CSR (Baseball Team Hits D3 Top-25 Rankings/Meckes Makes Bid for Olympic Trials)

CALVIN SPORTS REPORT FOR APRIL 8, 2008

Baseball Team Hits Top-25 For First Time;
Nate Meckes Posts Olympic Trials B' List Mark in Discus

BASEBALL

For the first time in school history, the Calvin baseball team has cracked the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll. The poll, which is conducted in cooperation with the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, has Calvin ranked 23rd in this week's poll. The Knights have received votes in the last three polls and finally cracked the top 25 this week.

Calvin is one of three teams from the Mideast Region in the poll as Wooster (OH) is ranked third and DePauw (IN) ranked 25th. Chapman (CA) is the top-ranked team, receiving 25 first place votes in this week's poll. The complete poll can be found on-line at: http://www.d3baseball.com/top25/2008/week-7.

Under the direction of first-year Calvin head coach John Sparks, the Calvin baseball team has raced out to a 16-1 overall mark, marking the best start in program history. Calvin opened the year by winning its first eight games and then suffered a loss to William Paterson on the final game of its spring trip to Arizona. Since that loss, Calvin has put together another eight-game win streak.

The Knights are currently 8-0 in MIAA play and sit in first place of the conference standings. Calvin returns to action this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. against Grand Valley State in a non-conference game at Calvin Field. Grand Valley enters the game ranked ninth in the most recent Division II Top-25 poll.

Calvin swings back into conference action on Thursday when it hosts Tri-State in a league twinbill set to begin at 2:00 p.m.

TRACK AND FIELD

Nate Meckes, a 2006 Calvin College graduate, is likely headed to the U.S. Olympic Track and Field trials this summer. A native of Bay City, Meckes tossed a career-best and U.S. Olympic B' list qualifying mark of 195-8 in the discus this past Saturday at the Pomona-Pitzer Invitational in Claremont, California. The previous career-best for Meckes was a throw of 194-10 at Calvin in 2005.

A graduate of Westland Lutheran High School in suburban Detroit, Meckes is currently now ranked ninth in the United States this year with his discus throw and 35th in the world.

While at Calvin, Meckes was a five-time NCAA III Outdoor Track and Field All-American, doing so three times in the shot put and twice in the discus. He was also named the MIAA's Most Outstanding Field Event Performer in three of his four years on the Calvin men's track and field team.

Although the throw is a "B" list mark, it will almost certainly qualify him for the U.S. Olympic trials, set for June 27 through July 6 in Eugene, Oregon. The discus competition is set to take place on July 3.

For more on the upcoming U.S. OIympic Track and Field trials, please visit the meet web site at: http://eugene08.com/

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Tue Apr 8 21:32:12 2008