Middle Tennessee State University Athletics
NOTEBOOK: Doubles Pair represents MT on national stage at tennis NCAAs
5/23/2022 5:18:00 PM | Baseball, General, Men's Golf, Men's Tennis, Men's Cross Country and Track & Field, Women's Cross Country and Track & Field, BRAA, Track & Field/Cross Country
To start off that group in this week's notebook, men's tennis is excited to have Francisco Rocha and Oskar Brostrom Poulsen representing MT at the NCAA Doubles Championships in Champaign, Ill.. The Portuguese and Danish duo is the first doubles team to qualify for the NCAA Championships since 2009. John Peers and Robert McKenzie were the team for MT that season, falling in the Round of 16.
Rocha and Brostrom Poulsen will start their journey on Tuesday, facing off against the No. 28 team of Carl Emil Overbeck and Yuta Kikuchi from Cal. The MT pair qualified for the NCAA Tournament by virtue of being the highest rated doubles team in C-USA at the conclusion of the regular season.
Earned. 🤩#BlueRaiders | #NCAAtennis pic.twitter.com/lLnc0eBUbO
— MT Men's Tennis (@MT_MensTennis) May 21, 2022
Stjin Slump is currently the first alternate in the men's singles draw, meaning he will be entered into the tournament in the event anyone currently in the field withdraws prior to tomorrow.
Akintola, Isa earn C-USA Championship superlatives
On Thursday last week, the Conference USA office announced two Blue Raiders earned Performer of the Meet honors from last weekend's C-USA Outdoor Track and Field Championship. Alaba Akintola took home Male Track Performer honors, while Esther Isa earned Female Field Performer Honors.
Akintola set stadium records in both the 100m and 200m dashes, breaking an 18-year program record in the 100m dash with a time of 10.04 seconds. Both races earned the junior Gold medal honors in the event.
Isa, who also won Female Field Performer of the Meet at the C-USA Indoor Championships earlier this year, took gold medal in both the long jump and triple jump at the Outdoor Championships.
Both Akintola and Isa are among nine Blue Raiders whose marks during the Outdoor season qualified them for the NCAA Track and Field Qualifiers.
It's 𝙊𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡! 👀
— MT XC/Track & Field (@MT_TrackField) May 19, 2022
The following #BlueRaiders are heading to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field preliminary competitions ⤵️
- Alaba Akintola
- Abigail Kwarteng
- Arinze Benjamin
- Erhire Best
- Esther Isa
- Eusila Chepkemei
- Glory Nyenke
- Lyn'Nikka Vance
- Stephen Eloji https://t.co/l27jaqpJah
@mtathletics High jump squad ready for NCAA Prelims this week 👀🔥 #trackandfield #ncaa ♬ original sound - MTAthletics
Baseball heads south for C-USA Tournament
Following a tight race behind conference winner Southern Miss for seeding, Middle Tennessee baseball earned the No. 6 seed at this week's conference tournament in Hattiesburg, Miss. They'll face the No. 3 seed, Old Dominion, bright and early on Wednesday at 9 a.m. in the first game of the tournament.
The 3/6 game is paired with the teams from the 2/7 game (Louisiana Tech and Charlotte) in a double elimination bracket, the winner of that set of four will face the winner of the opposite bracket (featuring Southern Miss, UAB, UTSA and FAU) in a winner-take-all championship game. See the bracket below for more details.
The bracket is set!
— Conference USA (@ConferenceUSA) May 21, 2022
The 2022 C-USA Baseball Championship presented by The First gets underway from Hattiesburg on Wednesday, May 25 at 9:00am CT!#CUSABASE ⚾️ | https://t.co/Ok4T1GSOV1 pic.twitter.com/v7FHaelh4u
Barnard, Wolf finish out 2022 golf season in Norman
While both Michael Barnard and Nick Wolf came up short of the single NCAA Championship spot for an individual last week at the NCAA Regional in Norman, the pair capped off a successful season for the Blue Raiders.
