2-9-23

OPINION

Opinion Columnist

Nixson Benitez sees changes to come with the introduction of ChatGPT AI.

OPINION PAGE 3

CAMPUS LIFE

UNI CATS hosts annual event to show gratitude to donors.

UNI pep bands on the road again

Pep bands to attend conference basketball tournaments thanks to anonymous donor

UNI pep bands will now be attending the Missouri Valley Conference basketball tournaments with the help of an anonymous donor.

The Northern Iowan reported in November 2022, that the pep bands would not travel to the men’s or women’s conference basketball tournaments due to budget cuts within UNI Athletics.

According to UNI Athletics Director David Harris, since the publishing of the article, a donor has stepped forward to provide the funds required to send the band to the men’s tournament in St. Louis, Mo., and the women’s tournament in Moline, Ill..

“We have been working

since the last time we spoke [with the Northern Iowan] to try to identify funding from different ways and in different areas, but ultimately, when this donor came forward, that ended up being the thing that made the difference for us in being able to provide the funding,” Harris said.

Harris said that the donor has requested that their identity and the amount donated remain confidential.

The donation was given with the specific purpose of funding the pep band’s travel.

SPORTS

Women’s basketball takes down the Indiana State Sycamores, 91-51.

SPORTS PAGE 6

Traducción: El impacto de McDermott en el basket en UNI

Nota de la editora: Julie Matta y Melissa Hernandez son estudiantes del curso SPAN 3159 Translation for Heritage Speakers, dirigido por el Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo.

La temporada del baloncesto femenino está en pleno auge. Durante el día dedicado a los medios, la primera entrenadora Tanya Warren estableció las pautas, diciendo que este año el equipo de mujeres estaba hambriento por la temporada. El año pasado, la temporada del equipo de baloncesto femenino se acabó en la segunda ronda del Torneo Nacional Femenino por Invitación de 2022 (WNIT en inglés).

UNI and Faculty Senate working to update “peer institution” list

At the last UNI Faculty Senate meeting on Jan. 23, 2023, a proposal was discussed to update UNI’s list of peer institutions. The purpose of UNI having peer institutions is so the university can have similar colleges to compare and contrast itself against in critical benchmarks. These benchmarks include enrollment growth and decline, as well as overall educational goals for the institution.

The University of Northern Iowa currently has ten peer institutions. They include the College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois University, Ferris State University of Michigan, James Madison University of Virginia, Marshall University, Southern Illinois- Edwardsville, Truman State University, U-Mass Dartmouth, U-Minnesota Duluth and Western Washington State.

These colleges were selected as peer institutions in 2014 due to their strong similarities to the University of Northern Iowa, as they are all comprehensive regional universities. Nevertheless, as times changed, so did these universities’ similarities to UNI, so in reaction, the University of Northern Iowa’s faculty senate has proposed to update the list.

Changes to be included on the new list include keeping the University of Minnesota Duluth, College of Charleston, Eastern Illinois, and Western Washington State University. Concurrently, the College of New Jersey, Central Connecticut State University, Minnesota State-Mankato, University of Wisconsin Whitewater, the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire and Indiana State University will be added.

Universities removed from

the new list include Truman State University of Missouri, Ferris State, Marshall, SIUEdwardsville, U-Mass Dartmouth and James Madison.

Kristin Moser of UNI’s Institutional Effectiveness & Planning office said it was time to change the list. Moser stated, “It is best practice to review an institutional peer list on a regular basis. The last time this review happened was in 2014. During this intermediate period, university characteristics changed based on institutional priorities, demographic shifts, enrollment changes, etc. An institution that was a peer to UNI 10 years ago may have changed to the point that we no longer have as many similarities as differences.”

Moser gave an example regarding the drop of Missouri’s Truman State University from the original list to the new one, “For example, Truman State

University was on our peer list. However, their enrollment has declined over the past 10 years, and they no longer are the best peer for us.”

The six new peer institutions proposed to join the list were chosen for several reasons.

