Nick Morgan, Sports Editor
Swimming
The AU swim team has more trips to the NAIA National Championship meet in its sights. Coach Alex Keyser said, “I’m looking forward to watching this group grow as a family and individually. We’ve had four meets so far this season, and we have been racing very well. It’s fun to see the training pay off already.” The goals for this season are simple: place well at Appalachian Athletic Conference Championships and send as many student-athletes as possible to the NAIA National Championships.
Key returners on the men’s side this season include NAIA All-Americans Clay Bisher and Keith Jessee. Bisher holds three school records in the 200 Medley Relay, 100 Backstroke and 200 Backstroke. Keith Jessee holds five records in the 200 Medley Relay, 800 Freestyle Relay, 200 IM, 400 IM and 200 Breaststroke. Both of these athletes will look to take home national championships this season.
On the women’s side, there are six returners who all qualified for the NAIA National Championships last year: Claire Goodrum, Hope Clark, Kristen Bewley, Rosie Gary, Kristin Sauer and Hannah Springer. Between the six of them, they hold an astounding 12 school records.
Keyser pointed out three newcomers this season: Alex Wu, Caleb Ream and Ronan Passman. In just the first four meets, Wu has already broken an Asbury school record and an Asbury pool record and has qualified for the NAIA Nationals in four individual events. With the help of these freshmen and an already strong roster, this Eagles swim team will look to make noise in the conference and the nation in 2018-19.
Women’s Basketball
Under the new leadership of former assistant coach Chad Mayes, the Asbury women’s basketball team will look to build the program while attaining short term successes. The roster remained mostly intact as three of their five leading scorers from a year ago have returned. The Eagles have already played two top 15 NAIA teams in the nation, having lost to No. 16 Taylor University and No. 9 St. Francis (Illinois) early in the season. “Those are the games that are going to make us better,” said Mayes. “We have a tough conference and schedule this year. We play eight or nine top 20 teams this season. We have to look at the long term here, not just the short term. If we schedule a bunch of easy wins, I don’t know how that would help us down the road as far as long-term success.”
The Lady Eagles will miss the scoring and leadership of Shelby McDonald and Bailey Brown from last season who collectively averaged over 22 points per game. Mayes will look to some new faces as well as returning players to make up for it. Of those returning, the reigning River States Conference Newcomer of the Year, Autumn Herriford, will look to make an immediate impact in her sophomore season. Herriford averaged just under 14 points per game last season, shooting just over the 40 percent mark for the year. Another returner to keep an eye on this year is sophomore Kelsey Johnson. Johnson also averaged 14 points per game last season and was 17th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game, despite being only 5 feet, 8 inches tall. Her scoring and rebounding abilities will help the Eagles immensely in this talented conference.
Along with the returners, a talented freshman class with a lot of upside will help bolster the Eagles roster. Sarah Dennison is a 5-foot-10-inch freshman from Bowling Green, Kentucky. She is a cerebral basketball player and someone Mayes is excited to add to the squad. Nave and LaTaya Winn are two transfers to watch for this season. They came from Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati after two seasons. “They are always creating havoc for the other team on defense,” Mayes said. “They’re in the passing lanes and not making it easy for opposing offenses.”
Overall, this is an exciting season for the Eagles women’s squad. Since 2016-17 when the Eagles went 24-10, the wins have been harder to come by; Asbury went 6-23 last season. Mayes is confident that he has the tools, players and staff to get this program back to where it needs to be.
Men’s Basketball
The Asbury men’s basketball team will look to improve on its successful season last year, despite losing key contributors. The Eagles retained four starters from last year’s squad, but the loss of Will Henderson is one that will take time to heal. The all-conference point guard was one of the nation’s best passers, averaging 8.1 assists per game and boasting a nation-best 3.67 assist to turnover ratio. Coach Will Shouse will look to a few guys to run point guard by committee this coming season: Clarien Washington, Blaine May and newcomer Desmond Duke will all three get chances. Shouse has set goals for this team, including competing for a conference championship and getting a ticket to the national tournament. “We want to work each day but have fun each day so, at the end, we can reap all the benefits,” Shouse said.
The highest anticipated returner for the 2018-19 campaign for the Eagles is All-American forward Trent Thompson. Thompson averaged 27 points per game to go along with 8 rebounds on 53 percent shooting. In just four games this season, Thompson has shown improvements in his athleticism as well as his three-point shooting, already averaging over 30 points per game.
Another returner in his second year with the purple and white is Clif Conley. The sharpshooting guard from Galax, Virginia averaged 12 points per game last season on 43 percent three-point shooting in just under 10 attempts per game, including a 25 point outing against West Virginia University Tech last January.
Another player that will see a significant jump in minutes this season is sophomore Siah Holifield. Holifield is a 6-foot-3-inch utility player that can cover every position from point guard to power forward and get to the basket and play solid defense. Shouse will also turn to seniors Dave McCorvey and Deion Cochran to contribute to the load this season.
The Eagles have 12 new faces on this roster, including three transfers this year. JoAunn Rivers, a sophomore transfer from Westmoreland County Community College in Pennsylvania, averaged 12.8 points per game including five 20 plus-point games in his freshman season. He transferred to AU along with Taylan Barrett and Duke, who each contributed game time to their former teams. Freshman Eric Powell will look to make an impact off the bench this season as well. “I haven’t had a freshman play for me on varsity since Trent [Thompson], and before that, it was Tyler Smith [‘16], so for a freshman to play, he has to be pretty special,” said Shouse.
This seems to be the season of opportunity for this Eagles squad. They will look to improve on their record of 17-12 from a year ago, and with an All-American on the roster as well as multiple key players that are always dangerous on offense, this team will strive for nothing short of tangible success this season.
