Sports ROUNDUP followed up their blistering opening round of 270 with another solid round of 5-under-par 279 to give them a two-round total of 549 and a 30-shot victory over St. Mary’s. ACU’s win was its first at its own tournament since 2006 and only the second at the Coody since winning it in 2002. Carpenter’s title was his 16th in 39 career collegiate starts. ACU also won the Bruce Williams Memorial Invitational in San Antonio, a 33-stroke victory over 11 other teams. Sophomore Corbin Renner was the medalist, his first win as a collegiate golfer.
C ro ss C ountr y • Chris Ward was hired Sept. 5 to be ACU’s head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach in charge of distance events. Ward comes to Abilene after spending three years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Oklahoma City University. • The Wildcats were led to the finish line by junior Alyse Goldsmith and freshman Xavier King through their first few meets of the 2012 season. Both Goldsmith and King finished as runners-up of the season-opening 5K and 8K races at the McMurry/Bill Libby Invitational.
JEREMY ENLOW JEREMY ENLOW
Fo ot ball • The Wildcats were picked to finish second in the Lone Star Conference in 2012 behind pre-season favorite and defending LSC champion Midwestern State. ACU welcomed more than 120 players at the start of summer camp, including 36 lettermen from last year’s 8-3 team that reached the NCAA Division II playoffs for the sixth straight season. • Senior quarterback Mitchell Gale was selected as the Lone Star Conference’s Offensive Pre-season Player of the Year. The pre-season citation was Gale’s third of the summer as he earlier was named the NCAA Division II Offensive Player of the Year by Lindy’s magazine and the Beyond Sports Network. Gale and senior placekicker Morgan Lineberry were each selected pre-season first team all-America by the Beyond Sports Network, while junior wide receiver Taylor Gabriel was selected to the third team. • ACU won its final NCAA Division II game played at Shotwell Stadium, upsetting 21st-ranked West Alabama in overtime, 22-16. Junior running back Darrell Cantu-Harkless had nine catches for 113 yards and his 14-yard touchdown reception from quarterback Mitchell Gale provided the Wildcats’ winning margin. ACU won both its games in the First-and-10 Challenge series between teams from the Lone Star and Gulf South conferences. Earlier in the year, the Wildcats defeated GSC member Delta State, 34-28, in Cleveland, Miss. Two ACU senior defensive backs – L.B. Suggs and Steven Ford – led an improved Wildcat defense. Sophomore defensive back Nick Richardson had seven sacks in a 51-0 season-opening win over McMurry University, tying a school record set in 1997. S occer • Seniors Julie Coppedge and Arielle Moncure were each named first team Capital One Academic all-District 6 by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Moncure is a first-time CoSIDA honoree, while Coppedge has earned this award each of the last two years.
JEREMY ENLOW
Volleyball • The American Volleyball Coaches Association listed ACU among its recipients of the 2011-12 AVCA Team Academic Award. The Wildcats were just one of three LSC universities to receive the award, which honors collegiate teams maintaining at least a 3.30 cumulative team grade-point average on a 4.0 scale. ACU placed a majority of its 2011 roster on the LSC Commissioner’s Honor Roll, and claimed Borja Cortés five spots on the league’s all-academic team, led by senior scholar-athlete and LSC Academic Player of the Year Jennie (Hutt) Weathery. • Junior Caley Johnson was among eight NCAA Division II volleyball players named for the second consecutive year to the Capital One Academic all-District 6 first team selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America. Johnson is an accounting major with a 4.0 grade-point average. Golf • The Wildcats began Fall 2012 with a No. 13 ranking from the Golf World / Nike Golf NCAA Division II coaches’ poll, but moved up to No. 3 by late October. • Senior all-America Alex Carpenter and the Wildcats stormed to the individual and team championships at the season-opening Charles Coody West Texas Intercollegiate hosted at Abilene’s Diamondback Golf Club. The Wildcats
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Alyse Goldsmith
L.B. Suggs
M e n’s Te nnis • Junior Hans Hach received the James O’Hara Sargent Sportsmanship Award at the USTA / ITA National Small College Championships in November 2012. The award, which is presented by Rolex Watch, USA, goes to players who display outstanding sportsmanship and exemplify the spirit of college tennis. Hach finished as the tournament’s runner-up after falling, 6-2, 6-2, to the nation’s No. 1 singles player, Georgi Rumenov of Armstrong Atlantic. • At the USTA/ITA South Central Regional Championships, hosted by ACU in late September, Hach won his third consecutive singles title followed by a second doubles championship. Hach first defeated Cameron University’s Nicolai Ferrigno in three sets 4-6, 6-2, 6-2, and then paired with sophomore Borja Cortés to upset top-seeded Bruno Tiberti and Martin Poboril of Oklahoma Christian University, 6-4, 3-6, 10-6. • The Wildcats will begin the Spring 2013 season ranked 11th in the nation by ITA. Hach is ranked No. 2 in singles and No. 3 in doubles with Cortés. Wo me n’s Te nnis • Freshman Kaysie Hermsdorf and senior Laura Mongin won the doubles main draw at New Mexico State University, 9-7, over the Tarleton State University team of Alicia Perez and Karla Martinez. Hermsdorf won a second major title the following weekend at the Kansas Invitational after going 3-0 in the G Singles Draw. • Senior Julia Mongin earned her third straight USTA / ITA South Central Regional singles championship after defeating St. Mary’s Mariana Rong, 6-0, 6-1. The native of Jaunay-Clan, France, also won her second doubles title in three years, after she and sophomore teammate Brittney Reed doubled up Oklahoma Christian University’s Barbora Bozkova and Angie Torres, 6-3, 6-3. • The Wildcats will begin the spring 2013 season ranked third in the nation according to the ITA, behind Armstrong Atlantic and BYU-Hawai’i. Julia Mongin is ranked fifth in singles and fourth in doubles with sophomore Reed.
M e n’s Ba sk e tb a ll • Year two of the Joe Golding era began Oct. 25, 2012, when ACU faced national Division I powerhouse Baylor University in an exhibition game for the second straight year in Waco. The Bears prevailed, 103-75. • Golding bolstered his coaching staff in the off-season with the additions of John Fowler and Cooper Schmidt. Fowler is one of two graduate assistant coaches, along with Jaret von Rosenberg, while Schmidt serves as ACU’s director of basketball operations. Guard Desmond Woodberry is the only returning Wildcat from last year’s team. He has been joined by five high school recruits, junior college standout Cornelius Cammock and six senior transfers, five of whom have NCAA Division I experience. Wome n’s B a sk e tb a ll • Julie Goodenough’s first game as ACU head coach was a 94-66 win Nov. 10 against Texas A&M-International in Moody Coliseum. Goodenough’s coaching staff includes assistant Jarod Newland, who served as her recruiting coordinator for two years at Charleston Southern University, and former Campbell University player Katelyn Bass, who serves as a graduate assistant coach. The 2012-13 roster features eight players from last year’s team, including third-team all-America Mackenzie Lankford. 䊱