 See PEER INSTITUTIONS, page 2

GRANT PEDERSEN Staff Writer

MALLORY SCHMITZ News Editor

 See THE BAND IS BACK, page 2  Ver MCDERMOTT, página 2

CEDAR FALLS, IA

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2023

VOLUME 119, ISSUE 35

STEPH STARK

The band program originally learned that the bands would not be attending the conference basketball tournaments back in July of 2022. The decision to bring the bands, thanks to a generous donation, comes about one month before the tournament dates.

EMILY EAVES

Shifting enrollment numbers, demographics and prioriites are all reasons for universities to update peer institution lists. UNI Faculty Senate has proposed updates to the peer institution list, which will be the first review of it since 2014.

CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 4

We were very happy and gratified that people around campus thought it was important enough to make happen, because people do value the band.

JUSTIN MERTZ Associate Director of Bands

NIXSON BENÍTEZ Escritor JULIE MATTA Traductora invitada MELISSA HERNANDEZ Traductora invitada

THE BAND IS BACK

continued from page 1

“This was new money, and they were specifically interested in helping us with this initiative,” Harris said. “It was important to them, and so they wanted the money directed specifically for this cost.”

Justin Mertz, Ph.D., associate director of bands at UNI, said he was notified on the morning of Feb. 2 that the band would attend the tournaments.

“I, the rest of the faculty and staff here in the band program and the students were very pleased and very happy to hear that,” he said.

“We were very happy and gratified that people around campus thought it was important enough to make happen, because people do value the band,” Mertz said. “They thought it was important enough to make happen, and they were able to make it happen.”

After the announcement that the bands would attend the tournaments, Mertz said that they were immediately able to staff bands to travel to both the men’s and women’s tournaments.

“The students are very excited to go. They’re excited to represent UNI, they’re excited to be a part of a great event, and they’re excited to support the student athletes,” he said. “The student athletes and the band students sort of develop a little bond each season, and they come to really

appreciate each other,” Mertz said.

Maggie Glenn, a junior sousaphone player in the pep band, echoes Mertz’s statements.

“I was so excited to find out that we could go on the trips because I had a lot of fun on the band trip last year,” she said.

“The pep band is at almost every basketball game and helps create that atmosphere in the arena. I believe it’s important to bring the band because we choose to be there to cheer on our teams, and we genuinely want to support them during their playoff runs. Plus, I’d like to think we boost the morale in the arena,” Glenn said.

Harris also expressed gratitude from UNI Athletics that the funding was able to be provided.

“It’s not the same without [the band], and they add in an element of school spirit that we think is important for that environment, which is why we’ve continued to try to pursue different ways to be able to make this happen. We’re just fortunate that there was someone who was willing to come forward with the funding that was necessary to make it a reality,” Harris said.

The athletes and bands will be hitting the road in just a few weeks, with the conference tournaments taking place March 2-5 for the men and March 9-12 for the women.

PEER INSTITUTIONS

continued from page 1

Regarding the reasons, Moser stated, “The current set of peers was selected in 2014 using a collaborative, data-informed process involving various campus stakeholders. The 2023 list of institutions was chosen using the same methodology as in 2014, taking into consideration a variety of high-level institutional characteristics (e.g., institution size and types of degrees offered) as well as specific variables like tuition, in-state vs. out-of-state enrollment, student financial need, number of full-time faculty and total operating budget.”

Stability has been the key to limiting changes to their peer lists at the other two regent

Esta era la quinta vez que el equipo acababa con más de 20 victorias en una sola temporada con la entrenadora Warren. Este año, los pronósticos de entrenadores de la liga, directores de información de deportes, y miembros de los medios predijeron que las Panteras acabarían quintas en la Conferencia del Valle del Missouri (MVC en inglés). Este año durante el día dedicado a los medios, la entrenadora Warren expresó que este año “este es el equipo de Maya”.

La estudiante de segundo año Maya McDermott va a ser la base titular del equipo esta temporada por primera vez.

