SOFTBALL
The Blue Devils (10-4) will be at Augsburg College, Wednesday, March 24, then will have the weekend off. Last week: Stout went 2-2 in the Simpson College Classic, defeating St. Scholastica, 4-2, and Coe College, 8-4. Stout was tripped up by Wartburg, 6-4, and Simpson, 2-1. Player of the week: Kaela Wold, Jr, Altoona, Wis.

BASEBALL
The Blue Devils (0-6) will travel to Forest City, Iowa, to face Waldorf College, Saturday, March 27. Last week: The Blue Devils lost a pair of games to Division I Bradley University, 6-1, 13-1, March 21. Player of the week: Corey Endreas, Sr, Spencer, Wis.

GYMNASTICS
The Blue Devils will close out the season April 2-3 when Rhian Paulson (So, Stillwater, Minn) and Lesley Rick (Fr, Birchwood, Minn) compete at the NCGA Championships. Last week: Stout wrapped up their regular season by placing seventh at the NCGA West Regionals.

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD
The Blue Devils will be off until April 3 when they open the outdoor season at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD

The Blue Devils will be off until April 3 when they open the outdoor season at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.

Blue Devil Community Service

March 19, 2004

Casey Otto, president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC), and Erin Churchill, a member of SAAC, presented the items to Judy Fry, the food pantry coordinator.

The UW-Stout program is in conjunction with the other eight schools in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) and Ministry Health Care. Students distributed bags on the doors of houses around the Menomonie community with a Ministry Health card in explaining the food drive. The card contained a date when students would return to collect the bags. Each of the 14 different UW-Stout sports programs was assigned a section of Menomonie.

Last year, Stout student athletes collected more than 1700 items, and Otto said one of the goals of the drive was to exceed that number.

Ministry Health Care is a values-driven health care delivery network of aligned hospitals, clinics and other providers, based in Wisconsin and Minnesota. With over 12,000 employees including physicians and health professionals, Ministry also offers home health, hospice, long-term care facilities, dialysis services, a health plan and many other services.

The Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, who have sponsored health care in the region for over 105 years, founded Ministry Health Care in 1984. Ministry's mission as a Catholic health care system is to further the healing ministry of Jesus by continually improving the health and well-being of all people, especially the poor, in the communities Ministry Health Care serves.

Ministry Health Care is a major corporate partner of the WIAC.

March 21, 2004

The Blue Devils (10-4) allowed two runs in the bottom of the seventh in a 2-1 loss against host No. 22 Simpson College (16-1) to open the day, then did a little rallying of their own with five runs in the bottom of the sixth to down No. 24 Coe College, 8-4.

Kaela Wold (Jr, Altoona) drove in Stout's only run in the top of the first inning against Simpson, then drove in Stout's first run against Coe (11-7) in the bottom of the first. Wold smacked her second home run of the season, a solo shot in the third against Coe.

Coe tied the score with two in the fourth, but Stout took the lead in the bottom of the stanza on an RBI by Kim Caswell (Sr, Stanley). Coe came back to tie the score at 3 apiece with a single run in the fifth.

Stout exploded for five runs in the sixth as Caswell, Jamie Gorges (Jr, New London), Melissa Coon (So, Cudahy) each drove in a run and Courtney Zafft (So, Rochester, Minn) pounded a two-run single to close out the inning.

Emily Zahn (So, Champlin, Minn) picked up the win in three innings of relief, striking out two.

Stout will be at Augsburg College, Wednesday, March 24.

March 20, 2004

The Blue Devils opened the tournament with a 6-4 loss to Wartburg College, but bounced back to down St. Scholastica, 4-2.

Against No. 8 Wartburg (13-0), the Blue Devils (9-3) took a 3-2 lead in the second inning with a three run outburst, taking advantage of two Wartburg errors.

