33 Beavers make NSIC academic list
Bemidji State landed 33 student-athletes on the 2015 Spring Academic All-NSIC Team. To be eligible for the Academic All-NSIC Team, student-athletes must maintain a grade point average of 3.20 or better, be a member of a varsity traveling team, and have reached sophomore athletic and academic standing at their institution with one full year completed at that campus. The BSU baseball team led the spring contingent with 12 student-athletes recognized for academic accomplishment. BSU also had seven members of its women’s outdoor track and field team honored, four from its women’s golf team and five student-athletes from the softball and women’s tennis teams selected to the 2015 all-academic squad.
Mowatt named First-Team All-American for net prowess
Women’s hockey goaltender Brittni Mowat was named to the 2015 CCM/AHCA All-American First Team to cap a record-setting 2014-15 season. The first BSU player to garner a First-Team All-American accolade, Mowat was instrumental in the Beavers’ season, posting a 19-13-1 record with an 1.68 goals against average and .945 save percentage to rank among the top 10 nationally. She was also instrumental in BSU’s penalty-killing unit, which finished second in the WCHA and third nationally with .915 success rate last season.
BSU women’s shot put star takes place among NSIC Hall of Famers
Bemidji State graduate and former women’s track and field standout Patti (Fitzgerald) Zwiers was inducted into the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Hall of Fame as part of the league’s 16th Annual Summer Kickoff event.
Zwiers was a three-year letter winner for the Bemidji State women’s track and field team and head coach Jan Berg. She earned All-Northern Sun Conference honors six times and was a five-time All-American in the shot put. Zwiers also shone in the classroom, where she was named a NAIA Scholar-Athlete in 1989 and earned NAIA Academic All-America accolades in 1988, 1989 and 1990. She graduated magna cum laude in 1990 with a degree in math education.
Successful debut earns Scanlan national coach of the year honors
Jim Scanlan, who is in his second season at the helm of the BSU women’s hockey program, was named USCHO.com National Coach of the Year to cap the 2014-15 season. Scanlan led the Beavers to a program-best 21 wins and the team’s first appearance in the WCHA Final Face-Off championship game. The 2014-15 WCHA Coach of the Year, Scanlan guided the Beavers to a 10-win improvement from the previous season and five wins over teams that finished in the top 10 nationally. The Beavers also posted three wins against teams that went to the Frozen Four, which included handing the eventual national champions, University of Minnesota, two of its three losses.
North Star College Cup awaits BSU
The Bemidji State men’s hockey team may be just halfway through its 2015-16 season, but anticipation has been building for the 2016 North Star College Cup. Last season, behind a Most Valuable Player performance from goaltender Michael Bitzer, the Beavers defeated then-No. 7 Minnesota Duluth, 4-0, and No. 1 Minnesota State, 3-1, to win the tournament in its inaugural appearance. The event at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul features the best college hockey has to offer, pitting Minnesota’s five NCAA Division I men’s hockey programs against one another for bragging rights in the State of Hockey. BSU will begin defense of its 2015 title at 4 p.m. Jan. 30 when it faces Minnesota. Four-game ticket packages for the 2016 North Star College Cup are available now at the Sanford Center Box Office.
Stram earns a spot on the Academic All-District First Team
The Bemidji State soccer team’s leading scorer, Sarah Stram, is also turning heads in the classroom. The junior chemistry major was named to the 2015 Capitol One/College Sports Information Directors of America College Division Academic All-District® First Team. In addition to leading the team with 10 goals and 26 points, the Elk Grove Village, Ill., native carries a 3.97 cumulative GPA. In 2014-15, she was recognized as BSU’s Outstanding Analytical Chemist and was selected for BSU’s American Chemical Society Undergraduate Award.