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1. Hockey Signs Five Players for Next Fall |
by Wes Frahm, director, athletic communications and marketing
Hockey coach Mel Pearson announced today the signing of five student-athletes to National Letters of Intent to attend and play hockey at Michigan Tech. The recruits are goaltender Pheonix Copley (North Pole, Alaska/Tri-City-USHL), forward CJ Eick (Appleton, Wis./Green Bay-USHL), defenseman Walker Hyland (Woodbury, Minn./Alberni Valley-BCHL), forward Jujhar Khaira (Surrey, B.C./Prince George-BCHL) and forward Alex Petan (Delta, B.C./Coquitlam-BCHL).
All five are expected to join the team next fall.
Copley is currently playing for the Tri-City Storm of the United States Hockey League, where he has played in 13 games with a 3.11 goals against average and .903 save percentage. The 6-3, 175-pound Alaska native spent the 2010-11 season in Texas playing 42 games for the Corpus Christi IceRays of the North American Hockey League, where he posted a 4.17 GAA and .880 save percentage.
"We're very pleased to sign a goalie of Pheonix's caliber," said Pearson. "He possesses all the qualities you look for in a young goaltender. He has a lot of natural talent and competes at a very high level. We expect him to solidify our goaltending for the future."
Eick has played 70 games over the last two seasons with the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL. The 5-7, 160-pound forward tallied five goals and four assists in 55 regular season games a year ago. He then tallied 4-2--6 in 11 playoff games, helping the Gamblers to the Clark Cup Finals. Eick owns 2-3--5 in 15 games so far this year.
"CJ knows what it takes to win having played for a very successful organization," said Pearson. "He owns tremendous speed, which makes him dangerous in all situations. He also comes with a great work ethic, which should make him a good penalty killer for us."
Hyland is a 5-11, 185-pound defenseman playing for Alberni Valley of the British Columbia Hockey League this season. The Woodbury, Minn., native has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in 14 games so far. In 2010-11, Hyland compiled 12-23--35 in 57 games with two different teams (Fresno and Texas) in the NAHL.
"Walker's an excellent skater with very good offensive capabilities," said Pearson. "We look forward to him adding offense from the blue line as well as playing solid defense."
Khaira, a 6-3, 195-pound forward, recently helped Canada West to a gold medal at the World Junior A Challenge. He is currently playing for the Prince George Spruce Kings of the BCHL, where he has tallied 12 goals and 17 assists for 29 points in just 16 games. A year ago with the Spruce Kings, Khaira amassed 10-32--42 in 58 games.
"Jujhar is having an outstanding year in the BCHL," said Pearson. "He chose Michigan Tech not only for hockey but also academics, and we're very excited to have him. He has good size and excellent offensive instincts, and we think he'll be able to add offense to our team immediately."
Petan is currently the sixth-leading scorer in the BCHL with 34 total points (13-21--34) in just 21 games with the Coquitlam Express. He leads the team in both goals and points so far in 2011-12. The 5-8, 155-pound forward registered 15-21--36 in 55 games with the Express a year ago, including three points in four playoff games.
"Alex follows a long line of BCHL players who have decided to play at Michigan Tech," said Pearson. "He's very creative offensively, and he has really come into his own this year. We look for Alex to add some offensive punch to our lineup. He possesses outstanding puck skills and is a dynamic skater.
"I'm very pleased and excited about this class. Damon (Whitten) and Billy (Muckalt) have done an outstanding job in identifying the type of student-athlete we are looking to bring to Michigan Tech."
In addition to the five players who will join the squad next fall, another--Justin Fillion--will begin his Huskies' career at the start of the next semester. Fillion signed with Tech a year ago. |
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2. Hojnacki Joins 1,000 Point Club |
by Ian Marks, assistant director, athletic communications and marketing
Senior Mike Hojnacki scored his 1,000 career point for the men's basketball team in a 74-63 win over Minnesota State Saturday, Nov. 19. The 6-7 forward from Milwaukee, Wis., is the 22nd player in school history to eclipse the 1,000 point mark. Hojnacki is averaging 12.1 points per game over his 84 game career.
"This is a great honor for Mike," said head coach Kevin Luke. "Mike is an outstanding player, and he joins the ranks of many great players who have played at Michigan Tech."
Michigan Tech 1,000 Point Scorers
Larry Grimes, 1968-72, 2,360
Jeff Boinski, 1995-99, 2,089
Josh Buettner, 2001-05, 2,061
Matt Cameron, 1999-03, 1,953
Pete Hoffman, 1988-90, 91-93, 1,866
J.T. Luginski, 1999-03, 1,685
Rod Ruth, 1983-87, 1,582
Jason Marcotte, 2001-05, 1,521
Russ VanDuine, 1975-76, 77-81, 1,449
Mike Kissman, 1993-96, 97-98, 1,446
Geof Kotila, 1978-82, 1,394
Radayl Richardson, 2003-07, 1,345
Matt Trombley, 1991-95, 1,327
Paul Turino, 1989-93, 1,259
Jason Kreider, 1996-00, 1,165
Sandy Johnson, 1961-65, 1,121
Tim Strom, 2004-08, 1,116
Mike Trewhella, 1974-78, 1,059
Joe Sell, 1983-87, 1,050
Gary Lange, 1970-74, 1,049
Dave Cvengros, 1958-62, 1,032
Mike Hojnacki, 2008-12, 1,013 |
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3. Men's Basketball Signs Two |
by Ian Marks, assistant director, athletic communications and marketing
The Michigan Tech men's basketball team signed a pair of players, Nicholas Stoll and Michael Fisher, to National Letters of Intent recently. Both players will join the team for the 2012-13 season.
