Tag Archives: Waynesburg

Game Day: Is it AQ time?

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Wesley
Wesley has had the upper hand in the Route 13 rivalry, winning nine of the past 12. But Wesley may be the underdog this year.
Case Western Reserve athletics photo

There won’t be any automatic bids handed out in the Route 13 rivalry between Wesley and Salisbury but there could be plenty of playoff impact. Wesley could find itself far out on the bubble with a loss, while Salisbury’s chance at a top seed hangs in the balance with every game.

Elsewhere, Johns Hopkins could clinch the Centennial Conference automatic bid with a win against Ursinus and Monmouth can clinch the MWC by beating Carroll. Mount Union can clinch the OAC with a win and a Baldwin-Wallace loss to Muskingum. St. Scholastica can clinch the UMAC with a win Friday night and a Eureka loss on Saturday. Thomas More can clinch the PAC with a win and a Waynesburg loss.

Two of Division III’s career records could fall Saturday as well, as Monmouth’s Alex Tanney could break the career touchdowns record of 148 held by Westminster (Mo.) quarterback Justin Peery and Dubuque’s Mike Zweifel is aiming at the all-divisions record for career receptions held by Peery’s teammate, Scott Pingel.

Plus there are only about 110 other games. Chime in about any of them on our live game day chat below or by using the #d3fb hashtag on Twitter.

Where we’ve been, who we’ve seen

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Keith McMillan talks at length about some of the trips he has taken since starting the Around the Nation column back in 2001. Some of those trips he and I have taken together, sometimes he’s been on his own, but the goal, at least unofficially, is to see every Division III team play someday, and see a game in every home stadium.

Now, to be honest, that isn’t very realistic. The fact remains that it’s very difficult to see more than one game in a weekend, which limits the number of teams either of us can see in a season. And I recently moved away from the east coast, where I had a much better chance of knocking teams off the list. But I’ll continue to give it a try.

I’m only counting the teams I’ve seen play (must have seen at least half of a game to qualify) and stadiums I’ve been in for a D-III game. I’ve also visited a bunch of campuses and walked through, or around a bunch of stadiums: Aurora, Beloit, Concordia (Ill.), Delaware Valley, Hamline, Huntingdon, Illinois Wesleyan, LaGrange, Lake Forest, Lebanon Valley, Lewis and Clark, Millsaps, Mississippi College, North Park, Northwestern, Oberlin, St. Thomas, Susquehanna, Trinity (Conn.), Wittenberg, Wooster, WPI. But I’ve seen 108 teams play, by my count, and seen games in 61 stadiums.

This doesn’t count Swarthmore, which I saw play back in the ’90s. Unfortunately, it seems that was a one-time occurrence.

Some of the places I’ve seen games have changed quite a bit. I mean, I was at St. John Fisher in 1994 but I know the stadium isn’t a bit like that was. I saw FDU-Madis… excuse me, FDU-Florham in a different era. Soon my view on RPI will be outdated. But they all count. And maybe I’ll get back there again.

Here’s who I’ve seen play, starting in 1991: Albright, Alfred, Augsburg, Augustana, Aurora, Benedictine, Bethel, Blackburn, Bridgewater (Va.), Brockport State, Cal Lutheran, Capital, Carleton, Carnegie Mellon, Catholic, Central, Chicago, Christopher Newport, Coast Guard, Coe, Cortland State, Crown, Curry, Delaware Valley, Dickinson, East Texas Baptist, Elmhurst, Emory & Henry, FDU-Florham, Franklin & Marshall, Frostburg State, Gallaudet, Gettysburg, Greensboro, Grove City, Guilford, Gustavus Adolphus, Hampden-Sydney, Hanover, Hardin-Simmons, Hobart, Howard Payne, Huntingdon, Ithaca, John Carroll, Johns Hopkins, Kean, King’s, Linfield, Louisiana College, Lycoming, Macalester, Maranatha Baptist, Mary Hardin-Baylor, McDaniel, McMurry, Merchant Marine, Methodist, Millsaps, Mississippi College, Minnesota-Morris, Montclair State, Mount Union, Muhlenberg, North Carolina Wesleyan, New Jersey, Newport News, Nichols, North Central, Northwestern (Minn.), Pacific Lutheran, Principia, Randolph-Macon, Rockford, Rowan, RPI, Salisbury, Shenandoah, Springfield, St. John Fisher, St. Olaf, St. John’s, St. Scholastica, St. Thomas, Susquehanna, Thiel, Thomas More, Trinity (Conn.), Trinity (Texas), Union, Ursinus, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater, Washington and Jefferson, Washington and Lee, Washington U., Waynesburg, Wesley, Western Connecticut, Wheaton, Widener, Wilkes, William Paterson, Williams, Wittenberg, Worcester State.

