2003-2004 Yellowjackets Athletics Highlights

Cross-Country

• The Yellowjacket cross-country teams were each ranked in the nation’s top 10 for grade point average for the ninth consecutive year by the National Cross-Country Coaches Association. 

• The Yellowjacket men tied for fourth in all of NCAA II with a cumulative GPA of 3.59.

• The Lady Yellowjackets tied for eighth with a cumulative GPA of 3.61.  In each of the previous three years, the women’s team led the nation for team GPA.

• Cross-country will become an official championship sport in the Pacific West Conference in 2004 and MSU Billings will host the PacWest Championships in October.

• Chelsea Lynnes won the Dickinson State Invitational to lead the Lady Jackets to a team win.

• Anjel Hoff won the Yellowjacket Invitational to lead the Lady Jackets to the team title.

 Volleyball

• Olivia Munro was selected to the All-PacWest Conference second team.  The junior from Toronto, Ontario, Canada led the Yellowjackets in kills and will have a chance to break the school career kills record in 2004.

• Sandy Beal, a senior from Troy, Mont., was named to the PacWest Conference All-Academic Team. 

Men’s Soccer

• The Yellowjackets, under second-year coach Doug Seigle, won six games for the second year in a row and at point in the season had a school record three-game winning streak. 

• Thomas Pertuit, a junior from Billings, Mont., set a school single season record for points per game.

• The Yellowjackets will play a record six home games in 2004.

Women’s Soccer

• The Lady Yellowjacket soccer program continued to grow and improve this season and had its first all-region player in the program’s history.  Freshman Ally Taylor from Ojai, Calif., was selected to the All-West Region second team after leading the team in scoring.

• Under second-year coach Don Trentham, the Yellowjackets won six games after winning just two the previous year. 

• The Yellowjackets will play a record 10 home games in 2004.

Men’s Basketball

• Jerett Skrifvars, a senior from Brea, Calif., became the school’s first CoSIDA Academic All-America selection.  After being named to the CoSIDA District VII first team, Skrifvars advanced to the national balloting where he was chosen as one of the top five men’s basketball student-athletes in NCAA Division II.  Skrifvars graduated with a 4.00 in information systems in May 2003 and attended graduate classes during his final season of competition for the Yellowjackets.

• This summer Skrifvars was named the NCAA Division II Conference Commissioners Association West Region Scholar-Athlete of the Year, one of just eight regional winners nationwide.

• In addition to Skrifvars’s academic honors, Dave Carse was named to the CoSIDA District VII Academic second team.  Carse was a senior from Billings and graduated in May.

• Both Skrifvars and Carse were named to the Pacific West Conference All-Academic Team.  Skrifvars was also a first team All-PacWest selection, while Carse was named to the All-PacWest second team.

• Yellowjacket basketball teams and players were once again ranked near the top of the nation statistically.  The team led the nation in 3-point field goals made per game for the seventh time since 1996 and was fourth in NCAA II for scoring average.  Skrifvars, Carse, Buddy Windy Boy and Trae Fortier each had top 50 rankings in various statistical categories.  Windy Boy was a sophomore from Lodge Grass, Mont., and Fortier was a junior from Los Angeles, Calif.

Women’s Basketball

• Robyn Milne, a junior from Richey, Mont., was named to the CoSIDA District VII Academic second team.

• Milne was the cornerstone to a women’s basketball team that finished the season ranked No. 10 in the West Region.  She averaged a double-double and was named to the All-West Region second team. 

• The Lady Yellowjackets ranked 38^th in the nation for field goal percentage defense.  Milne, finished in the top 10 in NCAA II for blocked shots and rebounds per game.  It was her third straight year ranked in the top 26 for blocked shots.  Fellow Montana native Jenny Langford of Reedpoint ranked in the top 20 for 3-point field goal and in the top 25 for 3-point field goal percentage. 

Softball

• The Yellowjackets had their best season in the program’s history, posting a 27-28 overall record.

• Seven Yellowjacket players earned PacWest all-conference honors.  Joey Ehnes, a junior from Great Falls, Mont., and Sara Hanley, a junior from Kalispell, Mont., were selected to the All-PacWest first team.

• Earning All-PacWest second team honors were Cami Rainey, a junior from Terreton, Idaho; Christy Wankel, a sophomore from Great Falls, Mont.; and Layne Pavey, a junior from Spokane, Wash.

• All-Conference honorable mention honors went to Theresa Campbell, a junior from Great Falls, Mont., and Stephanie Cochrun, a junior from Lake Stevens, Wash.

• The Yellowjackets also had five players named to the Academic All-Conference Team: Pavey, Cochrun and Campbell were each named to the team for the second-straight year.  Wankel and Megan McCrae, a junior from Brandon, Manitoba, Canada were named to the academic team for the first time.

• Ehnes and Pavey were selected to the All-West Region second team.  Ehnes set school records for pitching victories and strikeouts and ranked in the top 30 in the nation for strikeouts.  Pavey was the PacWest home run champion.

• The Yellowjackets finished the season ranked 23rd in NCAA Division II for home runs per game.  The Lady Jackets belted 32 homers in 2004, averaging 0.58 per game.

• MSU Billings softball coach Jeff Aumend recorded his 200^th career victory, 45 of which have come with the Yellowjackets.  Aumend began the program just four seasons ago and has helped the program grow quickly.  The Yellowjackets now play in one of the best softball facilities in the region thanks to a $100,000 donation from Cenex for the construction of Cenex Stadium.

Tennis

• The Yellowjacket tennis teams had five players named to the Pacific West Conference All-Academic Team.  Men’s players Andres Calabro and Seth Maristuen along with women’s players Lee Sowada, Margot Merrill-Johnson and Amanda Schlosser comprised over a third of the PacWest All-Academic Teams.

Golf

• The Yellowjacket golf program entered its second year of NCAA competition and showed vast improvement.  Under the direction of first year coach Roger Burckley, the Yellowjackets’ rosters increased in both size and talent.

• After steadily improving all season, the men’s team finished the year with a second place finish at the Northern Colorado Invitational.  The Yellowjackets beat out Nebraksa-Kearney for second place.  UNK advanced to the North central Regional the following week.

• Golf will become an official PacWest championship sport in 2004 and both Yellowjacket teams will play in the first ever PacWest Championships in Hilo, HI.

Cheerleading

• The Yellowjacket Cheer Team captured its first-ever team championship in March 2004 at the Cheerleaders of America (COA) West Coast Open in Irvine, Calif.  The team also took home first and second place trophies in the co-ed partner stunting and a second place finish in the all-girl division.

• The Yellowjacket Cheer Team traveled to Las Vegas in February to compete in the USA Cheer competition.  MSUB finished in seventh place against schools such as UNLV, BYU and UCLA.

• MSU Billings is now home of a regional cheer competition conducted by COA.  This competition offers over 50 divisions and attracts teams from across the West.  Teams can qualify for the national COA competition with a strong performance in Billings.

·    MSU Billings will again host the largest cheer camp in the state of Montana this August.  The 2003 camp was the largest camp the MSU Billings campus has hosted, and it nearly doubled in size in 2004 with over 400 cheerleaders from around the region attending.  The Yellowjacket Cheer Camp focuses on stunting, cheer and dance. 

• MSU Billings also conducts one of the largest kids cheer camps in the state.  Youth from all over Billings and the surrounding area attend the camp during the first two weekends of November.