Drew Hill weighs the pros and cons of new technology directly entering our brains.
OPINION PAGE 3
Month, the spotlight is on Connie Hansen and her extensive history with UNI.
CAMPUS LIFE PAGE 5
UNI pep band supports band-less Valparaiso at Arch Madness tournament
When the UNI pep band received word that Valparaiso University was not bringing a band to the Arch Madness tournament, the story felt all too familiar.
Mary O’Connell, a graduate assistant for the band, leads one of UNI’s pep bands and accompanied the group to St. Louis for the men’s conference basketball tournament.
“Originally, we weren’t slated to go to the conference tournament at all,” O’Connell said. “Then we got really lucky.”
That luck O’Connell referred to came in the form of an anonymous donor. While the pep band was originally not going to attend the conference basketball tournaments due to budget cuts within UNI Athletics, the Northern Iowan reported on Feb. 8 that a donor had stepped in, allowing the band to support the Panthers on the road.
However, the Panthers ended up not being the only team the band supported during the tournament.
On the evening of Monday, Feb. 27, just three days before the
Panthers’ first Arch Madness game, O’Connell received a call from the head of UNI bands, Justin Mertz. Mertz told her that a representative from Valparaiso had reached out to say that they were not bringing a band to the tournament, and they were wondering if UNI’s band would be willing to fill in.
“Considering the circumstances around our travel and
how close it was for us to not have a band, we said absolutely, pay it forward,” she said. O’Connell spent the next few days communicating with Valparaiso’s band director and was able to get the music for their school song. However, given the sudden change of plans, the band would be going in cold.
“One thing about pep band is that we only rehearse twice at the very beginning of the season,” she said. “After that it’s just all games. We don’t rehearse again, so we didn’t have a rehearsal to put this together.”
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Seven Panthers head to NCAA wrestling tournmant, including Big 12 champion Parker Keckeisen.
SPORTS PAGE 6
Nota de la editora : Jocelyn Mena y Valeria Torres son estudiantes del curso SPAN 3159 Translation for Heritage Speakers, dirigido por el Prof. Juan Carlos Castillo.
Un estudiante de la Universidad del Norte de Iowa (UNI) presentará sus cuentos cortos sobre la vida en el ejército a un público nacional e internacional. Mykel Townsend presentará la primera pieza de su colección, “Fort Hudson”, un conjunto de historias cortas sobre su experiencia en el ejército. “Fort Hudson” se basa en historias que Townsend inventó o escuchó de otros sobre su instructor de ejercicios.
While the majority of UNI’s student population will be absent from campus this summer, a group of UNI staff and students are currently preparing to welcome a different audience this July.
This July 17-21, UNI will be hosting its Meskwaki Summer Camp for the second consecutive year. This program is aimed toward Meskwaki students entering grades 7-10 and focuses on college and career readiness.
Marcy Seavey is the STEM coordinator at UNI and serves on the planning committee for the program.
“A lot of what [the students] get to do while they’re here is explore not just what might they do, but how might they prepare themselves to have the future that they want,” she said.
“We give them lots of opportunities to explore who they are, what their interests are, to let them dive deep into one specific thing and to have experiences with their peers on campus to make campus less of a mystery space,” Seavey said. “After you’ve spent a week living in the dorms, going to the dining center and walking across campus between sessions, then it can really feel like a place that you know very well.”
The camp is structured so students will spend their mornings in large group sessions about college and career readiness led by UNI staff members. After lunch in one of the dining halls, the students break up into smaller groups for more specialized learning sessions.
This summer, the camp will be offering one session focused on environmental science and
food sovereignty, which will allow students to learn more about fishing, farming, soil health and other environmental topics that affect their own communities.
The second confirmed session for this summer will focus on entrepreneurship. Students will learn about getting to know their customer base and use UNI’s podcast creation resources to learn how to promote a product amongst other activities.
The camp plans to have one more session to offer students, but is still in the process of finalizing what it will consist of. They are currently accepting proposals from faculty members.
While 2023 marks just the second consecutive year for this program, it is not the first time UNI and the Meskwaki community have collaborated. From 2014 to 2017, a similar
program geared toward middle school students was run out of the College of Education, but it was discontinued. The idea for summer programming was rekindled just a few years ago.
