Defenseman Rutkowski Called Up to Binghamton
The Evansville IceMen, proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and AHL’s Binghamton Senators, and Head Coach Al Sims announced Saturday that Ottawa has recalled defenseman Troy Rutkowski and reassigned him to Binghamton.
The 23-year-old from Edmonton led the IceMen with 14 assists in 26 games, and has been particularly efficient as of late. Rutkowski has two goals and ten assists in his last nine games, and set a single-game career high with four assists in Evansville’s 6-5 overtime loss December 6 against Quad City.
Rutkowski started the season in Binghamton’s AHL training camp, before he was reassigned October 6 to Evansville, where he played most of 2014-15. The 2010 fifth round pick of the Colorado Avalanche has played in 121 ECHL games and 27 AHL games in his three professional seasons.
USI announces the 2016 Hall of Fame Class
The University of Southern Indiana Department of Athletics is pleased to announce the selection of the 2016 USI Athletic Hall of Fame class that will be inducted during homecoming week in February. The class of five individuals and one former coach was selected by a nine-member USI Athletic Hall of Fame Committee.
Any Screaming Eagles fan was eligible to nominate student athletes or teams on the 10th anniversary of their last season of competition, or a coach/administrator who has been separated from the Department of Athletics for two years. Special individuals (e.g., Varsity Club members) also were eligible for nominations as well.
This year’s class includes Ernie Brothers ’76 (Men’s Basketball, 1973-76), Heather Cooksey Platt(Women’s Cross Country, Track & Field, 2002-06), Shane Gibson ’93 (Men’s Soccer, 1989-92), Brian Merrill ’96 (Men’s Golf, 1992-96), Candace Perry Fairer (Women’s Track & Field, 2003-05), and Don Bisesi (Women’s Golf Head Coach, 2000-15).
“I continue to be amazed by the amount of outstanding student-athletes and coaches this University has had,” said USI Director of Athletics Jon Mark Hall. “The Class of 2016 truly represents our growing tradition here at USI. The six individuals that will be honored in February are truly worthy of this extraordinary honor. I know that the entire USI community is proud of this class and what it accomplished while at USI.”
Plans are underway for the induction ceremony on the evening of February 10. A listing of previous USI Athletic Hall of Fame inductees can be found on GoUSIEagles.com.
2016 USI ATHLETIC HALL OF FAME CLASS
Ernie Brothers Men’s Basketball, 1973-76: Brothers was an outstanding played for ISUE, marking the first player to score 1,000 points. He held the career and season scoring average when he graduated in 1975.
Heather Cooksey Platt (Women’s Cross Country, Track & Field, 2002-06): Cooksey was USI’s first-ever female national champion, earning the title in the 3,000 meters at the NCAA II Outdoor Championships in 2004. One of the most decorated women’s student-athletes in school history, Cooksey earned a combined 11 All-America honors and 16 All-GLVC awards, in addition to winning two GLVC Cross Country championships as well as GLVC Runner of the Year awards. She was the Great Lakes Region Cross Country Runner of the Year in 2004 as well as the Great Lakes Region Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year in 2004. The GLVC Freshman of the Year in cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field in 2002-03, she finished first in more than 40 races during her career at USI and completed her career ranked first all-time in 12 different events and currently holds nine school records.
Shane Gibson, Men’s Soccer 1989-91: Gibson was a member of the USI inaugural Division I team in 1992, He also was USI’s first men’s soccer GLVC Player of the Year in 1990, in addition to winning All-Region honors in 1990; All-State in 1991; and a two All-GLVC awards. Gibson was one of the team captains in 1990 and 1991 and a member of three GLVC championship team.
Brian Merrill, Men’s Golf 1992-96: Merrill is a four-time All-GLVC, a two-time All-District and a two-time Academic All-American. He has held the USI record season scoring average (75.2) since 1994, while his 76.1 career average ranks fourth all-time. Merrill had four rounds under 70, the only USI men’s golfer to accomplish that feat, and helped lead USI to its only NCAA II National Championship appearance in 1996.
Candace Perry Fairer, Women’s Track & Field 2003-05: Perry Fairer is the first women’s track & field student athlete to win a NCAA II Outdoor national championship in a field event, taking the long jump in 2004 and was a four-time All-American in the long jump (two indoor and two outdoor). She later transferred to Indiana University for her last two seasons to compete in the long jump.
Don Bisesi, Women’s Golf Head Coach 2000-2015: Bisesi led the USI women’s golf team to 10 NCAA Division II East Super Regional appearances between 2004 and 2015 before transitioning to honorary head coach in the fall of 2015 before passing away in December. Under Bisesi, the Eagles either qualified as a team or had an individual qualify for the NCAA post-season in 13-straight years. Bisesi, who died last week after a long battle with cancer, also was named Great Lakes Valley Conference Coach of the Year twice during his tenure.