“Quiero ganar el campeonato de la conferencia para el personal de entrenadores y para mis compañeras de equipo. Solo quiero ser parte de un campeón de conferencia, quiero lograr ir al torneo del NCAA”, dijo McDermott.

universities, Iowa and Iowa State. Iowa State updated its list in 2016, while the University of Iowa has kept theirs the same since its creation in the mid1980s. This lack of change is due to Iowa State and Iowa’s relatively stable enrollment over time. On the other hand, the University of Northern Iowa is ready for a change due to its presently changing environment. UNI’s enrollment has dropped over the last few years, and it no longer looks like some of the colleges from the 2014 list.

Like any other American university, UNI is always striving to be better and more appealing to potential students. Having a peer institution list streamlines the process of finding other institutions like UNI

to compare critical programs and their viability. Moser says her office uses institutional peer lists, too, “We use our peer list to benchmark various metrics used to track continuous improvement efforts on campus. For example, it can show us how UNI performs on indicators such as student retention and graduation rates compared to similar universities.”

The UNI Faculty Senate and the office of UNI Institutional Effectiveness & Planning hope that the Iowa Board of Regents will approve this change at their February 2023 meeting.

The University of Northern Iowa faculty senate will hold its next meeting via zoom on Feb. 27, 2023.

For many pep band students, the postseason opportunities are a highlight to the season. Students and faculty alike are very grateful to have the oppportunity to support Panther basketball at the tournaments.

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McDermott fue adoptada de Guatemala cuando tenía 11 meses de edad. Ha vivido en Iowa toda su vida, y antes de venir a UNI, ella fue a la prepa de Johnston. Durante su último año de la prepa, fue parte de un legado que llevó al equipo de su prepa al campeonato estatal de la clase 5A en la temporada 2019-2020. A partir del legado de su carrera preparatoria, ha querido dejar ese mismo legado en el equipo femenino de baloncesto de UNI, pero tam-

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bién quiere que los aficionados reconozcan su carácter como líder positiva fuera de la cancha.

“La marca que quiero dejar como persona es que quiero tratar a todos extremadamente bien. Mi mamá siempre me enseñó que no quieres ser conocida solo como una buena deportista, sino que también quieres ser conocida como una buena persona”, dijo McDermott.

Antes de que McDermott fuera titular este año, generalmente jugaba entre 10 y 12 minutos por partido y fue tomada bajo las alas de la entonces base titular Karli Rucker y la entrenadora Warren. Este fue un gran cambio para McDermott, ya que significó un cambio de ser titular en la escuela secundaria a ser una jugadora secundaria en la universidad. Durante los últimos dos años, puso su energía en ser la chispa del equi-

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po y en empujar el ritmo para que el equipo lo hiciera mejor. Este año, con McDermott como parte de la alineación inicial, puede dirigir el equipo y llenar los zapatos de su mejor amiga Rucker.

“La entrenadora Warren, estos tres años que he estado aquí, me ha enseñado mucho, una de mis citas favoritas que me gustó de ella es que siempre me dice ‘cuando eres una base, incluso cuando no es tu culpa, todavía es tu culpa...’. Karli me enseñó a jugar con elegancia, a levantarnos unas a otras en la cancha... Ella me enseñó mucho, sin decir mucho. Era más una líder desde el ejemplo”. “Es un gran privilegio pasar por eso y que ella me tomara bajo su ala y me enseñara todas esas cosas”, continuó.

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STEPH STARK

MCDERMOTT extendida de página 1

STEPH STARK

Maya McDermott está teniendo una estación de éxito en su primer año como base titular.

The search engine war: ChatGPT vs Google

tain biases in its responses

Open the conversation and talk to students: we are human

NIXSON BENITEZ Opinion Columnist

If you have not heard of ChatGPT, think of it as Google –the difference is that it is a chatbot made with artificial intelligence (AI). This chatbot can respond to you and respond to requests as if it were a personal librarian.

