Category Archive: Commentary

By Alex King

(Webster Groves, MO) The spring semester is winding down, which means sports teams are heading for the tournament season. Each team has a burning question they must answer as they get ready for postseason play.

Will the golf team continue to be better than ever?

The golf team easily won the SLIAC tournament and gained an automatic berth to the NCAA Division III championship, which begins May 10. The golfers shot a SLIAC-record score of 886, 30 strokes better than the runner-up.

This will be the golf team’s second ever appearance at the national tournament. In 2008, the Gorloks placed 28th in the tournament. By placing higher in the national tournament this year, the golf team would become better than ever — the best in Webster history.

Can the men’s tennis team get over the hump and qualify for its first national tournament?

To get to the national tournament, the Gorloks will have to beat Greenville in the SLIAC tournament semifinals. If Webster makes it to the SLIAC championship, the Gorloks would most likely face Westminster, which beat the men 8-1 earlier this season. If the tennis team avenges their loss to Westminster, they will be the first Webster tennis team in history to enter the national tournament.

Does the women’s tennis team have a shot at upsetting Principia in the conference tournament?

The first-place Principia Panthers are a huge favorite to win the SLIAC tournament. The Gorloks have had a solid season and are currently in second behind Principia. In their matchup on April 23, Principia won 7-2, which is Webster’s only conference loss of the season.

If the teams once again face off in the SLIAC tournament championship, the Gorloks would qualify for their second straight national tournament if they upset Principia.

Will the men’s track team continue their improvement?

Despite the fact that the track program is only in its third season at Webster, both teams have continued to improve by breaking both personal and school records this season. The Gorloks can show how much they have grown by breaking even more school records in their final meet of the season.

Will junior Gretchen Rieger become the first track and field athlete to qualify for nationals?

Rieger is very close to qualifying for nationals in javelin. Her best throw of the season, 38.94 meters, is just 31 centimeters short of provisional qualifying for NCAA Division III nationals. Rieger has one chance left, the SLIAC Invitational on April 30, to try to hit this milestone.

Can the softball team stay hot and get back to the NCAA Division III tournament?

The Gorloks have been on fire since starting the conference season 4-2. They have won nine conference games in a row and are half a game behind Fontbonne for first place. The winner of the SLIAC tournament gets an automatic berth into the national tournament.

Will young pitchers continue to be successful down the stretch for the baseball team?

The baseball team is young this season, with 13 freshmen on the roster. The pitching staff has been very solid so far, as freshmen Dylan Dean Smith and Zach Schneider have provided the spark.

Smith is 4-0 this season with a 1.53 ERA. Schneider is 3-4 and has been the hard-luck loser a few times. He sports a 2.33 ERA and leads the team with 51 strikeouts.

Each spring team has achieved success in its own way. If each team can answer these questions in the final phases of the school year, history may continue to be written for Webster University athletics.

Alex King is the Sports Director of The Galaxy Radio. You can read his bi-weekly column in “The Journal” by picking up the most recent copy every Wednesday at Webster University main campus or by visiting www.websterjournal.com.

By Josh Sellmeyer

(Webster Groves, MO) This late into the season, all seven Webster University spring sports teams know who their leaders are and who they can count on to step up when the pressure is on.

Teams typically rely on their veterans to carry them into postseason play, but that’s not the case this year. Even though many juniors and seniors are having All-Conference type seasons, it’s freshmen and sophomores who are coming up big, and in several cases, carrying their respective squads.

A trio of freshmen pitchers, Dylan Dean Smith, Zach Schneider and Brandon Shaw, lead a Gorlok pitching staff that doesn’t have a senior on its roster. Smith (4-0, 1.61 ERA), Schneider (2-4, 2.33 ERA) and Shaw (2-1, 3.71 ERA) have started 16 of Webster’s 27 games.

The golf team’s roster is loaded with freshmen and sophomores, but a lack of collegiate experience hasn’t held the squad back. Freshman Kaleb Kessler has had a fantastic season. He earned conference player of the year and newcomer of the year honors for finishing first in the SLIAC championship tournament, which the Gorloks won.

Sophomores Kyler Scott, Steven Kinsman and Dan Klipsch have had great years as well. The Gorloks have won three of the past four events they have played in thanks to the sophomore trio’s play.

A strong core of freshmen and sophomores has contributed to the Webster softball team’s 8-2 SLIAC record. Starting pitchers Ashley Meagher and Trisha Thompson are a dynamic 1-2 punch on the mound. Meagher, a sophomore with an 8-4 record and a 3.15 ERA, has been terrific for the second straight year. Thompson, 6-3 with a 2.83 ERA, went the distance in six of the eight games she has started this year as a freshman.

