By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
Niece of KILJ’s Own Inducted to St. Ambrose Hall of Fame:
Niece of KILJ’s Lora Roth and former West Point Marquette standout Casey Thompson will be inducted into the St. Ambrose Athletics Hall of Fame, the college announced.
Thompson was a dual-sport standout with the Bees’ earning All-American recognition in both soccer and softball.
She was a three-time honorable mention All-American in soccer, a four-time first team all-conference selection and three-time first team all-region pick.
Thompson remains fourth in program history with 58 career goals and third with 135 career points.
In softball, Thompson is a two-time conference player of the year, also earning first team All-American status in 2001 after batting .550, the best single-season batting average in program history.
Her .408 career batting average is fourth in program history and she remains the program leader with 278 career hits.
Thompson graduated from St. Ambrose in 2003.
Drake Bulldogs T&F Adds 16 to Recruiting Class:
The Drake University cross country and track & field teams have added 16 student-athletes for the 2020-21 season, acting director Blake Boldon and acting head coach Asha Gibson announced Friday, May 1.
The class includes four from the Hawkeye State:
- Dyer Jarabek – Sprints – Dowling Catholic
- Alec Knepper – Middle Distance – Urbandale
- Reece Knepper – Middle Distance – Urbandale
- Ryan Schweizer – Distance – Dowling Catholic
The class is headlined by Schweizer, who is transferring to Drake from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana.
In high school, Schweizer was a 6-time State Champion, winning the 800, mile and two-mile at the Iowa State Championships in 2015 and 2016.
He also anchored a pair of relay teams to titles those two years and owns the No. 1 mile time in Iowa history at 4:05.83 and the No. 2 time in the 800m at 1:50.30.
Garza Picks Up Another Honor:
Hawkeye junior Luka Garza (men’s basketball) and senior Katie Burch (field hockey) have been named the University of Iowa’s 2019-20 Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
The duo will be Iowa’s nominees for the 2020 Big Ten Conference Athletes of the Year awards.
Winners will be announced at a later date.
Garza was a unanimous consensus first-team All-America selection, becoming the first Iowa men’s basketball student-athlete to earn National Player of the Year distinction by six major news outlets.
The junior center was also named the Pete Newell Big Man of the Year, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year and has entered his name into the 2020 NBA Draft.
Garza has scored 20+ in 16 consecutive Big Ten conference games, the longest streak in the conference since 1987.