2004-2005 Yellowjacket Athletics Highlights

Cross-Country

• Sarah Lord was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic District VII Track/Cross-Country team.  Lord—a graduate student running in her only season for the Yellowjackets—had a 4.00 GPA throughout her graduate courses after graduating Cum Laude from Pacific Lutheran University.
• The Lady Yellowjacket team had the fourth-highest team cumulative grade point average in the nation at 3.71.
• The Yellowjacket men’s team was eleventh nationally with a team cumulative GPA of 3.41.
• Heidi Robertson and Lord were named USTCA All-Academic Athletes.  The pair earned individual distinction after placing 25^th and 26^th respectively at the NCAA Division II West Regional.
• The women’s cross-country team ran to a twelfth place finish at the West Region Championships held in Bellingham, Washington.
• Robertson finished second at the PacWest Championships in a time of 19:00.  Robertson was followed by Lord in third place in 19:04 and Chelsea Lynnes in fifth place in 19:19.  All three earned All-PacWest honors.
• Led by the three top ten finishes, the Lady Yellowjackets placed second in the team race at the PacWest Championships.
• The Yellowjacket men were led by Sam Hartpence's 17th place finish at the conference championships.  He ran a season-best 29:23, over a minute and a half better than his previous best this year.

Volleyball

• The Yellowjackets posted the first winning record (14-11) since volleyball records started being kept at the school in 1984.
• The Jackets kicked off the season by winning the Alaska-Anchorage Invitational.  Jessica Bratton was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
• Olivia Munro broke Brandee Sayles’s school record for career kills.  Munro finished her career with 1,288 kills, besting Sayles by 245. 
• Munro and Andrea Donahue were each named to the All-PacWest second team.
• Bratton and Natalie Bills were named to the All-PacWest honorable mention team.
• Donahue set a new school single season record for hitting percentage at .373.
• Bills set a new school single season record for assists per game at 12.51.
• As a team, MSU Billings set three school records in 2004.  The Jackets had the highest team single season hitting percentage in school history (.220) and averaged more kills (15.74) and more assists (14.34) per game than any previous Yellowjacket team.

Men’s Soccer

• The Yellowjackets posted six wins for the third-straight year in 2004, finishing 6-12-0.
• Jesse Spann set a school record for the fastest goal to start at game when he found the net just 1:30 into the game in a win over Humboldt State.
• Thomas Pertuit tied the school single game record by scoring four goals in a win over Vanguard.
• Pertuit capped a solid career by scoring a team-best 11 goals with three assists for 25 points.  He is second in the career school record book for goals and points and first for assists.  He scored 59 points in four seasons on 23 goals and 13 assists.
• MSU Billings hired Dan McNally to guide the Yellowjackets in 2005.

Women’s Soccer

• The Yellowjackets had their best season in school history, going 12-4-3 and finishing the season ranked #10 in the Far West Region.
• Much of the women’s soccer record book was rewritten in 2004.  In all, the Yellowjackets set 14 new team school records, and players from the 2004 squad are listed in the individual record book a combined 32 times for game, season and career records.
• The Lady Jackets closed the season with a four-game unbeaten streak, with two wins and two ties.  One of the ties came at Rocky Mountain College in the second game of the Third Annual Rimrock Cup.  Combined with the Jackets’ 7-2 route of the Bears earlier in the year, MSU Billings brought home the Cup for the first time in three years.
• MSU Billings set new team records in 2004 for points, goals and assists.  The Yellowjackets’ 124 points broke the old school record by 20.  They scored 45 goals (old record was 38) and had 34 assists (28).  Thirteen different players accounted for those 45 goals, and ten different players had at least one assist.
• Margot Merrill-Johnson capped an impressive career by setting new single-season school records with 28 points and 11 goals.  She finished her career as the all-time career scoring leader with 71 points.
• Ally Taylor was close behind Merrill-Johnson for the team scoring lead.  She netted eight goals with a team-leading eight assists for 24 points.
• In 19 games, MSU Billings allowed only 22 goals, the fewest allowed in any season in school history.  The Jackets’ team 1.08 goals against average also set a school record, breaking the old one by 0.37 goals per game.
• Goalkeeper Megan Plank’s 1.03 goals against average set a school record, breaking the record she set as a freshman.
• Merrill-Johnson was awarded one of 56 prestigious postgraduate scholarships given by the NCAA.  In a year filled with honors, Merrill-Johnson was also named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America First Team.  She became the women’s soccer program’s first ever Academic All-America selection.  Merrill-Johnson was a double major in History and Sociology with a 3.90 cumulative grade point average.  She played in and started every game of her collegiate career, setting the school record for both at 70 games.  In 2004, Merrill-Johnson scored a school-record 11 goals and 28 points en route to breaking the MSU Billings career points record.  Of her 30 career goals, a record 11 were game-winners.  Merrill-Johnson was nominated by MSU Billings for the NCAA Woman of the Year award.