Sophomores Agustin Villalba, Diego Alarcon and Ricky Eaves, who respectively play No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles, power Webster’s men’s tennis teams. Villalba (10-5), Alarcon (12-3) and Eaves (9-6) have led the Gorloks to an 11-5 record. Alarcon and Eaves have teamed up for a 7-6 record at the No. 1 doubles spot.

Sophomore Lindsey Hays has had a record-breaking season for the women’s tennis team. Hays is in the midst of a 17-match winning streak and was recently named to the All-Conference first team after winning the No. 3 singles flight at the SLIAC individual championship. Hays is 9-2 in singles play and 9-1 in doubles.

The men’s track and field team has had good performances from sophomores Daniel Henkey, A.J. Wallace and Aaron Oberneufemann. Henkey set a school record in the 1,500-meter run at the WashU Invitational and placed fifth out of 46 in the one-mile run at the Rhodes College Invitational. Wallace and Oberneufemann finished third and fourth respectively in the triple jump at the Rhodes College Invitational.

The women’s track and field team has had sophomores Tori Fenemor and Jane McKibben and freshman Eroica Stackhouse put up solid numbers in their events. Fenemor broke the school record in the shot put at the Rose-Hulman Twilight on April 15. Stackhouse and McKibben finished fifth and sixth respectively in the 5,000-meter run at the Rose-Hulman Twilight.

So while the expectation for most teams is that the upperclassmen will lead the way, it’s the underclassmen that are showing their talent. Whether that’s good for Webster athletics this spring season is still to be determined, but there is little debate that the experience and success of the young athletes will at least pay off a couple years down the road.

Josh Sellmeyer is the Sports Editor of “The Journal.” You can read “The Journal” by getting the latest copy on Webster University’s main campus every Wednesday or by visiting websterjournal.com

By Alex King

(Webster Groves, MO) The Gorlok earned the distinction of America’s most unusual college mascot by winning the Mascot Madness championship last week. The Webster University community was very active in supporting their mascot. This got me wondering why Webster doesn’t show the same support for student athletes and their teams.

When the Mascot Madness competition started, I began receiving emails that encouraged me to vote for the Gorlok. At first, I thought it was pretty cool to see the support. But the further the Gorlok got in the tournament, the more I was shocked by the amount of people invested in the outcome of the mascot competition.

Once the Gorlok reached the finals, I started seeing a number of people updating their Facebook statuses with how the Gorlok was doing and encouraging people to vote.

I had never seen the Webster community get into a competition so much. There was so much support that in The Journal’s Gorlok Approved graphic, the Gorlok advancing in Mascot Madness was ranked as better than Webster students collecting money for the Japan relief effort. This was when I decided something was wrong.

Don’t get me wrong; I love seeing this campus backing its mascot. But the Gorlok got more support than I have ever seen Webster student athletes and teams receive.

April 6 was student athlete appreciation day. The athletics department showed Webster athletes their appreciation by giving them Gatorade and Ted Drewe’s ice cream. But I don’t recall seeing any Facebook status updates showing support for the athletes. Instead, I saw people come into the University Center wondering how they too could get some free ice cream.
Until I asked one of the athletes what the reason for the free stuff was, I didn’t even know there was a student athlete appreciation day. Once I found out, I told a fellow student why they were able to get the free ice cream, and they didn’t seem to care. They were just happy they got free Ted Drewe’s.

This same lack of support transfers over to the athletic teams. When the men’s and women’s basketball teams won the SLIAC postseason tournaments, there was a nice amount of support. People finally came to the games. But it took the teams getting into the championship games for people to show up.

The other athletic teams have had even less support. In 2009, the softball team advanced to regionals in the NCAA tournament. In 2008, the baseball team was six outs away from advancing to the College World Series. In both cases, the amount of support was less than impressive.

There were emails, Facebook posts, mass text message alerts from the athletics department and countless stories written when the Gorlok won Mascot Madness. But our teams’ successes are only supported by stories in The Journal, written by journalists who are just doing their job.

Student athletes take a great amount of time out of their schedules for their sports. The fact that it often takes championship-level success for people to finally show support for the teams is bad enough. But when Webster’s mascot gets more support for a competition on an Arizona radio station than a team being successful close to campus, something is wrong.

These athletes work very hard to be successful, and it’s time they get the support and respect they deserve. After all, if a mascot can get so much support, why can’t our fellow student athletes get the same amount of support, if not more?

Alex King is the Sports Director of The Galaxy Radio. You can read his bi-weekly column in “The Journal” by getting the latest copy at Webster University’s main campus every Wednesday or by visiting websterjournal.com