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Issued: September 26, 2006

NATIONAL CHAMP AMONG SUPER SIX WINNERS

EAU CLAIRE - NCAA national pole vault champ Steph Barnes is among the Blugold Super Six Salute award winners who will be honored at the Hall of Fame banquet Saturday.

Joining Barnes (Sauk City/Sauk Prairie High School) as winners of the university's highest athletics honor are volleyball player Molly Menard (Eau Claire/Memorial), ice hockey player Amanda Schultz (Stevens Point/SPASH), football players Jesse Krzyzanowski (Thorp) and Brent Tieri (Rockford, MN) and basketball player Tyler Birkel (Spring Valley). All of the winners except Barnes have graduated or completed their athletics eligibility.

The Super Six award, in its 20th year of existence, recognizes and honors 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-EC.

To be nominated for the award, the student-athletes must have completed their junior or senior year of eligibility, have attended UW-EC for two years, have a cumulative resident grade point average of 3.00 or better, have a declared major, be recommended by their head coach and have demonstrated above average performance in their sport.

This year, a total of 24 athletes were nominated for the award which was selected by the coaching staff and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. "The six athletes that will be honored Saturday represent the elite of the student-athletes from our 20 intercollegiate teams," said Sports Information Director Tim Petermann who will present the awards.

"Intercollegiate athletics at UW-Eau Claire has been and will continue to be a classroom outside the classroom," said Petermann. "All of our athletes, like these six, come to UW-EC as students first and use athletics as an enjoyable physical activity in which to broaden their horizons and learn things that may not be offered in specific academic areas. Any vocation can be enhanced through participation in athletics, learning things from teamwork to time management to interpersonal communication skills to discipline, assertiveness, overcoming adversity and motivation among many."

STEPH BARNES

Barnes won the NCAA Division III outdoor pole vault championship in 2005 and the indoor national title last March. She has also placed among the top four at nationals two other times. She owns the school indoor (12'9") and outdoor (12'11") records as well as the conference indoor mark (12'8").

Those results are amazing considering that as a freshman, she broke her back at a meet at St. Olaf although she placed third at the conference outdoor meet and qualified for nationals before she discovered the break. That was the last in a long series of injuries that plagued her throughout her career. She sat out her entire sophomore season to heal completely and since returning to competition has remained healthy.

Barnes received the team Most Dedicated Award last year after being named team Field MVP after the 2005 season. In addition to three letters in track, Barnes also lettered in gymnastics one year before giving up the sport to concentrate on the pole vault.

A kinesiology major with a 3.66 GPA, Barnes will graduate in August of 2007. Last spring, she was named to the ESPN The Magazine All-District 5 Second Team.

AMANDA SCHULTZ

A four-year letterwinner in ice hockey, Schultz would have led the team in scoring four straight years had it not been for an injury that sidelined her early last season. She returned to the lineup after missing eight games and led the team in goals scored and was third overall in scoring.

In 94 career games, she scored 50 goals with 25 assists for 75 points.

She was All-NCHA honorable mention four straight years and received the conference's Scholar-Athlete Award as a senior in addition to being named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-Amercian At-Large Third Team. Three times she was named to the Academic All-District 5 first team. She received the team Student-Athlete Award three times and during her career was also a team captain, winner of the Blugold Award and recipient of the Rookie of the Year Award.

Schultz represented the women's ice hockey team as a member of the Student Athlete Advisory Committee. She was a member of the Student Council for Exceptional Children and a member of the UW-EC Dean's List.

A special education major with an emphasis in cognitive and learning disabilities, Schultz owns a 3.99 GPA and will graduate next May.

MOLLY MENARD

A four-year letterwinner in volleyball and one-year letterwinner in basketball, Menard had a team-high 511 kills last year to lead the Blugolds to the regional final of the NCAA Division III tournament. In the regional final, the Blugolds lost a five-game match to eventual national champion UW-Whitewater.

As a result of her outstanding season which helped the Blugolds finish 30-5 overall, Menard was named to the All-WIAC team and the AVCA All-Midwest Region First Team and received AVCA All-America honorable mention. Playing consistently all season, she was named to five all-tournament teams.

During her career, she served as a team captain and also earned a team Most Improved Award. She was a member of the Blugold basketball team that finished third in the 2003 NCAA Division III national tournament.

Menard graduated in August with a business finance degree and a 3.82 GPA.

TYLER BIRKEL

A four-year basketball letterman, Birkel played in 105 career games with 40 starts. The 6'9" center led the team in blocked shots four straight years. He finished his career with 382 points, 264 rebounds, 46 assists and 72 blocked shots.

As a senior, he shared the conference's Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete award and served as a team captain. As a freshman, he received the team's Most Outstanding First-Year Player award and also the team field goal percentage award. He was a member of Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Eta Sigma, Alpha Lambda Delta and the math honor societies. He was the men's basketball rep to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee and a member of the Actuarial Club. He was an actuarial intern for St. Paul Travelers last summer and will take a job with that company after he graduates in December. He is a mathematics major with a 3.41 GPA.

JESSE KRZYZANOWSKI

Krzyzanowski waited patiently for three years to get his chance at a starting position and then seized the opportunity to lead the Blugolds to a 6-4 overall record and a second-place finish in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference last fall.

Krzyzanowski, a four-year letterwinner, earned the team Quarterback/Tailback of the Year award last year after setting the school single season pass completion record with 214 and the single season pass completion percentage record at .647. He also set a single game TD passing record with six against Illinois Wesleyan last year. For the season, he completed 214 of 331 passes for 1959 yards with 14 TDs and 12 interceptions. With his excellent campaign, Krzyzanowski was named to the All-Conference Second Team.

As a junior, he threw just two passes, both of them for touchdowns off of fake field goal attempts as the holder.

Krzyzanowski is a kinesiology major with an emphasis in exercise science and owns a 3.85 GPA. He will graduate in December.

BRENT TIERI

A three-year letterman, Tieri became the school's third representative in the Aztec Bowl in Mexico last December. He went on to lead the victorious United States All-Stars in tackles in that game.

A Blugold captain, Tieri was a d3football.com Third Team All-American last year. In addition to All-Conference First Team honors as a senior and Second Team selection as a junior, he was an All-Region pick by both d3football.com and Don Hansen's Football Gazette as a senior.

Tieri was the Blugold defensive MVP last year as he finished second in tackles with 77, led the team in interceptions with four and shared the team lead in passes broken up with four.

He was named to the ESPN The Magazine All-District 5 First Team in 2005 and the Second Team in 2004.

Tieri graduated in May with a degree in kinesiology and a 3.63 GPA. After an emphasis in exercise science, Tieri is now attending Northwestern Health Sciences University in the Twin Cities where he is enrolled in the Northwestern College of Chiropractic.

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