ChatGPT is a state-of-theart language model developed by OpenAI that can be used for a wide range of natural language processing tasks, such as language translation, text summarization, text generation, and question answering. It has been trained on a massive amount of text data, making it highly proficient at understanding and generating human-like text. Additionally, ChatGPT can be fine-tuned for specific use cases such as customer service chatbot, virtual writing assistant, and many more. With its ability to understand and respond to natural language input, ChatGPT has the potential to revolutionize the way we interact with machines.

If you are not scared please know everything that you have just read in italics was written by ChatGPT. In a matter of five days of its release ChatGPT gained 1 million users. Just to compare, Facebook and Instagram took several months to reach the 1 million user benchmark according to the Indian Express. ChatGPT is not only becoming a competitor to Google at the rate it is growing, but Google and many companies are already in the phases of releasing a new chatbot. Google is working on the one called “Bard” according to the New York Times. It was mentioned in the article that they are doing some testing with small private groups before releasing it into the public.

In a matter of two months

Microsoft – one of Google’s competitors – has sealed a multi-billion dollar investment in OpenAI. Microsoft execu-

tives are using AI to challenge Google and beginning what is starting to feel like a search engine war according to the financial times.

The misuse of AI

Professors and educators before you send out your next exam I would highly recommend you test ChatGPT with your own exam. It turns out that ChatGPT passed medical, business and law exams. It even scored higher than regular students according to the Morning Brew. The crazy thing about it is that this is just the start, we are nowhere near the end of how much disruption this tool can make. This is a threat to online schools and this cheapens the degree if cheating is done.

AI is ruining the reputation of schools. However, this tool is not perfect which increases the competition between companies in making the ultimate search engine. AI is here to stay and will continue to grow more and more.

Jim O’Loughlin, department of English, mentioned in an email interview that, “(AI)It can obviously be abused (though I haven’t seen any examples of that happening here yet), but a number of faculty are trying to figure out what the education-

al possibilities are for working with ChatGPT. We’re all trying to distinguish what uses would seem appropriate and ethical and which ones wouldn’t be. None of this is straight forward.”

Embrace the tool – it is powerful for everyone in all industries. Also acknowledge that we have to be honest in when, where and why we use it. Many call this out to be a huge disruption, that disruption is calling out the cheaters in educational settings and those who seek the short cut. My advice is having an open conversation with students about acknowledging the tool, but also coming to a greater understanding of ways this can disrupt the teaching and learning process.

“Using ChatGPT output for an assignment without crediting or citing it would be a violation of UNI’s Academic Integrity policy, and students need to be aware of that. However, it is likely that different faculty will have different policies regarding its use for research or editing assistance. It is definitely something to clear with a faculty member,” O’Loughlin said in an email.

Can AI be useful?

This is a tool; let’s embrace it, not ignore it. In the earlier years of Google, many have feared about Google’s assistance in terms of pulling out answers and taking away the traditional memorization. This tool can be

used to debug code when building a website, or asking to write you full poem and rejection letters to save you the time.

In Microsoft Teams premium at the end of every meeting, notes will be taken automatically by ChatGPT and those who missed long meetings will get detailed summaries. The craziest thing is individuals can ask ChatGPT directly questions about previous meetings with an immediate response.

• The AI is used to generate human-like text, making it a natural dialogue with users and chatbots

• It can also even generatecontent and reply to a high value of inquires around the clock

Some cons

ChatGPT is currently only in English text, so it may not perform as well in non-English inquiries. Also, it only operates on the input – not on the entire context of the request which may bring inappropriate responses according to ChatGPT.

• The need for continuous improvement is just a lot to manage, especially when the times continue to change

• The chatbot uses a large data set in which may con-

ChatGPT can’t teach creativity, it can’t teach you to have passion or find your purpose in life. It can’t teach how to critically think. It actually does the opposite. In a world that seeks problem solvers that is why learning is important – to learn to solve problems and to learn about the next phases of the world around us.

I highly recommend making a statement in your syllabus about this sooner, because the more time we don’t acknowledge this, the more it impacts the students who are already using this.

