Tuesday, january 25, 2011 I

TechNews

GRAEME PORT sports@technewsiit.com

 

New head volleyball coach hired

By Kayla Heller
STAFF WRITER

 

The Illinois Tech Women’s Volleyball
team welcomes a new face to the program,
head volleyball coach Jacqui Gatt. Coach
Gatt comes to Illinois Tech from Wayne State
University, where she served as an assistant
volleyball coach for 3 years. Gatt played var—
sity volleyball at Madonna University, where
she racked up a number of awards and hon—
ors, including, WHAC All—Freshman team
in 2004, 3 time All—Conference player, 2 time
All— Region player, 2007 National Runner—Up
libero of the year, and 2007 All—American.

Gatt was hired after previous head vol—
leyball coach, Kelly Fitzgerald, resigned.
Fitzgerald came to the volleyball program in
2004. In her 7 seasons here at IIT, Fitzgerald
led the Lady Hawks to an overall record of
165—124. She has recently taken up the head
volleyball coach position at conference rival
Roosevelt University.

 

Hamlett leaves ”T for the MLS

By Graeme Port
SPORTS EDITOR

After a fantastic 2010 season — which saw
the team win the conference league title, for
the second time in three years, and attain its
first ever National Ranking (23rd) — the Scarlet
Hawks Men’s Soccer team once again finds it—
self without a Head Coach, for the second time
in as many seasons, following the departure of
Denis Hamlett last week.

Hamlett — who led the team to an impres—
sive 14—6 overall season record, and a 9—1 con—
ference record — departs the program to take
up the Assistant Coach’s position at the Major
League Soccer side, Vancouver Whitecaps.

A national coaching search has now been
implemented by the Athletics Department to
find a new head coach for the 2011 season.

 

 

||T 5-on-5 Intramural
Basketball League

By Ashlie Ingold
STAFF WRITER

The IIT 5—on—5 Intramural Basketball
League begins Monday, Jan 31. The regular—
season games will be played up until spring
break (Friday, March 11 will probably be the
last game). A playoff tournament/ bracket will
begin shortly after the break. The League is a
great way to get motivated to get off the couch
during these cold winter months and hit the
gym to fulfill those New Year’s resolutions. It is
open to all students, faculty, staff, and alumni
of IIT, Shimer, Illinois College of Optometry,
and Vandercook. Teams must have 5—8 players,
must be coed, and must have gender variety on—
court at all times (at least one male and one fe—
male player on the court). Each team will select
a captain, with the elected player being respon—
sible for handling communication with league
directors and teammates, which will mostly
consist of schedule information. Games will
be 20—minute halves, with a 5—minute halftime.
(Total time on the court: 45—60 minutes).

In his excitement over the league, Ian Sis—
son, one of the members of the basketball
committee says; “The intramural basketball
league will be a blast this year. Our committee
has been hard at work to continue improving
the program. We anticipate a great turnout and
look forward to seeing some terrific competi—
tion!”

The link to sign up is: http://tinyurl.com/
iit—basketball. You may sign up as a team or as
an individual. We encourage those that are in—

terested to collaborate and join a team prior
to signing up; however there is also an option
to sign up as an individual. Those that sign
up as individuals will simply be placed onto a
team with open roster slots, or, numbers per—
mitting, will be combined together to form
new teams. There is a $20 deposit for each
team to register, payable at the beginning of
league play. The deposit will be refunded IF
the team participates in all of its scheduled
games. For those that sign up as individuals,
there is a $5 deposit.

Teams will play games two nights each
week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and
Friday at 7:00—10:00 PM. Prior to the first
week of play, captains will be contacted to
give their team—schedule preferences. We
will do our absolute best to accommodate
each team’s scheduling preferences/conflicts/
etc. There will be a captains meeting Thurs—
day Jan 27th at Keating Sports Center. After
the playoff tournament/bracket, there will
be prizes awarded to the champions. There
will also be consolation prizes. All prizes are
yet to be determined, but are always exciting.
Justin White, another member of the Basket—
ball Committee said that “The league was a
big success last year, with teams filled with
different personality types. It’s a great oppor—
tunity to relieve some stress from school and
just go out and play some ball.” So instead
of sitting around hiding out from the cold,
get up and come to Keating with all of your
friends and compete in the basketball league.

