Olympic Sports Update: February

Introducing our newest feature, a monthly Olympic Sports Update. This will feature all sports other than football, men’s & women’s basketball, and baseball. Liberty’s Olympic Sports are some of the most successful on Liberty mountain.

Golf

Liberty golf posted a 7^th place finish at the Gator Invitational and a 4^th place finish at The North Ranch Intercollegiate during the month of February. Niklas Lindstrom and Chase Marinell both had top 5 finishes this month and Lindstrom picked up his third Big South Conference Golfer of the Week award this year (first of the spring season) after his top 5 finish at the Gator Invitational. The Flames are ranked 30^th by Golf Week, but are yet to finish ahead of a top 25 team this spring.

The Lady Flames got off to a 1-2 start this season after a win at Stetson, and losses against Navy and Lafayette. The Flames posted a school record three goals allowed against Stetson. Defensive player Jen Moyer earned Big South Defensive Player of the Week after her effort in the dominant performance. The Lady Flames will host Davidson to open up conference play at the end of March.

Softball

 
After a grueling eleven games in eleven days to begin the 2013 season, the Lady Flames find themselves at 4-7 going into March. The Flames have allowed 1.04 runs per inning thus far, making it extremely hard on themselves to outscore opponents. The Lady Flames also have relied on timely power hitting, as they are 3-0 in games in which they have hit 2+ homeruns, while they are 0-5 in games in which they have not hit a homerun. On February 27^th Katie Zavodny produced 5 hits in a losing effort to Hampton. This makes the speedy Zavodny the lone record holder for hits in one game at Liberty. The Lady Flames will begin conference play March 16 At Radford.

The Lady Flames claimed second place at the CCSA Swimming and Diving championships this past month. Many of the swimmers posted personal best times at the meet. Jess Reinhardt nabbed Freshman of the Meet honors after setting the conference record in both the 100 and 200 meter fly. After receiving their first national ranking, 37^th according to collegeswimming.com, the Flames have high hopes for seven swimmers attempting to improve their times this week at the Last Chance Meet in which swimmers will attempt to gain selection for the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships beginning on March 21.

Led by senior Siim Tuus (5-0) and Junior Shea Thomas (5-0) Liberty Men’s Tennis has gotten off to a hot 4-1 start. Also, Egon Samaii was named Big South Tennis Freshman of the Week for his contributions Jan. 28-Feb. 3. The Flame’s wins have come against Bluefield State, Bridgewater, Norfolk State, and Morgan State, and their lone loss to William and Mary. The Flames will begin conference action this week, hosting Longwood on March 6.

After dropping their first four matches, Liberty Women’s Tennis seems to have found their stroke with a 2-1 record over their last three outings. The team has won the coveted doubles point three matches in a row, and is looking to maintain a high level of play entering a flurry of conference opponents in March. Also note that Nicola Wellman was awarded the Big South Conference Player of the Week honor for her contributions Feb. 18-24. The Flames are currently 2-5 overall and 1-1 in conference play.

The Flames had an outstanding month of track and field highlighted by their performance in the Big South Indoor Track Championships. The men won the Big South Championship for the 16^th straight year with a whopping 65-point margin of victory while the women took 2^ndplace. Numerous Flames won events at the meet, dominating the competition at times. Mychelle Cumings was named co-Outstanding Field Performer of the meet as Janae Jones picked up Field Athlete of the Week honors earlier in February. After such a strong month, 30 athletes hope to make their mark at the IC4A and ECAC meets against teams from all over the east coast today and throughout the weekend in Boston.