Around the Ohio Valley- January 26

Around the Valley this week we spotlight some noble work by our conference's student-athletes, who not only perform on the field, or court, but also off it. Programs around the conference are achieving excellence in more places than just the win column and we have many athletes who have been recognized nationally. Let's get started.

Austin Peay: Director of Athletics Dave Loos proudly commented on the recent academic achievements made at the university, “The success of our student-athletes in the classroom is one of our top goals. To see them succeed at the level they have for the past few years is certainly encouraging.” Bravo to any athletic department such as APSU's that can see 155 student-athletes named to the Athletic Director's honor roll in one semester.

Eastern Illinois: EIU honored former US Olympian and Division All-American John Craft by retiring his jersey at the Mega Meet over the weekend and pledging to rename the event after him starting in 2012. Craft, who served as a long time coach at EIU until 2002, surely enjoyed watching current athlete Mick Viken grab adidas OVC Field Athlete of the Week honors with his performance at the event. Check out the Panthers’ website which is currently taking a poll of the greatest career of athletes to have their jersey retired at EIU, which includes the likes of Tony Romo and Sean Payton.

Eastern Kentucky: Former EKU All-American Christian Friedrich has been named one of Major League Baseball’s top 50 prospects according to MLB’s annual top 50 prospects list. Friedrich looks to be a very promising prospect, and being invited to Anaheim over the summer for All-Stars Futures game is an indication of that. In other campus news Aramark and Mountain Dew present EKU’s first ever White Out Thursday night as Men’s and Women’s Basketball play host to OVC leading Austin Peay. The atmosphere should be electric, and caffeine injected, as samples of Mountain Dew's new product and rally towels are going to handed out at the door.

Jacksonville State: The Jacksonville State athletics department put together its best overall GPA in a semester during the fall. The overall GPA was a high 2.984. “We are very proud of the work by our student-athletes…The fact that we had 12 teams with a 3.0 or higher GPA is a credit to the hard work in the classroom by our teams.” Chelsea Pelletier, senior in women’s soccer at the time, actually claimed the OVC’s 2009-2010 Scholar Athlete Award, which spotlights the a great job by the university's staff and student-athletes.

Morehead State: Senior goalkeeper for the Eagles, Lily Meisner, was named to the 2010 Jewish Sports Review All-American team. Meisner lead the team to a school record thirteen victories and finished the season undefeated in conference play. Morehead won the OVC Championship and advanced to the NCAA tournament for the second time in school history.

Murray State: Leading up to the OVC’s conference Rifle Championship on February 5-6, Murray State claimed a note worthy victory this Sunday against Ole Miss in Oxford. State got by in a closely contested match and eked out the win by 10 points. Back on campus Saturday alumni and former players and coaches got together to be recognized at half time of the Racers’ game against Southeast Missouri and pregame activities included hearing from State’s Athletic Director about plans for the new practice facility, which is spurring excitement around the campus.

Southeast Missouri: SEMO tailback Henry Harris and center Sean Middleton recently earned more honors as they were named to the College Sporting News Sweet 63 Football Subdivision All-American team. Middleton was the Rimington Award winner for the FCS’s top center, part of an offensive line that led the nation in sacks allowed. Harris had a record breaking season with 1,735 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, some of which is captured below.



Tennessee State: The University is gearing up for the TSU Invite at the Gentry Center this weekend. The Track and Field athletes at TSU are coming off some great performances recently and look to build upon their success in familiar surroundings.

Tennessee Tech: Basketball coaches from Tech Mike Sutton and Sytia Messer spoke to Cookeville area business leaders this past week. Also speaking at the Leslie Town Center were Tech President Bob Bell and Director of Athletics Mark Wilson. Representing Tech, the leaders spoke about academic results by student-athletes, importance of community support for the athletic program at Tech and more. The coaches have a lot to promote as Women's Basketball just got ranked 24th in the Mid-Major Poll.

UT Martin: Martin has added a 15th member to the 1,000 point club as Benzor Simmons went for a season best 26 points Monday night in Men’s Basketball. In the spirit of big news in the Equestrian world today, the famous Zenyatta announced to be bread by her owners, UT Martin looks to build on the excitement when they open up to No. 2 Auburn Friday at the Ned Wherter Agricultural Complex. The raw excitement of the sport is displayed here by the recent headline grabber, and I am sure there will be some similar interesting action on display Friday.