Kaela Wold (Jr, Altoona) opened the inning with a single, stole second and third, then scored off the throwing error to third base. Kim Caswell (Sr, Stanley) delivered two runs with a single up the middle.

Wartburg came back with two runs in the third to take a 4-3 lead. Stout, which scored a run in the sixth on a Jamie Gorges (Jr, New London) single to center, held Wartburg scoreless - including working out of a bases loaded jam in the fifth - until the top of the seventh when Wartburg added two more unearned runs.

Megan Donley (So, Fridley, Minn) took the loss, allowing 14 hits and all six runs, but only one earned run as both teams committed four errors.

Against St. Scholastica, the Blue Devils exploded for all four of their runs in the fourth inning as Wold teed off on a two-run home run, her first of the season. Kelly Spittel (Fr, Menomonee Falls) and Angie Kliber (So, Swanville, Minn) each drove in a run.

The Saints (11-1) scored once in the third and once in the bottom of the seventh.

Donley went the distance, striking out six. The win was UW-Stout coach Chris Stainer's 100th career win.

March 21, 2004

Stout (0-6) took a 1-0 lead in the first game when Greg Meinertz (Jr, La Crosse) brought in Todd Brunclik (So, Rice Lake) on a single up the middle.

That would be about it for the Blue Devils as Bradley scored three in the second, two in the third and tagged one on in the fifth. Stout was held to four hits, but Jim Foreman (Sr, Apple Valley, Minn) recorded two.

In the second game, Bradley wasted no time, banging out four runs in the first inning and six in the third. The Braves (10-4) added two in the fifth and one in the sixth. Stout's only run came in the top of the seventh when Brandt Buckley (So, Menomonie) drove in Jon Kroening (Sr, Ladysmith).

Dustin VanderVorst (Fr, River Falls) was 2-for-3 for the Blue Devils.

March 22, 2004

MENOMONIE - UW-Stout's Rhian Paulson (So, Stillwater, Minn) and Lesley Rick (Fr, Birchwood, Minn/Mahtomedi) will compete at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) Championships, April 2-3, at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Mass.

Paulson, who won the floor exercise at the NCGA West Regionals March 19, will compete on the floor and on the vault. Paulson is making her second trip to the national meet. Last season, she competed on the uneven bars, placing seventh. Due to injury, Paulson competed on the bars only twice this season.

Rick will be making her first trip to the national meet, competing on the uneven bars.

Individual qualifying scores are based on their National Qualifying Score (NQS) which is determined by calculating 40 percent of the seasonal average score and 60 percent of the regional meet score.

March 19, 2004

EAU CLAIRE - UW-Stout's Rhian Paulson (So, Stillwater, Minn) took first place in the floor exercise at the NCGA West Regionals, Friday, March 19 at UW-Eau Claire.

Paulson, who won the event with a score of 9.525, edged out  Eau Claire's Ashley Brett who took second with a score of 9.500.

UW-La Crosse defended its NCGA West Region title with a team score of 185.125 while UW-Eau Claire's Lynn Morris had the top all-around performance with a score of 36.925 at the McPhee Physical Education Center.

The Eagles earned the victory decisively as runner-up Gustavus Adolphus College finished with a team score of 182.500. Hamline University earned third place with a score of 180.825 while Eau Claire claimed fourth place with a score of 179.850. UW-Oshkosh claimed fifth place with 177.425, UW-Whitewater took sixth with 175.200 and UW-Stout rounded out the bunch with a team score of 173.075.