“In the short term, there may be efforts to put the genie back in the bottle by having more in-class exams or requiring students to show the editing history of documents, but in the long term this technology is here to stay and we will need to learn to work with it going forward. In a few years, I imagine AI writing tools (Chat GPT or something else) will be as familiar to us as Wikipedia, grammar checkers or graphing calculators. But until that time, we all have a lot to figure out,” O’Loughlin said in an email.

In the short term, there may be efforts to put the genie back in the bottle by having more in-class examsor requiring students to show the editing history of documents, but in the long term this technology is here to stay.

Jim O’Loughlin Department Head of Languages and Literatures

NIXSON BENITEZ

ChatGPT has sent Google scrambling into adopting AI for its own platform.

Wave the flag: the race to building the perfect artificial intelligence has just begun.

CATS hosts annual ‘Love a Donor’ event

The UNI Foundation and Connecting Alumni to Students (CATS), is hosting an event during Valentine’s week called “Love a Donor.” This event is a tradition that allows students and faculty to send a message of thanks to UNI donors by writing a thank-you note to alumni and friends of the University who have shown support. Everyone who participates will receive a free cookie as a token of appreciation.

Engagement coordinator and advisor of CATS, said that this event has been a long-standing tradition at UNI. “Love a Donor began more than a decade ago as an opportunity to activate the campus to help thank UNI’s donors,” Craw said. “Our goal this year is to write more than 2,000 thank you cards.”

Craw credits the event for its ability to connect students with donors who make their education possible.

“Stewardship is an important part of the donation process. The UNI Foundation stewards donors by managing their gifts as intended,

thanking donors for their generosity, and sharing the impact of their donations. Love a Donor allows us to involve student beneficiaries in the stewardship process. Donors hear from students about their UNI experience and the ways they have benefited from private gifts. Students, in turn, learn about the importance of giving back to UNI to support future generations of Panthers,” Craw said.

Interested students can participate on any three days in multiple locations:

• Tuesday,Feb.14,in

Maucker Union or Curris Business Building from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

• Wednesday, Feb. 15 in Maucker Union from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and in McLeod Center before the game against Drake from 7 to 8 p.m.

• Thursday, Feb. 16 in Rod Library and the WRC from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

This three-day event offers multiple opportunities for students to get involved. “Love a Donor offers the unique opportunity for donors and students to communicate directly. Students can share their

gratitude and UNI experience and donors hear firsthand accounts of the impact of their gifts,” Craw said. “This event is scheduled on or around Valentine’s Day to share love and appreciation throughout Panther Nation.” Student organizations interested in writing cards during a meeting or event can contact unicats@uni. edu. All faculty, students, and staff are invited to participate.

Black History | Preview

Tuesday, Feb. 14 11a.m.-2 p.m.

Maucker Union

Thursday, Feb. 22 6 p.m.-8 p.m.

Lang Hall

Saturday, Feb. 25 6 p.m.-9 p.m.

ERIN MCRAE Staff Writer

Sarah Craw, the UNI Student and Young Alumni

Soul food recipe Fried Chicken

Recipe from: Tastemofhome com

I t i s i m p o r t a n t t h a t y o u r i n s e y o u r

c h i c k e n , a n d s e a s o n i t b e f o r e y o u c o o k i t !

n d s e a c h ) , c u t u p

Soul food is African-American traditinal food It is a common sterotype that all Black people like fried chicken and that is not true! Soul food is extremely diverse, and is not limited to fried chicken

CHATGPT

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Students will cheat for a variety of reasons. The rise of AI has allowed for papers to be written in mere minutes, something impossible in decades prior.

What assignments should professors start taking away?

I am speaking to the choir when I say this: it is time we take down discussion posts. Discussion posts are discussions that are held virtually and in some classrooms students are required to do a word count for example 250 words – it is also graded. ChatGPT can create responses for you.

In my four years of college I can’t remember a good engaging conversation I have had through discussion posts. Although I understand that this skill is about having to discuss with colleagues on content in the class, this is more impactful in-person. Digital Natives already get enough conversations online, especially screen time. Part about having those conversations is to challenge and hear other people’s opinions on things they can relate either on a

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topic or a book. Make small groups and let conversations go from there – with some questions to answer of course – in-person conversations is the education experience students pay for. It will be a little more work, on both parties, but it is what will be the most effective.

