Northwestern College to honor former athletes

Three Northwestern College graduates who earned All-American honors will be inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, Sept. 30. The honorees, along with the 2017–18 Red Raider Club Coaches of the Year and Barnabas Award recipients, will be recognized at a luncheon at 11 a.m. in the Vermeer South Dining Room and at halftime of the football game against Morningside, which starts at 1:30 p.m.

Charity (Miles) De Lawyer of Rapid City, S.D.; Hillary (Hanno) Gingerich of Oskaloosa, Iowa; and Cody Van Sloten of Burtrum, Minn., will bring the number of Hall of Famers to 113. Cory Brandt of Rock Valley and Mike Meyer of Orange City will receive Red Raider Club Coach of the Year honors. The Barnabas Award—which recognizes Raiders who encouraged others to strive for their best performance athletically, academically and personally, and who used their sport as a way to bring others to a knowledge of Jesus Christ—will be bestowed upon Kristen (Te Grotenhuis) Olson of Kalamazoo, Mich. The late Derrick Rensink will also receive the Barnabas Award posthumously.

De Lawyer, a 2011 Northwestern graduate, earned NAIA All-American honors in cross country with a fifth place finish in 2007. She also attained All-American status in the 5,000-meter run in track four times with her second place finishes at the 2009 and 2011 outdoor national track meets and third place finishes at the 2008 and 2011 indoor nationals. De Lawyer was also a member of the Red Raider 4x800 relay that placed third at the 2011 outdoor meet. She holds Northwestern’s indoor and outdoor school records in the 3,000 and 5,000 and was a four-time national qualifier in cross country.

A two-time NAIA Scholar-Athlete in both cross country and track, De Lawyer graduated from Thedford, Neb., High School, in 2007. She is an R.N. at Black Hills Surgical Hospital.

Gingerich, who also graduated from Northwestern in 2011, was named a second team All-American in volleyball as a junior and senior. She received All-American honorable mention recognition in 2008. Northwestern’s career leader in kills with 2,011, she averaged 3.58 kills per set. She also recorded 138 service aces, 226 block assists and 312 total blocks. She contributed to Red Raider squads that compiled a 133-26 record over four years and a GPAC mark of 61-4, including three straight 16-0 seasons.

A 2007 graduate of Sioux City Heelan High School, Gingerich is an instructional coach for grades three through five in the Oskaloosa Community School District, where she previously taught fourth grade.

Van Sloten, a defensive end on the football team who graduated from Northwestern in December of 2008, received NAIA/AFCA All-American honors and Victory Sports Network second team All-American recognition in 2007 and was named to the College Fanz first team All-American squad in 2008. He is sixth in all-time sacks in Northwestern’s record books with 24.5. He also recorded 122 assisted tackles and 46 tackles for loss.

A 2004 graduate of Boyden-Hull High School, he teaches fifth grade math at Holdingford (Minn.) Schools, where he is the defensive coordinator for the high school football team and a junior high basketball and softball coach.

Brandt, who graduated from Northwestern in 1992, led last year’s Boyden-Hull/Rock Valley football team to the Class 2A state championship with a 12-1 record. In his career as a head coach, his teams have compiled a record of 154-70. A 1987 graduate of M-OC High School, Brandt teaches life sciences at Rock Valley High School.

Meyer, a 1979 Northwestern alumnus, is in his 12th year as the head volleyball coach at Le Mars Gehlen High School, where his teams have compiled a 274-127 record and qualified for the state tournament seven times. Last year’s team compiled a 25-12 record. A 1975 graduate of Sheldon High School, Meyer has been a coach for 38 years, including 16 years at Northwestern College, where the volleyball team recorded a 452-151 record and he also coached women’s basketball and baseball.

Olson, who graduated from Northwestern in 1993, lettered four years in cross country and track and qualified for nationals multiple times. She is a home-school mom and volunteer coach of the Kalamazoo Cougars home-school cross country team. Olson previously coached cross country in Estherville, Iowa, and cross country and track in Mattawan, Mich. She graduated from M-OC High School in 1989.

Rensink, a 2011 Northwestern alumnus, lettered two years in football and was also a member of the basketball team. A 2007 graduate of Sioux Center High School, he taught fourth grade and was the head girls’ basketball coach and junior high baseball coach for the South O’Brien School District in 2012–13. He died following a car accident on May 24, 2013.

The public is invited to attend the luncheon. Tickets are $10 apiece. For more information, contact Kara Smit in Northwestern’s athletic department, 712-707-7280 or kara.smit@nwciowa.edu.