The Gustavus Adolphus College Athletics Department has announced the 2005-06 Male and Female Athletes of the Year and they are Hailey Harren, a cross country runner from Cold Spring, Minnesota and Bobby Kroog, a soccer player from Bloomington, Minnesota. Harren and Kroog, who are the sixth annual recipients of the Gustavus Athlete of the Year awards, will be honored at the Gustavus Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet, which will take place on Saturday, September 30 in Alumni Hall on the Gustavus campus.
Harren became the second Gustie women’s cross country runner to capture the individual title at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships last November. The Cold Spring, Minn. native finished first in six of the seven races she entered last fall, bringing home All-MIAC, All-Central Region and All-America honors. Harren’s only non-win was a runner-up finish in the University of Minnesota’s Roy Griak Invitational, which boasted a field of 327 runners in the Division III race. Harren was named MIAC Runner of the Year, as well as the Honda National Division III Runner of the Year. She was recently named a First Team CoSIDA/ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American.
Kroog, the center midfielder on the soccer team, led the Gusties in scoring with 14 goals and 3 assists for 31 points. The Bloomington native was co-captain and catalyst of a team that posted a record of 17-3-5 overall and advanced to the national championship match of the NCAA Tournament before falling to defending national champion Messiah College 1-0 . The Gusties were co-champions of the MIAC with a mark of 7-1-2. A four-year starter and three-time all-conference selection, Kroog was named the 2006 MIAC Player of the Year. He also received First Team All-Region and Third Team All-America honors. Kroog finished his career as the fifth leading scorer in the program’s history with 36 goals and 8 assists for 80 points.
Harren and Kroog were selected from a group of 22 candidates (9 men and 13 women). To be a candidate for the Gustavus Athlete of the Year, an athlete had to have been selected one of nine Athlete’s of the Month during the school year or put on the ballot by their head coach as a result of being selected their team’s Most Valuable Player. The winners are selected by a vote of the Gustavus Head Coaches.
The 13 finalists for the Gustavus Female Athlete of the Year included: Lisa Brown of Lake Crystal, Minn. (first year, outdoor track and field), Chandra Daw of Duluth, Minn. (senior, nordic skiing), Joyce DeWitz of Good Thunder, Minn. (junior, softball), Kelli Groff of Bloomington, Minn. (senior, golf), Hailey Harren of Cold Spring, Minn. (junior, cross country), Lauren Hom of Stevens Point, Wisc. (junior, tennis), Tara Houlihan of Sioux Falls, South Dakota (senior, tennis), Kourtney Joyce of Wadena, Minn. (senior, cross country and track and field), Audrey Lenoch of Pine Island, Minn. (senior, softball), Marla Menne of White Bear Lake, Minn. (senior, tennis), Bri Monahan of Hutchinson, Minn. (junior, basketball), Lyndsey Palen of Rochester, Minn. (senior, tennis), and Andrea Peterson of Vadnais Heights, Minn. (junior, ice hockey).
The 9 finalists for Gustavus Male athlete of the Year included: Caleb Bousu of Burnsville, Minn. (senior, soccer), Loren Collins of Dallas, Texas (senior, tennis), Ben Hanson of Minnetonka, Minn. (sophomore, swimming), Jered Hokenson of Watertown, Minn. (junior, track and field), Jon Keseley of St. Louis Park, Minn. (junior, ice hockey), Tony Konicek of Rochester, Minn. (junior, baseball), Bobby Kroog of Bloomington, Minn. (senior, soccer), Tanner Miest of New London, Minn. (junior, track and field), and Erich Ziegler of Crystal Falls, Mich. (senior, nordic skiing).