Center
6 p.m.
Sept. 25
Middle Tennessee
Henderson Center
1 p.m.
Sept. 30
at Southern Miss
Hattiesburg, Miss.
6 p.m.
Oct. 7
FIU
Henderson Center
6 p.m.
Oct. 9
UTSA
Henderson Center
1 p.m.
Oct. 14
at Rice
Houston
6 p.m.
Oct. 16
at Louisiana Tech
Ruston, La.
1 p.m.
Oct. 21
at FIU
Miami
7 p.m.
Oct. 28
Western Kentucky
Henderson Center
6 p.m.
Oct. 30
Florida Atlantic
Henderson Center
1 p.m.
Nov. 4
at North Texas
Denton, Texas
7 p.m.
Nov. 6
at Charlotte
Charlotte, N.C.
1 p.m.
Nov. 10
UTEP
Henderson Center
6 p.m.
Nov. 12
at UAB
Birmingham, Ala.
—
Nov. 18-20 Conference USA Tournament Houston
TBA
—
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