Men’s Basketball

• MSU Billings finished the season ranked second in NCAA Division II for both scoring and 3-point shooting.  That high octane offense led the Jackets to a 19-8 overall record and a third place finish in the PacWest Conference.
• At two points during the season the Yellowjackets were ranked in the NCAA West Region’s top 10.
• Three players earned all-conference recognition with Justin Hassell, Cameron Munoz and Buddy Windy Boy all named to the all-conference second team.
• Freshman Lucas Walker was voted the PacWest Conference Freshman of the Year by the league’s coaches.
• Hassell led the PacWest in rebounding and ranked fourth in the conference for scoring.  He ranked 37^th nationally for scoring average and 38^th in the country for rebounding average.
• Munoz ranked third in the PacWest for scoring and led the conference in 3-point field goals.  He finished second in Division II for made 3-pointers and will enter his senior season ranked second in school history for career 3-pointers—67 behind record holder Marcus Hallgrimson—and ninth for career points.  Munoz also finished the 2004-2005 season ranked 23^rd in the nation for scoring average and 24^th for free throw percentage.
• Windy Boy had a breakout season with 104 three-pointers.  He ranked eighth in the PacWest for scoring and was second for 3-pointers.  Windy Boy was seventh nationally for 3-point field goals per game.  He was also 34^th for 3-point field goal percentage.
• Two of the seven PacWest Academic All-Conference selections were from MSU Billings.  Jonathan Wiley topped the list with a 3.94 GPA in finance.  He was also a CoSIDA District VII Academic First Team selection.  Windy Boy made the PacWest academic team with a 3.37 cumulative GPA in math education.
• Carlin Hughes climbed all the way to eleventh in the nation for assists after missing the first part of the season. 
• Wiley ranked 48^th nationally for free throw percentage.
• The Jackets averaged 93.3 points per game.  They eclipsed the 100-point mark 13 times with a season high 124 against Johnson & Wales.  MSUB made 12.4 three-pointers per game.  The Yellowjackets also ranked 24^th nationally for free throw percentage.

Women’s Basketball

• The tradition continued for the Montana State-Billings women’s basketball team in 2004-2005.  With a new coach at the helm—the team’s third in as many years—the Lady Jackets returned to the NCAA Tournament for the ninth time since 1994.
• The Lady Jackets earned the eighth seed in the NCAA West Regional with a 21-6 regular season record.
• Head Coach Woodin was honored as the DII Independent Coach of the Year.
• Robyn Milne’s 104 blocked shots set a new single season school record.  She also set school career records for rebounds (957) and blocked shots (278). 
• Milne became just the second player in school history with over 1,000 points and 900 rebounds in a career.  She was sixth in NCAA II for blocked shots per game and 25^th for rebounding average.
• Milne received a number of awards in her senior season, including her second team MVP honor.  For the second straight year she was named to the All-West Region second team.  She was also named to the NCAA Division II Independent First Team and was the NCAA Division II Independent Defensive Player of the Year.  Accomplished on and off the court, Milne was a CoSIDA Academic District VII First Team selection and was named to the ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Third Team.
• One of Milne’s most prestigious awards of the year came when she was announced as one of the University’s two Outstanding Seniors for 2005.  Milne graduated with a degree in education and a 3.91 GPA.
• In the NCAA’s final Division II women’s basketball statistical rankings, MSU Billings was ranked in the top 45 in five team statistical categories.  The Yellowjackets were also ranked 31^st in the nation for won-lost percentage after going 21-7 (.750).  The Yellowjackets qualified for their ninth NCAA Tournament in the past 12 seasons behind a solid defense.  MSUB ranked fifth in NCAA II for field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to just 34.1 percent from the floor.  The Jackets were also 27^th for scoring margin (+11.4), 30^th for scoring defense (57.6 ppg allowed), 32^nd for rebound margin (+6.0), and 45^th for free throw percentage (73.4). 
• Robyn Milne and Tanya Petersen were named to the NCAA Division II All-Independent Team with Milne garnering first team honors and Petersen being named to the second team.  Milne was named the DII Independent Defensive Player of the Year.