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COA Affirms Attorney Owes Ex-Assistant Thousands In Unpaid Wages
COA Affirms Attorney Owes Ex-Assistant Thousands In Unpaid Wages
Jennifer Nellson for www.theindianalayer.com
An Elkhart solo practitioner must pay his former legal assistant more than $85,000 after she sued him to recover unpaid wages owed to her over the course of two years, the Court of Appeals affirmed Wednesday.
Bonnie Egan worked as Eugene Topolski’s legal assistant from November 2005 until April 2012. She was paid a set amount of money on a weekly basis, regardless of the number of hours worked and could take vacation whenever she needed. This arrangement worked until the economic downturn hit. By January 2010, she expected to be paid $600 gross per week, but she was not paid every week from that point on. She stopped receiving paychecks from August 2011 until January 2012, when Topolski began paying her $600 gross per week again.
She asked to be let go so she could collect unemployment, but Topolski did not fire her. She instead took a job with another law firm in April 2012. In her resignation letter, she gave Topolski until June 1, 2012, to pay her the $24,000 she was owed in past-due salary from 2011 and 2012. Topolski never paid the amount, so she sued in Elkhart Superior Court. The trial court granted her $85,104.14, which included unpaid back pay, liquidated damages and attorney fees.
Topolski appealed in Eugene J. Topolski v. Bonnie Egan, 20A05-1502-CC-82, claiming the court erred in finding Egan was a salaried employee and incorrectly calculated the amount of unpaid wages due. He argued she was an hourly employee and was only owed $8,200. But he is essentially asking the appeals court to reweigh the evidence, which it will not do. The trial court listed numerous factors based on the evidence presented at trial of the two’s employment relationship to support its legal conclusion that Egan was a salaried employee, Judge Paul Mathias wrote.
The COA also found no error by the trial court in awarding liquidated damages and attorney fees under I.C. 22-2-5-2.
IVY TECH Facing Questions From State Lawmakers And Workforce Council
IVY TECH Facing Questions From State Lawmakers And Workforce Council
The community college system is facing questions from state lawmakers and its workforce council over low graduation rates. The workforce council has set minimum state completion rates for short- and long-term programs. And based on graduation data, Ivy Tech isn’t meeting those minimums. Not meeting those standards threatens the federal job-training dollars the college receives.
But Ivy Tech argues, like many community colleges across the country, that graduation rates don’t tell the entire story.
“What we have here is apples talking to oranges,” President Tom Snyder said, adding that transfers aren’t included in graduation rates. “The good thing is we’re closing the gap between what is being done in the college and what’s needed in the workforce.”
The council set graduation standards for all 260 of its training providers, including Ivy Tech, after federal directives were changed last year to require states to track what happens to students in workforce training programs. Indiana’s new standards are a 28 percent minimum graduation rate threshold for two-year degree programs and a 60 percent rate for career-technical programs or nondegree programs, said Joe Frank, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.
The state receives about $60 million a year in workforce innovation dollars that it passes on to the providers, with Ivy Tech receiving about $6.5 million, Frank said. Ivy Tech is the largest of the state’s providers.
Using graduation information from the Indiana Commission of Higher Education, Ivy Tech’s total completion rate is at 5.2 percent for full-time students who completed within two years and 27.7 percent for students who completed an associate degree or certificate within six years. For part-time students those numbers change to 2.1 percent within two years and 20.8 percent within six.
Based on those measurements, the college isn’t meeting the workforce requirement.
But the college points to other measurements that they feel are more reflective of what happens on campuses.
For instance, using 2014 data from the National Community College Benchmark Project, Ivy Tech ranked in the top 30 percent in the country for first-time, part-time students to complete or transfer within six years — at nearly 40 percent.
And the majority of Ivy Tech’s students aren’t first-time students who are seeking to complete in two years, said Jeff Fanter, the college’s senior vice president for student experience, communications and marketing.
“Only 6.6 percent of them are taking enough credits to graduate in two years, 28.3 percent are on a three-year track and over 65 percent are on a six-year track,” he said.
Mary Alice McCarthy, a senior policy analyst in the education policy program at New America, said graduation rates weren’t meant to be used with the new workforce law.
“This is showing the dangers of mixing up data sources for accountability purposes,” said McCarthy, who previously worked for both the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. Department of Labor. “Credential attainment is important, but completion and earnings are the big measures in workforce development.”