 

Scarlet Hawks travel to
St. Louis for quad meet

By Melanie Koto
STAFF WRITER

On Saturday, the Illinois Tech Swimming
and Diving team travelled to St. Louis for a
quad meet against Lindenwood University,
St. Louis University, and Missouri State. The
Women’s team of freshman Jillian Hamada,
sophomore Aimee Dewante, and juniors
Morgan Curran and Melanie Koto took 7th
overall in the 400 yard medley relay with a
time of 4:27.60, and the Men’s team of fresh—
man Michael Bodzay, sophomore Eric Grun—
den, junior Keiji Halloway and sophomore
Max Ramminger took 5th overall (3:37.30),
while the team of sophomores Matthew
Rosenfeld and Michael Keane, senior Joe
Muchna and freshman Yoni Pruzansky took
7th overall (3:45.55). Freshman Abby Maze
took 8th for the Women’s team in the mile
with a final time of 20:05.78 and senior To—
masz Chojnacki took 7th (19:36.29) for the
Men’s team, followed by junior Izzy Radzik
(22:07.40). In the 200 yards freestyle, Grun—
den took 6th for the Men’s team with a
1:50.63 and freshman Arya Mohaimani took
8th with a 1:53.09. In the 100 yard back—
stroke, Koto took 6th for the Women’s team
with a 1:04.63 and for the Men’s team Rosen—
feld took 7th with a 57.11 and freshman Joe
Lakner took 8th with a 58.82. In the 100 yard
breaststroke junior Julia Duarte took 7th for
the Women’s team with a 1:13.70, and Keane
took 5th for the Men’s team with a 1:01.84,
while sophomore Jeff Grindel took 8th with
a 1:07.51. Curran took 4th in the 200 yard
butterfly with a 2:23.45 and Muchna took 5th
with a 2:02.74 followed closely by Halloway
in 6th with 2:03.35 for the Men’s team. In

the 50 yard freestyle Dewante took 7th with a
26.92 while Ramminger took 1st for the Men’s
team with a20.97 and Pruzansky took 8th with
a 22.86.

In the 100 yard freestyle Koto took 6th for
the Women’s team with a 58.52 ad Hamada
took 8th with a 1:02.45. Ramminger took 1st
again for the Men’s team with a 46.60 and
Maus took 8th with a 53.83. In the Men’s 200
yard backstroke Bodzay took 4th (2:01.04) and
Rosenfeld took 7th (2:07.47), and in the 200
yard breaststroke Dewante took 7th (2:42.63)
and Duarte took 8th for the Women’s team
(2:44.71), while for the Men’s team Grun—
den took 5th (2:19.56) and Keane took 6th
(2:22.86). Maze took 7th in the Women’s 500
yard freestyle with a 5:45.06, and Mohaimani
took 7th with a 5:12.10 and Pruzansky took
8th with a 5:15.10. In the Men’s 100 yard but—
terfly, Halloway took 3rd (52.34) and Bodzay
took 7th (55.43), and in the 400 yard IM Cur—
ran took 6th (5:00.79) and Muchna took 4th
for the Men’s team (4:29.80) and freshman Fe—
lipe Bergh took 5th (4:33.26). In the 400 yard
freestyle relay, the Women’s team of Hamada,
Duarte, Maze and Dewante took 7th with a
4:08.03, and the Men’s team of Pruzansky,
Grunden, Halloway and Ramminger took 5th
with a 3:20.55 and the team of Rosenfeld, Mo—
haimani, Maus and Chojnacki took 8th with a
time of 3:36.36. The final event of the meet, the
800 yard freestyle relay, the Men’s team relay
of Bodzay, Bergh, Keane and Muchna took
6th (7:42.08) and the team of Radzik, Lakner,
Grindel and Mohaimani took 8th (8: 19.93).

The team’s next meet is Saturday in Green—
bay Wisconsin, followed by two home meets
the next weekend on Friday night and Satur—
day morning.

 

 

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Photos by Melanie Kata