The Newton-North Newton Historic Preservation Commission named the Ad Building and Goerz House (as well as the Newton homes of professors Karen Bauman Schlabaugh, music, and Merle Schlabaugh, German, and Bethel alumni Janet ’63 and Orvin Voth ’64) to the Local Register of Historic Places in December. The buildings are already listed on the National and State Registers of Historic Places.
Bethel’s entire forensics team qualified to nationals following the state and district tournaments, both of which Bethel hosted. Three Threshers had state championships in their events at KASIE (the state tournament), and sophomore Shekhinah Jones’ 2nd-place finish in Persuasive Speaking there means he will represent the state of Kansas at a national oratory competition in April. (For more, see the complete article.)
Cross-country runners Grace Bradfield, junior, and seniors Olivia Gehring, Laird Goertzen and Erin Regier were named to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Daktronics Scholar-Athlete Team for 2015. Student-athletes are nominated by their head coaches and must be juniors or seniors who maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
Bethel had the highest number in several years of inductees into the student nurses’ honor society Sigma Theta Tau. Sixteen Bethel seniors received their cords: Brandi Bergmeier, Shelby Bernt, Chianne Cates, Tanesha Cayton, Mekale Chapple, Lindsay Fawcett, Lisa Goering, Breanna Honer, Shelby Jessup, Haleigh Kerr, Reilly Klein, Abigail Ludwig, Bonnie Marnell, Alani Dodd Miller, Roseanne Riddle and Abigail Schrag.
Athletic accolades for Thresher volleyball in 2015 go to senior Ashley Dishon and sophomores Emma Hilgenfeld, Katie Neira and Amanda Ramsden, all named KCAC Honorable Mention. In addition, junior Tia Goertzen was named to the KCAC Champions of Character Team.
Bethel sent two complete programming teams—six students total—to the ACM Intercollegiate Computer Programming Contest’s North Central North America region (eight states plus two Canadian provinces) in November. The “Threshers”—seniors Yun Suk Kee and Tim Regier and junior Zach Preheim—solved their first problem in under 30 minutes, for a while occupying 6th place overall, and ended up finishing in the top quarter, 51st out of 223 teams. The “GrayMaroons” all competed in the ACM programming contest for the first time, taking 86th place: juniors Mareike Bergen and Matthew Rodenberg and sophomore Jordan Schroeder. Bethel was the only one of its KCAC peer schools and one of just three Kansas colleges or universities to participate in the programming competition. Faculty adviser is Karl Friesen ’86.
Thresher football players who received KCAC athletic honors were seniors Preston Oliver, 1st Team,
Marquis Jackson, 2nd Team, and Leland Brown III and Ryan Peete, Honorable Mention.
Bethel men’s indoor track, women’s soccer and softball teams were named KCAC academic champions for 2014-15. The team with the top GPA in each sport is so designated. Bethel men’s indoor track held the highest team GPA in the conference, with 3.85.
In soccer, seniors Mitchell Dutcher and Nestor Reyes and freshman Rohan Lindsay, for the men, and sophomore Elise Gerlach, for the women, all earned KCAC Honorable Mention.
Both men’s and women’s basketball teams were named the 2016 KCAC Team of Character for their sport. Athletic awards went to junior RayJon Craig, KCAC 2nd Team, junior Deven Goodwin and senior Jenson Kingsley, Honorable Mention, and freshman Chase Banister, All-Freshman Team, for the men; and senior Lauren Ulrich, Honorable Mention, for the women.