Sports Round-up
Cross country takes NCAC championship
The Kenyon Lords won the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Cross Country Championships for the second consecutive year. In one of the most dominating performances in NCAC history, the Lords finished 1, 2, 4, and 6 to capture the title. The meet was held at Oberlin College at the Carlisle Reservation in Carlisle Township, Ohio.
Senior Vince Evener of Millerstown, Pennsylvania, the first-place finisher, completed the 8,000-meter course in 25:17. A history major who was recently elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Evener was named NCAC Champion and NCAC Runner of the Year. Also receiving awards were sophomore Greg Remaly of Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, who was named NCAC Runner-Up, and first-year student Andrew Sisson of Granville, Ohio, who was named NCAC Newcomer of the Year. Coach Duane Gomez, who has led the Lords and Ladies cross-country teams for the past seventeen years, was named NCAC Men's Coach of the Year.
Paced by junior Katherine Kapo of Charleston, West Virginia, who finished the women's 5,000-meter course in 19:13 to claim eighth place, the Ladies continued their string of top-three finishes in NCAC competition. In the seventeen-year history of NCAC cross-country championships, the Ladies have placed among the top three teams sixteen times.
The Lords competed in the NCAA Division III Regionals on November 11 at Hanover College, where they placed second in the thirty-team field to win a berth at the NCAA finals at Whitworth College. They ended the season ranked thirteenth in the nation.
Bill Heiser wins top coaching honors in lacrosse
Bill Heiser, Kenyon's long-time head men's lacrosse coach and assistant football coach, was named both the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Coach of the Year for 2000. This was Heiser's second coach-of-the-year award from the NCAC; the first came in 1997.
But those weren't the only honors to come his way. The Lords' outstanding 2000 season also brought Heiser the Francis "Babe" Kraus Award, honoring him as the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association's (USILA) Coach of the Year in NCAA Division III.
The three prestigious awards are among the highlights of Heiser's thirty-one years at the College. His teams have compiled records of .500 or better eighteen times, including the last seven seasons in a row and twelve of the last fifteen. Heiser's overall record with the Lords now stands at 208-167.
A respected figure in the intercollegiate lacrosse world, Heiser has twice been invited to coach in the USILA North-South All-Star game, most recently in 1993. Forty years ago, in 1961, he was introduced to that illustrious event as a player. After completing a standout senior year with the Hofstra University team, Heiser was invited to play in the North-South contest. He earned honorable mention All-America recognition that same year.
The Kraus Award is the first for Heiser, who was a finalist for the same prize in 1972. He is the fourth Kenyon mentor to receive national coach-of-the-year honors in recent years.
"This is a great honor, but I'm really more happy for our players," says Heiser, who was inducted into Ohio's Lacrosse Hall of Fame in 1998. "This national recognition will show them how much respect the lacrosse community has for what they accomplished throughout the year. I also want to recognize my assistant coach, Paul Butler, who did a great job in his first year of coaching with us."
The Lords 2000 season was filled with firsts, including a 13-2 finish that set the single-season record for victories in the fifty-three-year history of the sport at the College. The Lords also claimed a share of the conference championship for the first time ever, an accomplishment that paved the way to Kenyon's first appearance in the NCAA Division III national lacrosse tournament.
The Lords set fifteen individual or team records in single-game, season, or career statistics in 2000. Those efforts included a record-scoring offense (16.2 points per game) that ranked eighth nationally, led by senior Evan Bliss of Bethesda, Maryland, with 3.93 goals per game. With the help of Bliss, who was ranked seventh nationally in scoring, the Lords shattered a single-season record for goals with 243. On the defensive side, the Lords limited eight foes to single-digit scoring and five of those to five goals or fewer. Junior goalie Greg Clancy of East Falmouth, Massachusetts, played a major role in that effort and ranked fourth in the nation in saves percentage at 67.4 percent. Clancy earned first-team All-NCAC honors for his efforts.
Foran named to Academic All-America Team
During the past few years, senior Mark Foran has been blocking opponents twice his size and tackling textbooks, too. He is 5' 10" and just 190 pounds, but he stands tall on the football field and in the classroom.
His commitment to the balance of academics and athletics recently paid off with a spot on the 2000-01 Verizon/CoSIDA Academic All-America Football Team. Foran was one of just forty-nine players from around the country voted to the prestigious team.
Foran, a native of Newark, Ohio, who is planning a career in medicine, is a biology major with a 3.92 grade-point average in his major. He is a Kenyon Honor Scholar and a three-time Merit List honoree.
"Mark epitomizes the student-athlete," says Head Coach Vince Arduini. "He doesn't sacrifice academics for athletics; he puts 100 percent into everything he does. He's first class all the way, and Kenyon is very proud of him."
The Lords' starting center for three seasons, Foran played in thirty consecutive games. He was consistently recognized as one of the top blockers on the Kenyon offensive line. Foran was team captain last season.
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