Softball

• The 2005 season will be remembered as the year that put Montana State-Billings Softball on the map.  A group of nine seniors who were just 9-17 when they were freshmen led the Yellowjackets to the 2005 NCAA Tournament and a host of records along the way.
• MSU Billings finished second in the PacWest with a 13-5 conference mark and received an at large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
• MSU Billings entered the NCAA West Regional as the No. 3 seed.  After falling in the first round, the Yellowjackets went on to knock #1 Humboldt State and #2 Cal State-Dominguez Hills out of the tourney.  MSUB lost in the semifinals to eventual champion San Francisco State.
• Joey Ehnes and Christy Wankel were named to the West Regional All-Tournament Team.  Ehnes pitched every inning of the tournament for the Yellowjackets, going 2-2 with a 1.81 earned run average and striking out 19 in 27 innings.  Wankel batted .364 for the tournament to lead all Yellowjacket hitters and all outfielders at the tourney.  She was 4-for-11 at the plate, driving in a team high three RBI and scoring twice.
• Ehnes was named the Pacific West Conference Pitcher of the Year.  Seven Yellowjackets earned all-conference honors with a school-record four first team selections.  Joining Ehnes on the All-PacWest First Team were Rachel Quarnburg, Cami Rainey, and Theresa Campbell.  Wankel earned second team all-conference honors for the second straight year.  Layne Pavey and Sara Hanley were each named to the honorable mention team.
• Four Montana State-Billings players were named to the NFCA/Louisville Slugger All-West Region Team in voting by the region’s coaches.  Quanburg and Campbell were named to the all-region first team.  Ehnes and Rainey earned second team honors.
• Campbell was named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association All-America Third Team.  Campbell was the only player from the Pacific West Conference selected to any of the three All-America teams.  Campbell was also the first softball player in MSU Billings history to receive All-America recognition.
• Pavey was named to the “ESPN The Magazine” Academic All-District VII Softball Second Team.
• As a team the Yellowjackets ranked in the top 30 in the NCAA in three offensive categories as well as won/loss percentage.  Their .720 winning percentage was the 27^th-best in Division II.  MSUB was ninth in the nation for home runs per game (1.04), twelfth for team slugging percentage (.501) and seventeenth for team batting average (.324).
• Ehnes was ranked by the NCAA in three pitching categories, including seventh in the nation for victories with 29.  She was also seventeenth in the nation for strikeouts per seven innings (8.6) and 62^nd for earned run average (1.48).
• Ehnes went on to play semi-professionally in Holland over the summer.
• Rainey finished ranked in the top 50 in three offensive categories.  Her .409 batting average was 44^th nationally.  She was also twelfth for doubles per game (0.41) and 48^th for runs per game (0.96).  Both were school records.
• Campbell hit a conference record 15 home runs and ranked eleventh in the country for home runs per game.  She was also 22^nd nationally for slugging percentage with a school-record .772.
• Quarnburg shattered the school record with a .463 batting average, ranking fifteenth in all of Division II.
• The Yellowjackets placed seven players on the 17-member Academic All-Conference Softball Team.  Senior Layne Pavey had the second highest GPA in the conference with a 3.91 in Sociology.  She was a three-time Academic All-Conference selection.  MSU Billings had six repeat Academic All-Conference qualifiers.  Stephanie Cochrun earned her third Academic All-Conference honor with a 3.71 GPA in Elementary Education.  Megan McCrae’s 3.53 GPA in Sociology also placed her on the team for the third time.  Christy Wankel had a 3.45 GPA in Art Education and has been a two-time selection.  Theresa Campbell made the team for the third time with a 3.42 GPA in Business Management.  Anna Henderson’s 3.33 GPA in Education earned her a second year on the team.  Aysha Blatter earned Academic All-Conference honors for the first time with a 3.43 GPA in Business. 
• The 2005 Yellowjackets rewrote the school record books.  In all, 81 team and individual records were set in 2005 along with countless top 10 entries in the record books. 

