Media Guide - UNCWsports.com - UNC Wilmington Athletics

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Seahawk Track & Field Coaching Staff Jim Sprecher Head Coach 13th Season Ball State, 1985 Jim Sprecher, the most successful cross country/track and field coach in UNC Wilmington history, has established the UNCW program as one of the CAA’s best as he enters his 13th season in 2008-09. Sprecher, 45, guided the Seahawks to three consecutive Colonial Athletic Association men’s track and field championships from 1997-99 before accepting the top post at his alma mater, Ball State. He returned to UNCW in 2004 and has picked up where he left off, leading the Seahawks to titles once again in 2005, 2007 and 2008. The Seahawks captured their ninth overall men’s championship last spring in dramatic fashion, taking the 4x400 Relay and rallying for the win. Ten Seahawks won CAA championships, 18 were named All-East and nine qualified for the NCAA Regionals in Tallahassee, Fla. 2007-08 was a special year for the program in addition to winning the CAA Championship. A pair of alums were honored when Michael McDuffie was inducted into the UNCW Hall-of-Fame and Anna Raynor competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials. UNCW won its first of two straight CAA titles in 2007. On the men’s side, the Seahawks produced six CAA champions and 22 All-CAA performers. Sprecher’s club then posted a best-ever fifth place finish at the IC4A Championships in Princeton, N.J., qualifying seven performers for the NCAA Regionals in Gainesville, Fla. The women’s squad, meanwhile, continues to make progress as well, highlighted by the emergence of thrower Anna Raynor. The remarkable athlete successfully defended her Championship of Americas title in the javelin at the Penn Relays and qualified for the NCAA Championships for the third straight year. Overall, the women’s team featured five All-CAA performers, 17 qualifiers for the ECAC Championships and five qualifiers for the NCAA Regionals. In 2004-05, Sprecher led the Seahawks to their seventh CAA crown with a school-record 218.5 points. He was named CAA Coach-of-the-Year for the fourth time after collecting the honor in 1997, 1998 and 1999. Following a brief stint at Ball State, Sprecher came back to the Port City and began rebuilding the program. In 2004-05, UNCW featured 12 conference champions, 41 All-CAA performers, 25 NCAA East Regional qualifiers and set 23 school records. The 2004-05 campaign also saw the emergence of one of the top athletes in the program’s history as Raynor grabbed the national spotlight. Raynor became the school’s first national qualifier for the indoor nationals in the high jump and then collected All- American honors in the javelin at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif. S p r e c h e r headed up the UNCW program from 1992-99 before leaving for Muncie. In seven seasons, he led the Seahawks to three CAA titles, coached 37 individual conference champions and 173 All-CAA performers. In that span, Seahawk thinclads earned All-East honors 49 times and won Penn Relays events five times, four in relay events and one individual crown. He also coached two NCAA Division I national qualifiers and one Academic All-American. Sprecher was named CAA Men’s Track & Field Coach-of-the- Year in 1997 and 1998, and shared the honor with James Madison’s Bill Walton in 1999. In 1994, Sprecher was selected CAA Women’s Cross Country Coach-of-the- Year. Coaching Experience (23 years): • Head Coach UNCW, 1992-99, 03-Current • Head Coach Ball State, 2000-03 • Head Coach Arkansas College, 1992 • Asst. Coach Louisiana Tech, 1989-91 • Asst. Coach Wayland Baptist, 1988 • Graduate Asst. Coach Baylor, 1987 At UNCW Sprecher By the Numbers 106 All-East Performers 86 CAA Champions 79 NCAA Regional Qualifiers 22 Academic All-Americans 13 Academic All-America Teams 7 NCAA National Qualifiers 7 CAA Coach-of-the-Year Awards 5 All-East Region Honorees 4 ECAC Champions 4 Thomas Moseley Outstanding Athlete Awards 4 Penn Relays Relay Champions 3 NSCA Strength & Conditioning All-Americans 3 UNCW Hall of Fame Inductees 3 Chancellor’s Cup Awards 3 NCAA All-Americans 3 CAA Athlete-of-the-Year winners 3 CAA Most Vaulable