Key gets: I went out of my way to see Cal Lutheran when they came to Muhlenberg in 2002. Saw a bunch of teams last year at the UMAC’s Dome Day. Picked off both Macalester and St. Scholastica just this past weekend. Saw both Susquehanna and Grove City play at Dickinson, in 1999 and 2000, and never since. Traveled with Catholic when I was a student to a game at the University of Chicago.

And the schools at which I’ve seen games: Albright, Augsburg, Benedictine, Bridgewater (Va.), Capital, Carnegie Mellon, Catholic, Central, Chicago, Coast Guard, Cortland State, Dickinson, Elmhurst, FDU-Florham, Franklin & Marshall, Frostburg State, Gallaudet, Gettysburg, Hampden-Sydney, Hardin-Simmons, Johns Hopkins, Kean, King’s, Linfield, Lycoming, Macalester, Mary Hardin-Baylor, McDaniel, McMurry, Merchant Marine, Montclair State, Mount Union, Muhlenberg, New Jersey, North Central, Randolph-Macon, Rowan, RPI, Salisbury, Shenandoah, Springfield, St. John Fisher, St. Olaf, St. John’s, Thiel, Trinity (Texas), Union, Ursinus, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Stout, UW-Whitewater, Washington and Jefferson, Washington U., Wesley, Western Connecticut, Wheaton, Widener, Wilkes, William Paterson, Williams, Worcester State.

New this year: East Texas Baptist, Macalester, St. Scholastica, Wartburg,

There are certainly some holes in this list. Never seen Wabash (or DePauw, take it easy, people!). I’ve never been to a SCIAC school or seen anyone from the Midwest Conference. Didn’t take nearly enough advantage of my year in Connecticut. But I’ll get the list down, slowly but surely.

Not sure if Keith will chime in with his list, but anyone else is welcome, of course.

Heller’s record pursuit slowed

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Robert Heller’s pursuit of the all-time rushing record, D-III or otherwise, got off to a great start in 2007 when he ran for 2,176 yards as a freshman at Waynesburg.

It got off to a much less impressive start this past week at Wooster, when he was held to a career-low 104 yards.

And, as it turns out, his pursuit will be slowed even further this week, when the high ankle sprain he suffered will keep him on the sidelines against Hanover.

“I got my ankle rolled on,” Heller told me this afternoon. “I had a high ankle sprain (in prep school) and tweaked it again on the second play of the game. I played the rest of the game on one foot and I shouldn’t have.”

Heller, who certainly has the potential to catch R.J. Bowers’ record of 7,353 yards (or, as it may become this year, Nate Kmic’s record), has 5,073 yards and a lot of games to go before he can challenge that record, or the 7,871 that Chadron State’s Danny Woodhead compiled over the past four years to set the all-divisions record. If Heller plays the minimum 28 games between now and graduation, he’d have to average 181.2 yards per game to pass Bowers, more if the bar gets set higher, but fewer if he plays in a playoff game.

Heller, who wears No. 3, the same as Woodhead, watched a Woodhead highlight video before every game last season.

Billy Becker will get the start for Waynesburg in the Yellowjackets’ game against Hanover. As for Heller, he said he’s “probably going to get a cast for the short term” to help the ankle heal in hopes of playing in the conference opener against Thomas More.