Four athletes who completed their eligibility last year and two current athletes will be the six recipients of the UW-Eau Claire Blugold Super Six Awards which will be presented at the Hall of Fame banquet Saturday. The banquet is scheduled at 5 p.m. in the Spruce/Tamarack Room of the W. R. Davies Center on the UW-Eau Claire campus.
The current athletes are football player Darrell Souhrada and swimmer Matt Oglesby. The four athletes who have completed their eligibility are golfer Ryan Kuhl, basketball player Megan Murphy, soccer player Kari Blasczyk and tennis player Molly Cope.
The Blugold Super Six Salute award, in its 15th year of existence, is the highest honor UW-Eau Claire can bestow upon a student-athlete. Its purpose is to recognize and honor outstanding athletes who have also demonstrated a high level of proficiency in the classroom. Each year the award honors three female and three male student-athletes. These individuals epitomize the ideals of intercollegiate athletics as an educational experience at UW-Eau Claire.
To be nominated for the award, the student-athletes must have completed his or her junior or senior year of eligibility, must have attended UWEC for two years, must have a cumulative resident grade point average of 3.00 or better, must have a declared major, must be recommended by the head coach and must demonstrate above average performance in his or her sport.
"This year's honorees represent the elite of the student-athletes from our 20 intercollegiate athletic teams last season," said Sports Information Director Tim Petermann who coordinates the Super Six program. With more than 600 athletes participating in Blugold athletics each year, these six were selected from a list of 25 outstanding nominees.
"Intercollegiate athletics at UW-Eau Claire has been and will continue to be a classroom outside of the classroom," said Petermann. "All of our athletes are students first and use athletics as an avenue to continue their physical skills and to broaden their horizons and learn life skills not always available in the classroom," he pointed out. "Any career choice students make academically can be enhanced through participation in athletics, from learning teamwork to time management to interpersonal communication skills to self-discipline to leadership to self-motivation and so forth," Petermann continued.
"Our athletes continue to accept the challenges that athletics offers, achieving success in that arena as well as maintaining the high quality of classroom excellence for which this institution is known. During the 2000-01 academic year, our athletes had an overall combined GPA average of 3.00," said Petermann.
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Kari Blasczyk
A four-year letterwinner in soccer, Blasczyk was both an athletic All-American and an academic All-American her senior year when she broke the school single season records for both goals and points in a season.
In leading the Blugolds to a 15-5 record during the 2000 season, Blasczyk scored 20 goals and totaled 47 points. During her four-year career, she scored 44 goals with 24 assists and played on teams that produced a 54-25-3 record. On the school career record lists, she ranks second in points, third in goals and fifth in assists. She was a three-time team Offensive Player of the Year and three-time All-Conference pick.
As a senior she was named to the National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSCAA) All-America third team and then named to the Verizon Academic All-America third team.
She was a member of the Golden Key National, Phi Kappa Phi and Alpha Lambda Delta honor societies.
She is a nursing major with a 3.77 cumulative GPA and will graduate in December, 2002. She has been on the School of Nursing Dean's List for three semesters.
During her sophomore year, she spent eight weeks as a Community Fitness Program volunteer and last year spent a semester as a Community Living Specialist, helping five elderly ladies perform daily living activities and providing companionship for them for 10 to 16 hours per week.
She was UW-Eau Claire's nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year last year.
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Megan Murphy
A four-year letterwinner in basketball, Murphy started 112 games for head coaches Lisa Stone and Tonja Englund. She played on two conference championship teams and in four NCAA Division III tournaments with the team advancing to the Sweet Sixteen during the 2000 season and to the second round last year, both times losing to eventual national champion Washington University.