Performers 3 Penn Relays Individual Champions 1 USA National Team Athlete 1 Olympic Trials Qualifier 1 CAA Scholar/Athlete-of-the-Year Award 1 NCAA Southeast Regional Athlete-of-the-Year At Ball State, Sprecher coached eight Mid- A m e r i c a n Conference champions and had five of his athletes qualify for the NCAA Division I Championships, with four earning All-American honors. Under Sprecher’s leadership, Zach Riley became the first twotime track All-American at Ball State on the NCAA Division I level with his performances in the hammer throw in 2001 and 2002. Sprecher’s teams have excelled academically as well. He has coached 13 Academic All-American teams and 21 Academic All- Americans. Sprecher and his wife, Gwenann, have two children, Alex, 18, and Trace, 13. 4 • UNCWsports.com
Coaching Staff Bob Berke Assistant Coach Bob Berke enters his tenth year as an assistant track coach at UNCW. Berke specializes in coaching the pole vaulters. In his nine seasons, the men and women Seahawk vaulters have won seven conference championships. He coached the first IC4A track champion for UNCW. Last season, Colton Weaver participated in the NCAA Eastern Regional Championships and four vaulters competed in the prestigious Penn Relays. Berke began pole vaulting in high school when fiberglass poles were first introduced. He went on to play basketball for the University of Pittsburgh where he received his Bachelor’s Degree in math in 1974 and his Master’s in 1975. He spent the next nine years flying jets for the Navy. In 1984, he joined USAirways and is employed as an airline captain. He retired from the U.S. Naval Reserves in 1994. After a 26-year hiatus from pole vaulting, Berke became involved with the Seahawk track team. He has developed the Wilmington area into a bastion of pole vaulting. The track team has successfully recruited state high school pole vault champions from North Carolina and surrounding states. Berke is a USATF Level II jumps coach and has been instrumental in building UNCW’s vaulting facilities into the finest in the state. He organized the Wrightsville Beach Vault for five years. In addition, through USATF, he founded the Wilmington Vault Club. Berke has resumed his own vaulting career and is a USATF All-American. He trains regularly with Earl Bell, the 1984 Olympic Bronze medalist, in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and is a member of the North American Pole Vault Association, which develops Olympic caliber vaulters. His goal is to raise UNCW to the national level in pole vault. Donald Thomas Assistant Coach Donald Thomas enters his sixth season at UNCW after spending eight years as assistant coach at the University of Maryland. He coordinates the Seahawks’ recruiting and assist with coaching the Sprinting and Jumps Events. His efforts in recruiting have helped UNCW win Three Colonial Athletic Association Championships. Thomas, who coached the hurdlers and high jumpers in College Park, also recruited Maryland’s 1999-2000 Track & Field News nationallyranked recruiting class. While at Maryland, Thomas coached Vanessa Jones to an Atlantic Coast Conference Championship, an ECAC Championship and three NCAA Championship appearances in the High Jump. In 2000, Jones reached the finals of the High Jump at the Olympic Trials. Thomas also trained Thema Napier to an ECAC Championship and NCAA Championship appearance in the 400 Hurdles. In 2002, Napier reached the finals of the USA Track & Field Championships in the 400 Hurdles. Thomas has coached athletes that have qualified for the Olympic Trials, USA Championships, NCAA Championships and earned All East, All ACC and All CAA Honors. He is a USATF Level One Certified Coach. Jeni Steiner Assistant Coach Jeni Steiner enters her first season with the Seahawks after joining the staff on Aug. 21, 2008. “Jeni is a tremendous addition to out coaching staff,” said Sprecher. “Being a former Olympic Trials and NCAA qualifier, she’ll be a great role model for our student athletes.” Steiner comes to UNCW after spending the past season as a volunteer assistant with the storied Nebraska Track & Field program. With the Seahawks, she’ll be working with the athletes in throw events. Steiner, who earned All-Big 12 