Schmitt tallies nine personal bests at meet
LITTLE ROCK — Aubrey Schmitt, a rising seventh grader at Lake Hamilton and member of the Central Arkansas Racers, competed at the USA-Mary Grace Tucker Memorial held at the University of Arkansas Little Rock.
Schmitt tallied nine personal bests and three AAA times, putting Schmitt in the top 6% of swimmers in her age group nationally.
Her three AAA times qualified her for the Central Zones Championships in Elkhart, Indiana, in August, and she set two new female 11-12 Racers team records in the 400-meter freestyle and 200-meter breaststroke.
Schmitt’s biggest improvement on her personal bests came in the 200-meter breastroke (3:08.70) where she dropped 7.13 seconds from her previous best time.
Schmitt dropped 0.09 seconds from her 50-meter freestyle (30.40), 0.63 seconds from her 100-meter freestyle (1:06.24) and 3.03 seconds from her 400-meter freestyle (4:51.28).
She also trimmed 1.22 seconds from her 100-meter backstroke (1:16.77), 2.33 seconds from her 200-meter backstroke (2:44.90), 2.08 seconds from her 50-meter breaststroke (39.74) and 2.11 seconds from her 100-meter breastroke (1:30.39).
Schmitt rounded out her personal best by dropping 1.04 seconds from her 100-meter butterfly time (1:12.28).
She also competed in the 200-meter freestyle (2:25.55), 50-meter butterfly (32.47) and 200-meter individual medley (2:43.86).
NATIONAL PARK’S DUKE FINDS SUCCESS AT NEXT LEVEL
As an inaugural member of the National Park College men’s basketball team, Seth Duke helped lay the groundwork for where the program is today.
After graduating from National Park, Duke had multiple offers to play college basketball. The former Nighthawk narrowed his decision down between schools, including the topranked NAIA school in the country. Before he knew it, Duke was in Clarksville at the University of the Ozarks.
Now an Eagle, Duke quickly learned how difficult playing Division III basketball could be. The Eagles finished below .500 his junior year, giving Duke his first losing season in a long time.
“My senior season was challenging,” Duke said in a release. “We brought in some new faces and were struggling with getting them acclimated while also dealing with cancellations due to COVID-19. One we got to conference play, however, we locked in, hitting a big winning streak and earning the right to host the American Southwest Conference tournament.”
In the postseason, the Eagles capped a historic season with the university’s first ASC championship by defeating Louisiana College 74-72.
“With home court advantage throughout the playoffs, we were pumped,” Duke said. “Our gym was packed every night and the atmosphere in the championship game was insane. We were clinging to a two-point lead with less than two seconds left when our opponent missed a wide-open layup, and the rest was history.”
Duke graduated from the University of the Ozarks in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in education with his sights set on approaching the game he loved from a different angle through coaching.
This fall, Duke will return to the halls he once called home as a Gravette Lion to teach science and coach basketball.
Duke remains NPC’s career leader in assists per game (4.1), stands second all-time in assists (99) and is in the top 10 in all-time steals (28) for the Nighthawks.
“NPC made me into 10 times the basketball player I was before I got there,” Duke said. “Being around coaches and players who loved the game and genuinely wanted me to succeed made me want to work harder. Being able to say I was one of the first members of that program makes me proud. Without NPC, I would have never won a championship at University of the Ozarks. Without my time as a Nighthawk, I wouldn’t be the man that I am today.”
HARDING SWEEPS ALL-SPORTS TROPHIES
RUSSELLVILLE – The Great American Conference announced Harding University as the winner of the 2021-22 Commissioner’s Cup and the President’s Trophy, marking the first time an institution won both league’s all-sports awards.
The GAC awards the winner of
the Commissioner’s Cup to the GAC school that totals the most cumulative points in the 14 countable sports on the men’s and women’s sides in the GAC. The President’s Trophy goes to the program that earns the highest percentage of points based on the sports they sponsor.
Harding won the Commissioner’s Cup for the third time and claimed its first President’s Trophy. The Bisons earned conference titles in men’s cross country, football, women’s tennis, and men’s track and field. The Lady Bisons took second in track and field, notching top-four finishes in 12 of the 14 sports.
Oklahoma Baptist placed second in both standings.
Arkansas Tech finished in third. The Golden Suns shared the softball regular-season title with Southern Arkansas and placed second in women’s cross country, women’s golf and women’s tennis while sharing second in volleyball.
SAU finished fourth in the Commissioner’s Cup standings while Henderson State placed fourth in the President’s Cup. SAU won the regular-season title in baseball for the fifth time before advancing to the NCAA Division II National Championships for the first time in school history. The Reddies swept the two golf championships for the first time since 2014.
Southeastern Oklahoma State placed fifth in the President’s Cup standings while Southwestern Oklahoma State finished sixth in the Commissioner’s Cup.
East Central finished in eighth in both standings, followed by Southern Nazarene and Ouachita Baptist. The Crimson Storm finished ninth in the Commissioner’s Cup while the Tigers took ninth in the President’s Cup. Northwestern Oklahoma State and Arkansas-Monticello rounded out the standings.
GAC NAMES SCHOLAR ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
RUSSELLVILLE — The GAC announced HSU golfer Allie Bianchi as the league’s Female Scholar Athlete of the Year and Harding decathlete Matthew Hipshire as its Male Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Bianchi earned her second GAC Elite Scholar award after maintaining a 4.00 GPA in finance. She also landed on the WGCA All-American Scholar team for the second-straight year while finishing as a finalist for the NCAA Elite 90 Award.
Bianchi became the second two-time Female Scholar Athlete of the Year joining OBU’s Kori Bullard, who claimed the title in 2017 and 2018.
Hipshire also repeated as the GAC’s Male Scholar Athlete of the Year, making him the second male athlete to accomplish the feat after Southern Nazarene’s Colin Pasque won the award in 2016 and 2017.
Hipshire completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with a 4.00 GPA and boasts a 4.00 GPA in his pursuit of a master’s degree in management and business ethics.