Uneven bars: 1. Ashley Koechel (LX) 9.375; 19. Lesley Rick 8.725; 20. Rhian Paulson 8.70; 28. Lacey Schroedl 8.40; 35. Shanna Kissinger 8.175; 41. Robyn Niederkorn 7.25; 42. Erin Kampa 7.15;

Balance beam: 1. Jennifer Houle (LX) 32. Helen Pansch 8.30; 32. Rhian Paulson 8.30; 32. Lesley Rick 8.30; 40. Lacey Schroedl 7.85; 41. Caitlin Burch 7.525; 42. Shanna Kissinger 7.50;

Floor exercise: 1. Rhian Paulson (Stout) 9.525; 17. Shanna Kissinger 9.20; 19. Lesley Rick 9.20; 23. Helen Pansch 9.175; 31. Jennie Rosinsky 9.05; 36. Liz Karkula 8.85;

All-around: 1. Lynn Morris (EC) 36.925; 9. Rhian Paulson 35.725; 13. Lesley Rick 35.40; 14. Shanna Kissinger 33.70.

Women's Basketball

March 18, 2004

The Blue Devils' leading scorer this season, Kahl averaged 14.0 points per game and finished second in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) in steals with 2.89 per contest. A first team all-WIAC selection, Kahl surpassed 1,000 career points this season, finishing fourth on the Stout all-time scoring list with 1,119 points.

The 5-foot, 10-inch guard led the team in scoring in 13 games, including a career-high 25-point effort against Kalamazoo College during the opening weekend tournament. Kahl was named the WIAC player of the week and to the D3hoops.com team of the week following her performance at Kalamazoo.

Kahl was also the team's leading rebounder with 5.7 boards per contest, connected on 129-of-354 shots from the floor, made 28 three-pointers and was 91-of-124 from the line. Kahl ranked in the top four of her team in rebounds (155), steals (78), assists (37), points (377) and blocked shots (14).

Football

March 22, 2004

"I am very excited about my first recruiting class," Strop said. "Our program has been built on northwest Wisconsin area players. We targeted 10 northwest players, have gotten comittments from six and are still waiting on two."

Northwestern Wisconsin players include: Ryan O'Connell of Eau Claire Regis, Jared Suckow of Elk Mound, Jamie Hinker of Greenwood, Cole Segerstrom of Mondovi, Tommy Sprester of Amery and Tanner Katre of Abbotsford.

O'Connell, an offensive lineman for the state champion Ramblers, is a Wisconsin Football Coaches Association (WFCA) first team choice, as is Suckow, a linebacker. Hinker, at 6-foot, 4-inches, 340-pounds, was a WFCA honorable mention player both offensively and defensively. O'Connell, Suckow and Hinker are expected to play in the annual Wisconsin State Shrine game this summer.

"We have three or four kids that can come in right away and help us," Strop said.

Strop believes his staff recruited very successfully for the offensive and defensive line. The Blue Devils bring in four players listed as offensive linemen and 10 players listed at defensive line.

"We are always looking to get bigger and faster in the offensive and defensive lines," Strop said, adding he believes this class achieves that objective. At least three recruited linemen - O'Connell, Hinker and Wilbur Allen of Milwaukee Bayview - are scheduled to play in the Shrine game, with several others in alternate roles.

Stout landed four players off Minnesota state 5A champion Lakeville High School - lineman Matt Kuenzli, defensive backs Brock Simpson and Brady Burdick and wide receiver Joey Newgren. Lakeville finished the 2003 season at 14-0 and were ranked 11th in the 10-state Midwest Region.

The Blue Devils will also be looking to replace three year starting quarterback Nick Ohman after the 2004 season, Ohman's senior year, and have snagged two blue chip players.

Tanner Katre, a 6-3, 195, quarterback from Abbotsford is cut from much of the same cloth as Ohman. Ryan Cross, a 6-0, 190 quarterback from Faribault, Minn., has exhibited a toughness, Strop said. Cross played with a injured back in football, then injured his should during the wrestling season, sat out part of the season and returned to place in the top five of the state tournament.

The class consists of 16 defensive players, 10 offensive players and two players that play both offense and defense.

Stout finished the 2003 season at 6-4 overall, 4-3 in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Stout is scheduled to open their 2004 season, Saturday, Sept. 11 at DePauw University.

Updated: March 22, 2004