Sommer Ross hired to lead women’s hockey program
Sommer Ross was selected in July as the new head coach of the Indiana Tech women’s hockey program.
“We are excited to welcome Coach Ross to the Indiana Tech community. Her passion and commitment to women’s hockey and bettering young adults will be a great fit for our program,” Director of Athletics Jessie Biggs said.
“First, I want to thank Jessie Biggs, David Bokhart and the rest of the hiring team and athletics staff for giving me the opportunity to take the reins of such a talented program,” said Ross. “I am excited to put my roots down in Fort Wayne and step into the Warrior ice hockey family.”
Ross comes to lead the Warriors in their fourth year of competition with valuable experience as a coach and a former player.
Ross coached the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at NCAA D1 school, Franklin Pierce University in the New England Women’s Hockey Alliance (NEWHA). While there, she led the team to wins over three of the other four NCAA DI conferences (Holy Cross-Hockey East, Union/Dartmouth-ECAC, St. Thomas-WCHA). Franklin Pierce also reached the league semifinals in her first year as coach and the finals in year two. In addition to coaching at Franklin Pierce, Ross earned her master’s degree in educational leadership as well.
On the ice, Ross has been playing hockey since the age of four, winning several tournament championships and awards throughout her youth. More recently, she played a four-year collegiate career at the College of the Holy Cross (Hockey East, NCAA DI) from 2018 to 2022. She played in 96 games, amassing four goals, seven assists, and 11 points.
Tech named NAIA Gold Champions of Character Five-Star Institution
Indiana Tech was named a Gold Champions of Character Five-Star Institution on Wednesday by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) for the 2023-24 school year.
This marks the 22nd straight year that Tech has garnered the Five-Star Institution Award, one of only eight schools to earn the honor every year since its inception. The other seven institutions include Blue Mountain Christian University (Mississippi), Briar Cliff University (Iowa), Goshen College, John Brown University (Arkansas), MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kansas), Olivet Nazarene University (Illinois), and Taylor University (Indiana).
In addition to gold-level status, Indiana Tech earned a perfect score, recording 100 points on the NAIA CoC scorecard. 209 total institutions were honored with the Five-Star Award in either the gold, silver, or bronze categories.
The award symbolizes an institution’s ability to strive for character-driven athletics, while upholding the five core values of the NAIA: integrity, respect, responsibility, servant leadership, and sportsmanship. Institutions earn points in character training, conduct in competition, academic focus, character recognition, and character promotion. Institutions earned points based on exceptional student-athlete grade point averages and by having minimal to no ejections during competition throughout the course of the academic year.
Hall of Fame Ceremony switches to luncheon format this year
This year’s Indiana Tech Athletics Hall of Fame Ceremony will take place during the university’s homecoming weekend. However, it will switch to a luncheon format.
The ceremony will be held on Kline Court inside the Schaefer Center on Saturday, October 5, at 10:30 a.m. Tickets are available for purchase now.
The 2024 Hall of Fame Class features the 2009 women’s volleyball team, women’s lacrosse standout Kendall Guthrie, men’s lacrosse standout Dylan Johnston, women’s basketball standout Ulyssia Richmond and standout women’s volleyball coach Kirsta Solberg.
For more information about Indiana Tech’s Athletics Hall of Fame, please contact Director of Athletics Jessie Biggs at jnbiggs@indianatech.edu, or 260-422-5561, ext. 2244.
Women’s volleyball program earns academic recognition
Indiana Tech’s women’s volleyball program was named to the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) 2024 AVCA Team Academic Award list in July.
The AVCA recognition goes to volleyball programs that maintain a year-long grade point average of 3.3 or higher. It was the eighth straight year and eleventh time overall the Warriors volleyball program has earned the honor.
Warriors place 17 on NAIA Baseball Scholar-Athlete list
Indiana Tech had 17 recognized by the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) as 2023-24 Daktronics NAIA Baseball Scholar-Athletes this year.
Earning honors were AJ Dull, Alex Smith, Alex Watkins, Ben Morrison, Hector Rodriguez, Jack Quackenbush, Kade Robinson, Kasen Oribello, Landon Kruse, Luke Myers, Nick Miller, Parker Bates, Patrick McGinn, Ryan Uhlenhake, Seth Leininger, Seth Whaley and Tristan Osika.
In order to be nominated a student-athlete must maintain a minimum grade point average of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
Athletic program earns its seventh straight Fred Smith Cup
Indiana Tech’s athletic program was awarded the Fred Smith Commissioners Cup for the 2023-24 athletic season by the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference’s (WHAC). The Warriors won a whopping 17 WHAC titles during the year to amass 258 points—84 points better than second-place Aquinas College.
Named after longtime Siena Heights athletics director Fred Smith for his outstanding contributions to the league, this trophy is awarded to the WHAC athletic program with the best overall performance across all sports during the year. This marks the seventh straight cup the Warriors have taken home, tying Aquinas’ record (1997-98 through 2003-04) as the only schools to win seven straight trophies.
Mokuah wins national title, sets school record in 400 hurdles
Collins Mokuah won Indiana Tech’s lone national championship during May’s 2024 NAIA Outdoor National Championships and set a school record in the 400 hurdles in 50.80. He surpassed the previous school record of 51.12, set by Robert Rose in 2014.
Overall, the women’s track and field team finished fourth at nationals while the men finished eighth.
The Keelan Barker era begins this men’s soccer season
Indiana Tech’s men’s soccer team will have a new leader behind the bench when its season starts on Aug. 21.
Keelan Barker, who was hired in January, comes to Tech with a vast array of knowledge and experiences at the college level over the years, joining from NCAA D1 Bowling Green State University where he was the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the last year.
Before his time at Bowling Green, Barker was previously the head coach at NJCAA Coffeyville CC, where he led them to two KJCCC conference titles, one Regional final appearance, and one national tournament appearance. They were also ranked in the top ten in the country for their on the field performances, as well as their team GPA. Barker set the record at Coffeyville for the most wins in program history with a 18-3-1 record.
He has coached at USL 2 Fort Wayne FC for the past three seasons, setting the record for the most wins in their history, going undefeated in the regular season and winning the conference title during the 2023 summer season, and being ranked in the top 5 in the country.
Barker began his collegiate coaching career at Eastern Oregon University, where he helped the Mountaineers advance to the postseason for the first time in program history in 2018, his first season with the program. The team went 11-4-4 that fall and advanced to the Cascade Collegiate Conference semifinals. The next season (2019), Barker helped the Mounties advance to the conference final, as well as the NAIA National Tournament, achieving both milestones for the first time in program history.
Barker, a native of Nottingham, England, graduated from Purdue Fort Wayne in 2018, with a bachelor’s degree in business management. He earned an MBA from Eastern Oregon in 2019.