When to use ChatGPT

The matter of using ChatGPT matters in how much stake there is in the

assignment.

ChatGPT doesn’t have to be all that serious in request. If you ask ChatGPT to write a song it will write you a song. If you want a thoughtful love letter it will give you a love letter. The matter about using ChatGPT is if the output will require the truth and honesty. If the truth doesn’t matter, use it, but if it does, be careful if you are an expert in the field and fact check, but it is important you admit legally and morally about utilizing

ChatGPT.

“One way to approach this question is to ask how students would feel if they found out a faculty member had used ChatGPT to grade their writing assignments without reading them.” O’Loughlin said in an email, “After starting this message, I went through and took some questions from a final exam last semester and asked ChatGPT to grade a few sample student answers. It produced feedback that was accurate enough, but

the grades it gave seemed somewhat random. All of us, students and faculty, need to work together to figure out how to best adapt to this new learning environment.”

Fighting the new era of Artificial Intelligence

There are multiple individuals working in finding a way to track down those who used ChatGPT. AI Text Classifier is a great example in which you can submit essays and see if it was written by a human or a robot. A senior from Princeton, Edward Tian, created an app to combat the use of ChatGPT, according to CBS news.

The war is virtual, but in reality the search engine war will push the limitations into making the ultimate search engine the amount of accountability and pushback is small. This will be the new world we will live in.

Panthers sprint past Sycamores, 91-51

CADEN SHEA Sports Writer

UNI continued their recent winning streak with a dominant win over the Indiana State Sycamores at home on Sunday. The Panthers had a great performance in every facet of their game with both offensive and defensive

strategies working perfectly. The offense was especially on point with four different players recording double-digit points in the win. The win gave the Panthers their third straight victory and gave them a 10-2 Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) record.

The Panthers start -

ed the game on fire and never cooled down for the entirety of the game. The Panthers nabbed the first five points of the game and looked to get the Sycamores off their game early. Indiana State would manage to come back and make the game a close one for a short stretch in the first quarter. The Panthers

would respond in commanding fashion, going on a nine-point run and keeping their opponents scoreless for the remainder of the opening quarter, making 21-8 in favor of UNI early on.

The second quarter was more tightly contested than the first, but still favored the Panthers. They went back-and-forth on scoring for the majority of the period until the Panthers would turn it on yet again to give them the 20-point lead about halfway into the second quarter. The Sycamores would close the gap a little bit, but not substantially, as the Panthers led 39-23 as the two teams headed into the locker room.

The Panthers came back on to the court just as engaged as when they left it to start the third quarter. The Panthers put up an astounding 22-2 run to help seal the game once and for all. The Sycamores tried to sneak back into it with a decent run of their own but several Panthers rose up and took matters into their own hands to make sure the Sycamores would not have a grasp at the game at all for the remainder of play. The Panthers put up 32 points in this quarter alone compared to Indiana State’s score of 15. The Panthers went into the final period with a score of 71-38 over

Indiana State.

Neither team could get much momentum in the beginning of the fourth quarter but once the Panthers finally scored, they rarely stopped. UNI was on fire from everywhere, even having backto-back 3-pointers to ignite an even bigger spark in their game. Even when the Panthers pulled the starters and the court was filled with mostly role players, they still scored consistently. The Panthers defeated the Sycamores with a final score of 91-51.

Many Panthers enjoyed career performances in this outing. Rachael Heittola had her best game as a Panther with three 3-pointers and a total of 14 points. Four different UNI players had double-digit scoring performances. Grace Boffeli led the team with 23 points as well as eight rebounds. Maya McDermott had 12 points and Emerson Green had 11 points and five rebounds. Taryn Wharton and Ryley Goebel had superb defensive performances. Goebel had two steals, two blocks and seven rebounds while Wharton had one block, two steals and five assists. The Panthers will soon hit the road as they travel to Chicago to face off with the University of Illinois Chicago Flames on Friday, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

TRACK & FIELD

UNI competes at Wartburg Indoor Select

BEN LAHART Sports Writer

Members of the men’s and women’s track and field teams made the 20 minute drive north to Waverly for the Wartburg Indoor Select on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 as they enter the second half of their season.

