March 25, 2009

RIPON, Wis. - Ripon’s men’s basketball team finished this season with a 9-13 record and a 7-9 mark in the MWC, the sixth-best in the conference. One season highlight came in Ripon’s 79-71 overtime victory over Monmouth in their conference opener, which marked the 1,000th victory in the 90-year history of the Ripon men’s basketball team.

This year’s Red Hawks were led by Scott Gillespie (So., Ripon, Wis.), who was selected to the MWC First Team. Gillespie was the only player in the MWC to rank in the top 15 in scoring (18.9 ppg), rebounding (4.4 rpg) and assists (5.8 apg), leading Ripon in each category. Gillespie’s 416 points this season gives him more than 400 points for the second consecutive year and making him just the eighth player in Ripon history to reach that mark in more than one season.

Ripon’s future looks bright thanks to players like Gillespie and Aris Wurtz (Fr., Waupun, Wis.), who ranked second on the team with 10.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. In Ripon’s last six games, Wurtz averaged 18.7 points per game. Wurtz also was solid at the free-throw line, with the fourth-best free throw percentage by a Red Hawk in a single season (.895).

Even though Wurtz entered the record books, he still was not the best free-throw shooter on this year’s team. Rich Cloeter (Sr., Clintonville, Wis.) set the school record by shooting 91.2 percent from the free-throw line. Cloeter leaves Ripon as the school’s all-time best free-throw shooter, making 85 percent of his shots from the charity stripe in his four-year career. Also etching his name into the record books was Martin Esters (So., Toenisvorst, Germany), whose 64.3 field goal percentage is the seventh-best in school history.