The Haven Magazine Spring 2018

ATHLETIC NEWS & NOTES
Colleen Hacker
’78, a former
standout in both
field hockey and
women’s basketball
helped guide the
USA women’s ice
hockey team to gold at the 2018
Winter Olympics. Hacker serves as
the team’s mental skills coach and
is a 1978 graduate of LHU. Hacker
has been the mental skills coach
and performance psychology
specialist with five Olympic teams.
She won three Olympic medals
with women’s soccer, 1996 (gold
medal), 2000 (silver) and 2004
(gold). She also worked with the
field hockey team in 2008 (eighth
place). She now has worked with
the women’s ice hockey team in
2014 (silver) and this year’s gold
medal.
During the annual ALL-IN (Feb.
8) day of giving, LHU athletics
received 524 gifts totaling
$185,161. The goal of $150,000
was easily surpassed, in thanks to
all the kind donations.
Rileigh Devine of the LHU women’s
basketball team was
named to the 2017-
2018 Pennsylvania State
Athletic Conference East
Second team. Devine
averaged a team-best
10.9 points per game.
Amir Hinton of the LHU men’s
basketball team was named to
the 2017-2018 Pennsylvania State
Athletic Conference East First team.
This marked the second straight
year he was a first-team selection.
This past year Hinton reached the
1,000-point mark, becoming the
fastest player in PSAC history to
do so.
The women’s track and field team
was led this past season by Rashana
Tompkins and Laurel Moyer. For
Tompkins, it was a record year as
she broke the LHU 60-meter hurdle
record four different times. She
became the first woman in Lock
Haven history to break the 9-second
barrier as her fastest time clocked in at
8.87 Moyer, a true-freshman, ran away
from the field at the indoor PSAC track
and field championships on her way to
the 5,000-meter title.
Head swimming coach Phil Hurley led
his swimming team into the biggest
meet of the season at the PSAC
Championships ready to compete.
Out of the 18 individual races, 14 of
them swam to season bests while 11
were lifetime bests. All five relays also
finished with season best marks.
Former men’s cross country and
track and field standouts Nick
Hilton ’17 and Alex Monroe ’16 ran
to phenomenal feats early in 2018.
Hilton competed at the Walt Disney
World Marathon and become the first
American to win the event in 14 years
and once again qualified for the United
States Olympic trials in the marathon.
Monroe competed at the Aramco
Houston Half Marathon and easily
qualified for his second Olympic trials in
the marathon.
LHU field
hockey earned
a 2017 Zag
Field Hockey
/ National
Field Hockey Coaches Association
(NFHCA) Division I National
Academic Team Award. This award
recognizes programs with a team
GPA of 3.0 or higher during the
fall semester of the 2017-2018
academic year.
Head men’s and women’s cross
country coach Aaron Russell helped
both programs to U.S. Track &
Field and Cross Country Coaches
Association All-Academic Team
honors. Four student-athletes from
the men’s team and six from the
women’s team earned individual
All-Academic honors as well. Teams
must have compiled a cumulative
grade point average of at least 3.0
and must have scored at an NCAA
Division II regional meet to qualify
for All-Academic team awards. The
individual All-Academic honor was
awarded to those student-athletes
who compiled a cumulative GPA
of at least 3.25 and finished
among the top 30 percent of
eligible runners at his or her
regional championships and/or
the top half of the field at the
NCAA Championships.
A total of 124 LHU studentathletes
were named PSAC
Scholar-Athletes during the
2017-18 fall semester.
The men’s and women’s
cross country program was
selected as winners of the
2017 PSAC Sportsmanship
Award. The Lock Haven teams
were recognized for their
generosity following a Division
II Cross Country Challenge
at Kutztown University. After
sighting the Bloomsburg
University team bus stranded
in a ditch alongside the road,
and noticing the inability of the
tow trucks to pull the bus out
of trouble, Aaron Russell and
his teams graciously offered the
Bloomsburg athletes, coaches,
and additional personnel a ride
home.
LHU Athletics joins PSAC
Network
Powered by the LHU office of athletic
communications & marketing, LHU partnered
with Stretch Internet and unveiled the Bald
Eagles edition of the PSAC Network during the
2017-2018 season.
The 2017-2018 men’s and women’s basketball
season marked a new chapter for Lock Haven
University athletics and the entire Pennsylvania
State Athletic Conference (PSAC). The PSAC
launched its new digital network with all 18
PSAC institutions joining the fun.
The PSAC Network allows the 18 different
universities of the PSAC to work with a website
streaming service called Stretch Internet
in order to live stream different sporting
events to online audiences. Through Stretch,
the network provided first-class viewing
(1080p HD) with video streams available on
all computers and devices, including phones
and tablets. The broadcasts are also available
on Roku and Apple TV. Best of all, the PSAC
Network streams are free for all.
“We are excited about the PSAC Network
and look forward to what the future may
hold for the project,” said LHU Director of
Athletic Communications and Marketing, Doug
Spatafore ’06. “It’s been a learning experience
and took a lot of planning and work to get us
here, but year one was a success. The goal of our
office is help promote LHU student-athletes and
our teams in new ways, and the network certainly
provided us that opportunity. The numbers show
that our fans enjoyed watching the games as
well.”
The PSAC Network at LHU provided an
opportunity for students to get hands-on
experience. Without question, LHU’s version of
the PSAC Network, better known as HAVENC@
st, was successful because of the LHU Sports
Broadcasting Club. The club, a student-run
organization, helped in every aspect of the
network from set-up and producing, to
camera work and more.
The students, many of whom are
communication or sport administration
students, learned how to use streaming
software, different camera shots and
angles for optimum viewing, how to set up
and operate a soundboard, and learned
the different aspects of preparing to
broadcast a live game on the air.
The transition to the new PSAC network
has paid dividends for not just the club,
but also for the athletic communications
and marketing department. Through the
generosity of grants funded by PSAC,
the department was able to purchase
new state-of-the-art equipment in order
to provide the highest quality stream
available.
“The new streaming network and
equipment have really benefitted the
broadcasting club,” said Club President
Corey Woomer. “Once the technology was
upgraded, the broadcasts became much
more precise and clear for the viewers.
Students now see the type of broadcasts
we are able to produce and want to get
involved with the club to gain valuable
broadcasting knowledge and skills.”
20 SPRING 2018 THE HAVEN LOCK HAVEN UNIVERSITY