"I am really excited about both players," said head coach Kevin Luke. "Both of these young men are great students and will have outstanding academic careers at Michigan Tech."
Nicholas Stoll is a versatile player with great size who can beat players off the dribble or in the post. The 6-7 forward averaged nine points, 11 rebounds and three blocks per game as a junior at Holly High School. Stoll, who carries a 3.93 grade point average, helped the Broncos to a 32-12 overall record and a 27-7 mark in the Metro League.
"Nicholas is a very impressive player," said Luke. "We hope to look to him to score a lot of points for us in the future."
Michael Fisher is a 6-7 post player who earned all-conference honorable mention honors at Green Bay East after averaging 7.9 points, 7.8 rebounds and 4.3 blocks his junior season. He is a three-time state qualifier in the high jump and won the state title last season with a leap of 6-8. He comes from an athletic family with each of his three older siblings each competing at the collegiate level. His brother Matt was an all-American high jumper at Minnesota, and his brother Tom was a national qualifier in the high jump at UW-Whitewater. His older sister Laura competed in basketball
and volleyball at Northland College.
"Michael is a big guy that is mobile, tough and gritty," said Luke. "He fits the mold of a Michigan Tech big man." |
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4. Environmental Engineering Graduate Seminar |
Students from the 2011-12 Scholarships in Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (S-STEM) Program in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering will present results from their mentoring projects at 3 p.m., Monday, Nov. 28, in M&M U113.
Each group of students will make a 10-minute presentation on their projects, followed by a discussion on the sustainability aspects. The presenters and their topics are as follows:
Meral Jackson, Julie Padilla and Bonnie Zwissler:
"Pilgrim River Watershed Management Plan-Public Involvement"
Meredith Ballard LaBeau and Alicia Sherrin:
"Sustainability of Phosphorus Monitoring in the Laurentian Great Lakes: Past, Present and Future"
Luke Moilanen, Rabi Gyawali and Ashlee Vincent:
"LCA Comparison of Centralized Water Treatment Systems and In-Home Ceramic Water Filters in Bendekonde, Suriname"
Bailey Gamble, Benjamin Savonen and Larry Schirmer:
"Analysis of Methods of Bone Char Defluoridation Filter Media Regeneration" |
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5. Proposals in Progress |
Molly Cavaleri (SFRES/ESC), "Impact of Increased Temperature on Carbon Cycling and Storage in a Moist Tropical Forest: A Mechanistic Investigation of Above and Below-ground Processes," DOE
Michael Falkowski (SFRES/ESC), "Enhancing Tools and Geospatial Data to Support Operational Forest Management and Regional Forest Planning in the Face of Climate Change," NASA
Andrew Burton (SFRES/ESC) and Molly Cavaleri (SFRES/ESC), "Effects of Soil Warming and Moisture Manipulation on Below-ground Processes Influencing Exchange of C between Terrestrial Ecosystems and the Atmosphere," DOE
Martin Jurgensen (SFRES/ESC), Andrew Burton (SFRES/ESC) and James Pickens (SFRES/ESC), "Wood Decomposition: Understanding Processes Regulating Carbon Transfer Among Atmospheric and Soil Carbon Pools Using FACE Wood at Multiple Scales," USDA Foresest Service, DOE
Catherine Tarasoff (SFRES/MTTI), Russ Alger (KRC/MTTI), Meagan Harless (Biological Sciences/MTTI), Casey Huckins (Biological Sciences/MTTI) and Thomas Pypker (SFRES/MTTI), "Determining the Toxicity of Deicing Materials," Minnesota Department of Transportation
Kathleen Halvorsen (SFRES), "Collaborative Research: Using Market-based Incentives to Foster Long-term Pro-environmental Behavior," NSF
Martin Jurgensen (SFRES/ESC), "Below-ground Impacts of Pile Burning in the Inland Northwestern US," USDA Forest Service
Andrew Storer (SFRES/ESC), "2012-2013 Continuation of the Slow Ash Mortality (SLAM) Project," USDA Forest Service
Caryn Heldt (ChE/BRC), "Precipitation and Self-interaction of Viruses by Preferential Hydration," NSF
Wenzhen Li (ChE), "Collaborative Research: Electrochemical Reduction of CO2 to Small Organic Fuels on Encapsulated Metal Catalysts in Gas Diffusion Electrode Environment," NSF
Julia King (ChE/ASISC) and Warren Perger (ECE/ASISC), "Deveopment of Improved Shielding Effectiveness and Electrical Conductivity Models for Carbon-filled Polycarbonate Nanocomposites," NSF |
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6. On the Road |
The Center for Technology and Training (CTT), a part of the Michigan Tech Transportation Institute, hosted the 2011 Michigan Winter Operations Conference in Midland on November 10.
CTT staff, including Director Tim Colling, Research Engineer John Kiefer, and Office Assistant Tammy Kus, worked with the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) to coordinate presentations by 14 winter maintenance experts from around the US.
More than 170 winter maintenance practitioners from state, county and municipal road agencies across Michigan attended the conference.
John Ryynanen, editor and technical writer for the CTT, planned the event with a committee of representatives from the Michigan Department of Transportation, the County Road Association of Michigan, SEMCOG and Michigan municipalities.
The conference was funded by Michigan's Local Technical Assistance Program, a program within the CTT that is dedicated to providing training and resources for local transportation agencies in the state. |
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