The UNI women started off well with Libby Wedewer placing first in the 60-meter dash in a career-best time of 7.68 seconds. Additionally, the Panthers had three more women place in the top eight and score points in this event.

UNI also scored points in the 200-meters with Lindsey Sires placing sixth. Liv Freund placed seventh in the 800-meter run with a career best 2:25.46. Three women placed in the mile run, led by Mia Rampton with a time of 5:13.53.

In the field events, Allison Flansha placed third in the shot put with a throw of 41 feet, 8 inches coming on her second throw. Amanda Lietz placed fifth in the pentathlon with 3003 points to close out the scoring for the women. They placed fifth out of eight teams with 42 points while Wartburg

took home the team victory with 223 points.

On the men’s side, Brady Griebel placed fifth in the mile run in 4:24.20 to score four points for the panthers. Freshman Colin Buch placed sixth in the men’s heptathlon with a score of 3776. The men only scored seven points as a team placing them seventh out of seven teams at the meet. Wartburg swept the team trophies as they also won the men’s meet with 202 points.

The UNI track teams also competed at Iowa State on Feb. 4 and ran some career best times. The Panthers only have

two more indoor meets before the postseason begins. The next meet will be Feb. 10 and Feb. 11 at

the SDSU Indoor Classic in Brookings, S.D. followed by the Iowa Open on Feb. 17.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

Rachael Heittola (32) scored 14 points in the win over Indiana State on Sunday, her highest point total since transferring to UNI this past offseason.

STEPH STARK/NORTHERN IOWAN

UNI competed at the Wartburg Indoor Select this past weekend, hosted by Wartburg.

Panthers climb past Mountaineers, 20-12

DREW HILL Sports Writer

The 14th-ranked UNI wrestling team traveled to Morgantown, W.Va, to face the West Virginia Mountaineers on Sunday,

Feb. 5. In a back-and-forth dual, the Panthers held on for a 20-12 victory.

UNI came into this dual having won two duals in a row and three of their last four, knocking off Utah Valley, Oklahoma and Cal

Baptist. The only loss in that stretch was a narrow 19-17 defeat against the Oklahoma State Cowboys, who are currently ranked seventh in the country. UNI’s last win against Cal Baptist was a 44-0 shutout of the Lancers. UNI’s overall record was 6-3, and they were 4-2 in Big 12 competition. West Virginia came in 7-4 overall, but having lost three in a row. UNI is ranked 14 in the NWCA Coaches’ Poll, and West Virginia was the highest vote-getter to not be ranked in the top 25.

Kyle Gollhofer was the first wrestler to take the mat for the Panthers in the match for the 125-pound class. He ultimately fell 11-7 in a hard-fought decision that gave the Mountaineers a 3-0 lead. Kyle Biscoglia helped the Panthers bounce back in the 133-pound match by winning an 8-4 decision to tie the score 3-3. This gave Biscoglia his 17th victory of the season, which leads UNI.

Cael Happel gave UNI their first lead of the day, dominating his opponent en route to a 13-4 major decision in the 141-pound bout. This gave UNI a 7-3 lead. Colin Realbuto was next up for UNI in the 149-pound

class. In a bout that went back-and-forth, Realbuto eventually outlasted his opponent for a 10-7 decision win that extended the Panther lead to 10-3.

The Mountaineers fought back to within one in the next two matches. Derek Holschlag lost in a sudden victory decision 3-1 in the 157-pound class. Austin Yant faced off against reigning Big 12 runner-up Peyton Hall in the 165pound bout. He ultimately fell 5-2 in a tough fought decision.

This made the score 10-9 going into the 174-pound match. Lance Runyon helped the Panthers respond with an 8-1 decision, narrowly missing a major decision victory and the bonus point that comes with it by one point. This lengthened UNI’s lead back to four at 13-9. Parker Keckeisen dominated in the 184-pound class on his way to his 10th dual victory of the season in a 14-4 major decision victory to give UNI a 17-9 lead.

