Marshall Takes Up Court
Gregg Marshall has been named the 26th head men’s basketball coach at Wichita State, following Mark Turgeon who’s now at Texas A&M – and bringing a wealth of NCAA coaching experience with him.
Marshall comes to WSU after completing his ninth year at Winthrop University, where he led the Eagles to their finest year with a third-straight Big South Conference championship, a seventh NCAA appearance in the past nine seasons and the first win in the NCAA tournament.
The Collegehoops.net 2007 Mid-Major Coach of the Year, he also received the Collegeinsider.com Hugh Durham National Coach of the Year Award and was voted the 2007 Big South Conference Coach of the Year, marking the fourth time he has received the award.
Previous experience includes stints at Marshall University and the College of Charleston. He inherits a WSU team that has been in postseason play four of the last five years, including the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2005-06. The Shockers posted a 17-14 record in 2006-07.
All-Region Honors
Wichita State juniors Britnee Barnett and Ashly Bright have been named to the 2007 NFCA Midwest All-Region Team.
Barnett has been named the first team shortstop, becoming the first player since Jody Lupo in 2003 to receive first team honors. Barnett led the Shockers in hitting with a .348 average, and her 72 hits this season were the second-most in school history.
Bright made the second team as a utility/pitcher selection, after hitting .329 on the season coupled with a team-best 2.44 ERA in the circle.
A Whirlwind
Margo Pruis, the former Shocker pitcher whose 2007 season was full of records and honors, has signed with the National Pro Fastpitch team the Philadelphia Force.
The team contacted Pruis at the end of May, and she was on a flight to Philly three days later. She pitched a couple of innings the following week. WSU’s career leader in victories and strikeouts has described the process as a “whirlwind.”
Pruis holds her own in the classroom as well. In May she was named to the MVC Scholar-Athlete first team, the only member of her team with that distinction.
— WSU Sports Information
Championship Competition
Shocker women’s track team veterans Chandra Andrews and Kellyn Johnson traveled to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, Calif., at the beginning of June.
WSU senior Andrews, who hails from Liberal, Kan., qualified for the national competition by winning the hammer throw at the Midwest Regionals, throwing a career best 200-4. She finished the preliminary round in Sacramento in 25th place after tossing 181-0.
Junior Johnson, who came to WSU from Cloud County College, Condordia, Kan., earned an at-large bid because of her top 15 national 5k ranking throughout the outdoor season.
She finished 26th in the preliminary round at nationals with a time of 16:45:82.
This was the first time for both athletes to participate in national championship competition. Johnson will return next season to join fellow juniors Chelsie Baldwin, Ponca City, Okla.; Kimber Lemon, London, Ontario, Canada; and Mica Land, Andover, Kan.; in their team’s quest for a third-straight MVC cross country championship.
— WSU Sports Information