Tennis

• The Yellowjacket men’s team finished a surprising third at the PacWest Conference Championships.  The Yellowjackets opened the PacWest Championships with an upset win over Hawaii Pacific University.
• The Lady Yellowjackets placed fifth at the six team tourney.
• Margot Merrill-Johnson was named to the 2005 ESPN The Magazine Women’s At-Large Academic District VII team.
• Four Yellowjackets earned Academic All-Conference honors.  Merrill-Johnson topped all tennis players in the conference with a 3.90 GPA in History and Sociology.  Also making the academic team were Tia Smith with a 3.70 GPA in Chemistry, Brianne Roney with a 3.54 GPA in Music, and Seth Maristuen with a 3.42 GPA in Business.

Golf

• The Montana State-Billings golf teams earned their frequent flyer miles during the 2004-2005 season.  The men’s team traveled to Washington once and California five times.  The Lady Jackets made trips to Washington, California, Texas, Arizona, and Colorado.  And both squads finished the year at the PacWest Conference Championships in Hilo, Hawaii.
• The men’s team edged out Western New Mexico for second place at the conference championships, losing only to host Hawaii-Hilo, which went on to qualify for the NCAA II National Championships.
• Three Yellowjackets earned all-conference honors, led by first team All-PacWest finisher Chris McConnell.  McConnell shot a 4-under par 209 over the three rounds to place third in the tournament’s individual standings.  Along with becoming the first all-conference player in the program’s three years, McConnell’s 4-under marked the first time a Yellowjacket has finished below par in a three round tourney.
• Zach Abels and Chris Haas each earned second team All-PacWest honors for finishing in the top 10.
• Based on regular season scoring averages, Nicholas Larson qualified for the NCAA West Regional, the first golfer to do so in school history.  Larson had a 75.06 combined scoring average for the fall and spring seasons.  He placed 30^th at the West Regional with rounds of 84, 74, and 80. 
• The Lady Yellowjackets finished the season with their best tournament of the year at the PacWest Championships, placing third.
• Halley Montalban placed second individually with an 18-over par 231, earning All-PacWest first team honors.
• Amanda Rabenberg earned All-PacWest second team honors with a tenth place finish.
• Following her outstanding freshman campaign, Montalban received the first $1,000 Katy Christiansen Memorial Scholarship in May.  Nels Christiansen started the scholarship fund in memory of his late wife Katy, who was a longtime supporter of youth golf in Montana.
• Rabenberg and Julie Clifford were each named to the PacWest All-Academic team.  Rabenberg had the second highest cumulative grade point average of any golfer in the conference with a 3.72 in Business.  Clifford made the team with a 3.54 GPA in Chemistry.

Baseball

• Dr. Gary Gray, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Montana State University-Billings, announced February 9, 2005 that baseball will become the school’s thirteenth varsity sport beginning with the 2005 fall semester.  The Yellowjacket baseball team will begin official competition with the 2006 NCAA spring championship season. 
• MSU Billings last sponsored baseball in 1974 when the Yellowjackets competed in the NAIA Frontier Conference.  Baseball was dropped at the school in 1975 and MSU Billings moved up to NCAA Division II in 1979.
• The Yellowjackets will compete in the Heartland Conference, which MSU Billings joined in the spring.  In addition to MSU Billings, the Heartland schools that play Division II baseball will be Incarnate Word, Lincoln, Panhandle State, St. Mary’s, and St. Edward’s.  Heartland member Dallas Baptist will continue to compete in Division I for baseball.
• Gray announced on March 9 that the university had hired Chris Brown as the head coach for the first NCAA baseball program in Montana.
• Brown was beginning his third season as the head coach of Bemidji State University when he was hired away by MSU Billings.
• Brown announced on April 18 that a Billings native was the first player to sign a national letter of intent for the new Yellowjacket baseball program.  Kyle McBride, a 2002 graduate of Billings West High School, officially became the first Yellowjacket baseball player since the program was dropped nearly three decades ago.