The UMR football team has been tabbed for a third place finish in the Great Lakes Football Conference in the pre-season coaches poll conducted by the league that will start play this fall.

The Miners, who were 7-4 last fall, did receive one first place vote but finished behind Tiffin and Saint Joseph's when the overall totals were tabulated. UMR was followed by Kentucky Wesleyan, Lincoln and Central State (Ohio), the one league team the Miners will not face in the 2006 season.

The Miners will report Sunday for the start of pre-season drills in preparation for their August 26 season opener against the Tiffin squad that was picked to win the GLFC title. UMR's home opener is set for Sept. 30 against Saint Joseph's.

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Ryan Anderson, who has led the University of Missouri-Rolla softball program to its most successful three-season stretch in school history, is resigning from the position to accept the head coaching post at Northwest Missouri State University.

Over the last three years, the Lady Miners have produced a record of 107-49, including a school record 41-win season in 2004. That record includes a 37-19 mark in conference games. They were 41-14 in Anderson's first year at the helm, finishing second in the regular season race and third in the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association Tournament. The team also had the MIAA's most valuable player in pitcher Christy Deken, the first of four all-region players who performed for the Lady Miners under Anderson's tutelage. That record setting season was followed by a 33-25 campaign in 2005 and last year's mark of 33-10 in UMR's first season as a member of the Great Lakes Valley Conference.

Mullin indicated that the search for Anderson's replacement will begin immediately.

Posted by UMR Miner Sports at 09:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the second consecutive semester, the University of Missouri-Rolla swimming team has been selected as the top academic team in NCAA Division II.

With its team grade point average of 3.38 during the 2006 spring semester, the Miners earned the honor again from the College Swimming Coaches Association of America. UMR was one of 20 schools listed on the latest list and was among seven teams that finished among the top 10 at the 2006 NCAA Division II Championships that earned the organization's academic honor.

Besides the team honor, 11 members of the squad were named to the CSCAA's all-academic team for the 2005-06 season, making their way on with either a 3.50 grade point average and by qualifying for the NCAA Division II Championships; those who made a provisional qualifying mark with that grade point average earned honorable mention status. Two of the 11, Mark Chamberlain and Bill Gaul -- this year's recipient of the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America of the Year award -- made the team with perfect 4.0 grade point averages. The other Miners selected were Bernard Chen, Jay Murphy, Andy Lozier, Travis Stensby, Matt Hammond, Chris Scheuber and Andy Shelley. Two others, Larry Graves and Dustin Spieker, were named honorable mention selections to the squad; both individuals also recorded perfect grade point averages.

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Tyrone Smith

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Repubic -- Tyrone Smith took third place over the weekend at the North America/Central America/Caribbean Athletic Association (NACAC) Under-23 Championships in the long jump, setting a new national record for his native country in the process.

Smith was representing Bermuda, the country in which he was born, and established a new national record with a jump of 25-11 in the competition held Saturday. The winning performance came from a Cuban jumper with a mark of 26-4 1/4, while one of the Dominican jumpers in the meet also cleared the 26-foot mark to place second. Smith did defeat Wilbert Walker, the NCAA Division II national champion from Lincoln who was competing for Jamaica in the meet.

Later this month, Smith -- an All-America performer for UMR in the recently completed 2006 indoor and outdoor track seasons, where he was the national runner-up outdoors -- will take part in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, Colombia; that meet will run from July 25-30.

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