Ivy Tech’s graduates earn an average of about $37,700 in annual salary the first year after graduation, $43,100 annually after five years and nearly $50,000 per year after 10 years, according to the state higher education commission.
Ivy Tech said the state’s workforce development program is holding off on cutting any funding while updated data are being provided.
“We view it as they have the most robust program in the state and they’re the largest with the most robust infrastructure,” Frank said. “We will continue to work with them to make sure they’re in compliance, and they’ve been a great partner in the past.”
Snyder is optimistic that the disconnect will be resolved over the next couple of months.
“We’ll give them more appropriate data points,” he said.
U of E Athletics Department Announced Latest Hall of Fame Class
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The University of Evansville Athletics Department has announced its latest Hall of Fame class. Included in it are: Nikola Kalabic, Shyla McKibbon-Puelston, Ellen Miles, Jack Mitchell and Andrea Sonnenschein. In addition, the 1985 Final Four Men’s Soccer Team was the second-ever team inducted into the Team Wing of the Hall of Fame.  Women’s soccer great Kayla Lambert was also voted in, but will be attending the induction ceremony with the 2016-17 class.
In 1985, the Purple Aces men’s soccer team went an unbelievable 21-1-2 on its way to the Final Four in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. They went without a loss for the first 23 matches, with the only loss coming to eventual champion UCLA. Facing powerhouses Indiana and Penn State in the first two rounds of the tournament, the Aces earned 3-0 and 1-0 shutouts as the defense allowed just 12 goals in the regular season and 15 overall.
While the defense did its job, the offense notched 93 goals, including a program record of 15 in a shutout of Louisville. Upperclassmen on the squad included: Dan Balassi, Ken Beul, Dan Cannon, Doug Diedrich, Joe Kofron, Tim Lane, Chris Machold, Dan McHugh, Mike Mikes, Jack Mitchell, Andrew Norton, Rob Schoenstein, Jim Short and Brian Wannemuelher. Evansville was ranked No. 1 in the nation and was the lone unbeaten team in the nation at the time of the loss to UCLA. All-time great Fred Schmalz was the head coach.
One of the top male swimmers in program history, Nikola Kalabic represented Yugoslavia in the Olympic Games in 1996 and 2000. A 4-time All-Missouri Valley Conference Swimmer, Kalabic was the league’s Swimmer of the Year in 2001. The school records that he set included: 100 free, 200 free and 100 back.
Kayla Lambert left UE as the top scorer in program and Missouri Valley Conference history. Her 132 points put her on top of both lists and today, she remains second on the conference list. She hold the UE career records in points (132), goals (51) and assists with 30. The 2008 MVC Player of the Year was the program’s first Academic All-American as she was named to the third team in 2008. She was also the first Freshman All-American in UE women’s soccer history, earning a spot on the 3rd Team in 2005.
A 4-time All-Region player, Lambert was a 3-time First Team All-MVC player and was named to the second team as a junior in 2007. Lambert was the 2005 Freshman of the Year and was also named the 2008 MVC Tournament MVP and earned a space on the 2007 All-Tournament Team.
Shyla McKibbon-Puelston ranks among the top female basketball players in school history. With 1,626 points and 833 rebounds she continues to rank second in the UE record books. A 1st Team All-MVC player in 1999 and 2000, McKibbon-Puelston led the Aces to their first-ever NCAA Tournament in ’99. She was also the MVC Tournament MVP.
She was Evansville’s only selection on the MVC All-Centennial Team, which was chosen in 2007 and was for the period from 1995-2006.
Ellen Miles was named to the MVC All-Centennial Team. Her illustrious career saw her named to the All-MVC Team on three occasions while also being named to the Scholar-Athlete Team three times. She was named a 2nd Team Academic All-American, the only person to do so in program history. Miles holds the UE 3-meter record with 417.05 points.
A member of the 1985 Final Four Team, Jack Mitchell was the scoring leader on that squad with 11 goals and 11 assists. He helped the Aces to the NCAA Tournament in each of his four seasons and the team was ranked at the top of the country in both 1985 and 86. An All-Mideast Region player in 1986, he was also named to the All-MCC squad in 1987, the first year that soccer was a sport in the league. He finished his career with 79 points in a tally that included 24 goals and 31 assists. Mitchell was a Silver Medalist in the 1987 US Olympic Festival.
Andrea Sonnenschein had a stellar career for the UE cross country team as she held the top three times in the 5K and 6K races at the time of her graduation. An MVC Scholar-Athlete Team member in 2007, she was named the team’s most valuable runner in each of her four seasons with the team. Her time of 17:30 was the program record in the 5K and it held until Kelby Jenkins broke it in 2013.