In the 197-pound match, Kalob Runyan, Lance Runyan’s younger brother, made his first dual start. He made it count, winning in a 9-2 decision to give

the Panthers their biggest lead of the dual at 20-9. In the 285-pound match, Tyrell Gordon ultimately fell in a 7-4 decision. The final score of the dual was 20-12.

With the win, UNI improves to 7-3 overall and 5-2 in Big 12 matches. The win gave UNI a 7-0 lead in the all-time series between the two teams. Coach Doug Schwab improved to 4-0 against the Mountaineers. Schwab said after the match, “It’s all about the response, and we responded well after last weekend.”

The Panthers return to the McLeod Center on Friday, Feb. 10, to face the third-ranked Iowa State Cyclones and conclude Big 12 regular season competition. This will be a massive dual between the two rivals. Combined, the two teams have six wins over top-25 ranked opponents, including three top-10 wins, and all five of their combined losses come to teams in the top 11. UNI’s regular season finale is set for Saturday, Feb. 18, against the Wisconsin Badgers, currently ranked No. 18, in Madison, Wis.

Swimmers compete at Coyote Invitational

ADAM JOHNSON Sports Writer

The Panthers traveled to Sioux Falls, S.D. to compete in the Coyote Invite on Friday, Feb. 3 and Saturday, Feb. 4. It was a good meet for the Panthers, as they came away with six first place finishes.

The 200-yard medley relay is where the Panthers picked up their first, first place finish of the meet. The relay consisting of Olivia Chambers, Sydney Aird, Faith Larsen and Natalia Verastegui won with a time of 1:48.42, narrowly beating out the second place finishers who had a time of 1:48.77. Verastegui put in good work with the relay, but decided that she wanted to get a first place finish on her own. In the 200-yard freestyle, she claimed first place with a time of 1:54.48.

In the 100-yard backstroke, UNI’s Helena Heuberger picked up a victory. She just barely beat out her fellow Panther Scout Bergwall. Heuberger finished with a time of 58.08 seconds, while Bergwall had a time of 58.13 seconds. Another Panther won the 200-yard backstroke, as Abby McCorkle claimed first in 2:09.58.

In the 100-yard freestyle, there were a lot of Panthers at the party. The top three finishers were all from UNI. Hallory Domnick came out victorious with a time of 53.02, but the other two, Hannah Nedder and Casey Summers were not far behind. Nedder had a time of 53.93, and Summers finished at 53.98. In the 200yard breaststroke, UNI’s Aird came out on top. She finished with a time of 2:25.75.

Bergwall, who got beat out by teammate Heuberger in the 100-yard backstroke, got herself a first place finish in the 200-yard butterfly. She had a time of 2:09.08. Another Panther, Chambers finished in second place with a time of 2:10.99. That was all of the events

for the swimming portion of the meet, and since the Panther divers were at Omaha Diving Invitational, that concluded the meet for the Panthers. As a team, UNI finished fifth out of five teams, scoring 15 points.

UNI’s regular season

has come to an end, and they will get in the pool next for the Missouri Valley Conference Championships. The Championships are being held in Iowa City and will go on from Wednesday, Feb. 15 through Saturday, Feb. 18.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

The 14th-ranked UNI wrestling team stayed hot on Sunday, defeating West Virginia 20-12 to move to 7-3 on the season.

COURTESY/UNI ATHLETICS

The UNI swimming & diving team competed at the Coyote Invitational in Sioux Falls, S.D. this past weekend, hosted by the University of South Dakota.

67 "No warranties"

1 Seasoned rice dish

2 Patsy's "Ab Fab" pal

3 Hairstyles named for an equine feature

4 Utah luggage tag initials

5 "Dear God!"

6 Reindeer reins holder

7 Filmmaker Woody

8 Former Prizm maker 9 London lang.

wearing a ring,

ANSWERS