honors six times, was a four-year letterwinner for the Huskers where she earned First-team Academic All-Big 12 honors her final three seasons in Lincoln. As a freshman, she earned Second-Team Academic All-Big 12 honors. In 2007, she was named Nebraska’s Most Improved Female Field Athlete after breaking the 52-foot mark and advancing to the NCAA National Championships in Sacramento, Calif. That same season, Steiner finished 16th overall at the Olympic qualifier in Indianapolis. Layne Schwier Assistant Coach Layne Schwier enters his sixth year as an assistant coach with the Seahawks and will be responsible for coaching the men’s and women’s distance programs during both the cross country and the track seasons. His squads are making strides in the CAA in cross country and expect to make a contribution once again this spring on the track as both teams make another run at a CAA Championship. Distance runners under Schwier currently hold 62 spots on UNCW’s Top 10 all-time lists, with 31 of them being achieved by current team members. In addition to improved running performance, the squads have excelled in the classroom with the women’s team being named an All-Academic team by the USTFCCCA for five straight years. Schwier’s athletes have been named Academic All-American eight times. In 2005, Marissa Murtaugh garnered All-CAA following her 11th-place individual finish at the CAA Cross Country Championships. In 2007, Bernadette O’Neill finished fifth in the 10k at the CAA Track & Field Championships. For the past 5 years, Coach Schwier also was responsible for the Seahawk throws program. Under his guidance, the Seahawks achieved 27 All-CAA performances (12 individual titles), 25 IC4A/ECAC qualifiers (7 All- East performances and 4 Champions), 17 NCAA Regional qualifiers, and broke 5 school records. They also qualified an athlete to the NCAA Championships four out of those five years, including the very first for the UNCW women’s track & field program when Christie Schreckengost qualified in the javelin in 2004. A highlight in Schwier’s coaching career was his role in the emergence of Anna Raynor in the javelin. Despite having no experience in the event before college, Raynor ended her career with the Seahawks as a threetime All-American (11th at NCAA’s in 2005, fourth in 2006 and 2007), CAA Champion, ECAC Champion, two-time Penn Relays Champion, as well as the CAA and UNCW record holder in the javelin. In addition to being named the CAA Track & Field Athlete-of-the-Year for the third consecutive year in 2007, Raynor also was named the Southeast Region Field Athlete-of-the- Year. In the summer of 2007, Raynor finished third at the USA National Championships. As a member of Team USA that summer, she took the silver medal at the NACAC Senior Games in El Salvador. Schwier graduated from Wittenberg in Springfield, Ohio, where he ran cross country and track for four years. While at Wittenberg, he was coached by 1964 Olympic Gold Medalist Bob Schul. He later received his masters in Sport Biomechanics from Ball State. Schwier is a member of the UST- FCCCA and USA Track & Field. He holds USATF Level II Certification in Throws, Jumps, Combined Events and Endurance. He is also a USATF Certified Level I Instructor and a regularly invited speaker at track & field clinics. Seahawk Track & Field 2008-09 UNCW Track & Field • 5
Page 3 and 4: Welcome to Seahawk Track & Field Gr
Page 5: UNCW Administration Rosemary DePaol
Page 9 and 10: Women’s Roster Name Event Cl. Ht.
Page 11 and 12: Dusty Kenealy Freshman Ruffin, N.C.
Page 13 and 14: Kelly Carmichael Freshman - Distanc
Page 15 and 16: Jenna Helmink Junior Raleigh, N.C.
Page 17 and 18: Kathy Aherne Fresh. - Diatance/XC D
Page 19 and 20: 100 Meters 10.56 Xzavier Chisholm J
Page 21 and 22: 55 Meters 7.15 Shayne Moore Fr. GMU
Page 23 and 24: Indoor 4x200-Meter Relay 1:45.75 Br
Page 25 and 26: All-East Performers Indoor 1993 Sam
Page 27 and 28: Zeickia Ledwell CAA Championships A
Page 29 and 30: Seahawk Strength & Conditioning Pat
Page 31 and 32: Sports Medicine Seahawk Track & Fie
Page 33 and 34: Academic/CHAMPS Lifeskills The Athl

Media Guide - UNCWsports.com - UNC Wilmington Athletics

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