2008 Woodie Awards
I am going to Tarantino this column (and yes, I stole that from Dane Cook) and start with the end: We need more Skyler Powers. Southwest Baptist University athletics lacks the kind of people its mission statement would suggest it is trying to obtain. This is not to say all athletes are bad people or something.
If there was ever a way to end a season, the Southwest Baptist baseball team did it. After losing 16 of 19 games heading into the Washburn series, SBU pounded out 44 runs to win three of four against a solid Washburn Ichabod team. SBU, who finished the season 18-31 overall and 11-24 in the MIAA and dropped the first game to WU (21-28 / 15-21), used the arm of junior James Ledford (3-7) to shutout the Ichabods 11-0 in game two.
After making their first national tournament appearance in three years, the Southwest Baptist golf team is already looking ahead to the 2007-2008 season. Led by two freshmen, a sophomore and two juniors, the youthful Bearcats were one of 80 teams selected to play in the 2007 Super Regional round of the NCAA Division II Men's Golf Championships.
Oh so close! The Southwest Baptist men's tennis team came within a single point of advancing to the Sweet 16 Round of the NCAA Division II Tennis Championships. Looking for their fourth Sweet 16 appearance in five years, the nationally-ranked Bearcats (33rd in the latest International Tennis Association Top 40 Division II Poll) fell 5-4 to MIAA rival Northwest Missouri State in the championship meet of the North Central Regional Tournament, the first stage of the Division II tennis championships.
The Southwest Baptist men's track and field team traveled to Hays, Kan. the weekend of May 5-6 with thoughts of climbing out of the cellar in the MIAA. It was just a couple months ago that the youthful men's team had accomplished this feat at the MIAA Indoor Championships by surpassing Truman State and gaining significant ground on the rest of the field.
To say that sprinters led the way for a program like the Southwest Baptist women's track and field team is making a very strong statement. The SBU women's track team that traveled to the MIAA Championships was heavily loaded with distance runners, yet light on sprinters and field athletes.