Both golfers etched their name in the MT Golf record book. Barnard's 71.83 stroke average was +0.13 relative to par this season, the fifth-best mark in program history. Wolf's 71.94 stroke average, a +0.21 mark relative to par, was the sixth-best in program history.
Michael Barnard tees off in round 3 of the Norman Regional! #BlueRaiders | @m_barn2 | @coachmcentire72
— MT Men's Golf (@MT_MGolf) May 18, 2022
Follow along at https://t.co/aPr65Srs1G pic.twitter.com/GGVjcSZrG0
Nick Wolf with the par putt to close out his collegiate career!#BlueRaiders | @nick_wolf18 | @coachmcentire72 pic.twitter.com/VNqgYzv0Ka
— MT Men's Golf (@MT_MGolf) May 18, 2022
As a team, the Middle Tennessee men's golf team average team score of 285.77 was 1.03 strokes under par, breaking the previous single-season record by 2.86 strokes.
Academic excellence, times three
The academic accolades continue to roll in for Blue Raiders at the end of the semester. Late last week, both Nick Wolf and Francisco Rocha earned spots on the CoSIDA Academic At-Large All-District team for District 3. Rocha earned his place on the team with a 4.0 GPA in Business Administration, while Wolf garnered his spot on the strength of a 3.95 GPA in his MBA studies.
Their selection to the At-Large All-District team for District 3 makes both Rocha and Wolf eligible for Academic All-American honors. The At-Large category consists of all sports outside of football, soccer, women's volleyball, basketball, softball, baseball, track and field and cross country. District 3 includes all schools located in Tennessee, Virginia and North Carolina.
Nick Wolf has been named to CoSIDA's Academic All-District team!#BlueRaiders | @nick_wolf18 https://t.co/WB0pAApDPt
— MT Men's Golf (@MT_MGolf) May 20, 2022
And then this afternoon, Mason Speirs was named to the Conference USA All-Academic Team for baseball, after earning a 3.65 GPA in Biology. On the field, Speirs has recorded over triple the number of hits in 2022 (46) than his two previous seasons combined (15) this season.
📢: Announcing the 2022 #CUSABASE All-Academic Team! Showing excellence on the field and in the classroom! 📚⚾️
— Conference USA (@ConferenceUSA) May 23, 2022
🗞 | https://t.co/hpRTYKJZXu pic.twitter.com/YOjJOF1pSe
Congrats to @mspeirs99 on being named to @ConferenceUSA Baseball's All-Academic Team! 📚
— MT Baseball (@MT_Baseball) May 23, 2022
📰 https://t.co/92qoCB6Gmr pic.twitter.com/gPwxvCyu0S
ICYMI: Dean's Dog Food Drive
While I was working on a feature on Coach Dean Hayes, one of my favorite details I learned about his life was that nearly every week, he'd visit the local animal shelter here in Murfreesboro to donate dog food to animals in need. And ahead of his celebration of life next month, MT is leading a dog food drive in his honor.
More details in the tweets below!
In honor of Coach Dean Hayes, MT Athletics is hosting a dog food drive at the Hall of Fame beginning May 23 and running through the Celebration of Life on June 4. You can donate unopened dry or wet dog food, which will be delivered to the Rutherford County PAWS.
— MT Athletics (@MTAthletics) May 19, 2022
(1/2) pic.twitter.com/bX6AV0IYa7
Coach Hayes loved helping those in need, including the animals in his community. He would deliver dog food every month to PAWS so he could spend time with dogs in need. That's where he met Chance, whose namesake comes because Coach Hayes was his last chance at adoption.
— MT Athletics (@MTAthletics) May 19, 2022
(2/2) pic.twitter.com/OvFylnoBWq
Social Media Post of the Week: The New Glass House
Y'all went crazy for some off-season engagement numbers on this one last week. And for good reason, the new glass going up at the Murphy Center is quite pleasing to the eye from both afar on Middle Tennessee Blvd. and up close.
A little update on the Glass House 👀
— MT Athletics (@MTAthletics) May 19, 2022
Old ⬇️ New ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/xFaKARcleB
Players Mentioned