Murphy was the defensive glue for Blugold teams as a 5-9 post player, normally playing against taller opponents. Twice she was named to the conference's five-player All-Defensive team. During her career, the Blugolds posted an 88-15 record. She scored 739 points, grabbed 628 rebounds, had 185 assists and made 139 steals. She received the team's Blugold award, was the conference Scholar-Athlete winner for basketball last year and was a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. As a senior, she routinely went with Coach Englund to speak to service groups in the community. She served as a physical therapy aide and worked as a volunteer with the Adult Community Fitness Program.
An exercise management major with a 3.54 cumulative GPA, Murphy graduated in May and is now working with the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA.
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Molly Cope
A four-year letterwinner, Cope may have been the greatest female tennis player in school history. She earned Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division III All-America honors as a senior when she was the ITA national runner-up. She was a four-time Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) No. 1 singles champion, the only one in conference history, and helped the Blugolds extend their string of consecutive conference championships to eight. Four times she qualified for the NCAA Division III singles and doubles championships and her junior and senior years led the team to its first-ever NCAA team championship participation. The team advanced to the quarterfinals of the national tournament last spring.
During her senior year, Cope faced 12 players who eventually participated in the national tournament, and finished with a 26-9 record, giving her a 97-22 mark for her career which included 23-3 as a freshman, 27-4 as a sophomore and 21-6 as a junior.
She was a co-winner of the WIAC Scholar-Athlete award for tennis as a senior and earned a spot on the Verizon Academic All-District V second team.
Cope was a two-year representative on the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and spent one year as a volunteer for the Adult Community Fitness Program.
Cope graduated last May as an exercise management major with a 3.64 cumulative GPA.
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Ryan Kuhl
A four-year letterwinner in golf, Kuhl was a member of the Blugolds' five-member team that won the NCAA Division III national championship last spring. That national title was the sixth in school history and first ever in NCAA competition.
Kuhl is the only golfer in school history to compete in four national golf championships, helping the Blugolds to a fourth-place finish in 1999 and a fifth place in 2000. Individually, he was 19th at the national tournament as a sophomore and 12th as a senior. He earned Golf Coaches Association of America (GCAA) All-America second team honors last spring after receiving honorable mention in 1999. He was a GCAA All-American Scholar-Athlete last spring as well.
A member of the American Marketing Association, Kuhl graduated last spring as a business management major with a 3.59 cumulative GPA. He is currently employed with Ameritech in Madison as an Advertising Consultant.
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Matt Oglesby
Oglesby is in his fourth season as a Blugold record-setting All-American swimmer.
Last year's team MVP, Oglesby accounted for 35 points in the NCAA Division III nationals by placing third in the 100-yard butterfly, seventh in the 100-yard backstroke and 10th in the 200-yard butterfly. He broke his own school record in both butterfly events and swam in a backstroke race that featured a national record.
In his first three seasons as a Blugold, he has won nine conference championships with eight runner-up finishes. He has earned All-American recognition in 14 individual and relay events during the first three years of his career. He is both the conference and school record holder in the 100 fly and the school record holder in the 100 back and 200 fly.
He led the Blugolds to a conference team championship his freshman season, scoring 128 points.
Oglesby is a biology major and math minor with a 3.28 cumulative GPA. He expects to graduate in May, 2003.
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Darrell Souhrada
Souhrada is in his fourth season as a Blugold running back and could become the school's all-time leading rusher before he graduates. Last year, he broke Roger Vann's single season rushing record with 1,588 yards and is threatening Lee Weigel's career rushing record.
He was a member of the Blugolds' 1998 conference champion and NCAA national semifinal team. He is a two-time All-Conference first team pick and was named to the Football Gazette All-West Region first team and the USA Football All-America second team last fall. A very durable runner at 5-9, 200 pounds, Souhrada broke the conference and school records by carrying 51 times in one game last season when he rushed for 303 yards. He has also scored more than 50 career touchdowns and is closing in on Chad Hoiska's career record in that category as well.
Souhrada is a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society. He is a management information systems major with a 3.15 cumulative GPA and expects to graduate in May, 2002.
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