“A couple of years ago, Meskwaki leadership and the
university president started meeting together, and one of the things they talked a lot about was, what are things that the university and Meskwaki can do together?” Seavey said.
Traducción: Un estudiante de la UNI presentará su poesía en una convención nacional
N.I. EN ESPAÑOL
MARCH 9, 2023 | NORTHERNIOWAN.COM | VOLUME 119, ISSUE 42
GO BEACONS
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Rehearsal or not, the band committed to showing up for Valparaiso anyway. After supporting the Panthers in their win against Illinois State on Thursday, the UNI pep band traded their purple polos for white Missouri Valley Conference t-shirts and headed back into the Enterprise Center that evening for Valparaiso’s game against Murray State.
Jacob Butler is a senior digital media production major and plays the trumpet in the pep band. As he said, the band made an effort to support Valpo as if their own university’s band were there.
“We had their cheerleaders and dance team right there, and so we asked them, what are some normal chants that you do during games? And we kind of picked up on that, and we led their fight song. We did our best to pretend to be Valpo students,” he said.
Arch Madness fans were soon to notice, many taking to Twitter.
“I definitely saw the Twitter stuff about Valpo fans com-
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“There weren’t really a whole lot of people who had been involved with [the program] in the past still on campus,” she said. “So we met with a couple of members of the Meskwaki Higher Education Program and talked about what this camp should
The UNI pep band was notified at the beginning of Febraury that an anonymous donor had provided the funding for them to travel to the tournament. Given their own circumstances, the band didn’t hesitate to fill in for Valparaiso.
mending us for stepping in,” Butler said. “I saw a couple tweets about how they couldn’t tell the difference, so that was cool.”
While few could have predicted UNI’s sudden substitution for Valpo’s band, O’Connell wasn’t surprised by the attitudes of the band members.
“The students in pep band act as an extension of the Panther Marching Band, or as we call it, ‘the finest organization on this or any campus,’ so
be, and then we formed a planning team to design it and to move forward with coordinating. That planning team is both people from campus and from the Meskwaki Higher Education Program.”
As listed on their Facebook page, the Meskwaki Higher Education Program is an organization in Tama, Iowa, that believes in “assisting enrolled
it’s very easy for us to say absolutely, we will help out anyone any time we can, and the students really showed that decorum this week at the conference tournament,” she said. While the pep band’s stay in St. Louis ended after the Panthers lost in the quarter-finals to Bradley, they set out again for Moline, Ill. to support the women’s basketball team in the Hoops in the Heartland conference tournament on March 10.
Meskwaki tribal members and their descendents in pursuing post-secondary education.”
A key aspect of the Meskwaki Summer Camp is how personalized the experience can be for the students. In 2022, the program had 22 students attend, meaning that the afternoon learning sessions contained groups of six to ten students.
The small group sizes also allowed meaningful connections to be made between students and staff.
Jesús Lizárraga Estrada is one of the co-directors of the camp for his second year in a row, and spent the entire week last year working closely alongside the students in attendance.
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“Mucha gente le tenía miedo. Pero todos los instructores de ejercicios dan miedo”, dijo Townsend. “Hudson tuvo un gran impacto en mi vida durante el entrenamiento básico. Es como mi David Goggins”. Goggins es conocido por muchos como una figura inspiradora por su heroísmo como miembro de la fuerza especial SEAL de la Marina y por su pérdida de peso de 125 libras para convertirse en un miembro de los SEAL, y es considerado uno de los mejores atletas del mundo de maratones y ultramaratones. “Cuando me encontré con Hudson en Alaska durante mi estancia allí, sentí que se había cerrado un círculo”, dijo Townsend.
Townsend es estudiante de último año en la universidad, estudiando enseñanza con una especialización secundaria en escritura creativa. Es veterano, esposo y padre. También es el único estudiante de UNI que asistirá a la convención internacional de Sigma Tau Delta en Denver, Colorado, del 30 de marzo al primero de abril.
able to connect with the students last summer based on her experiences as a first generation college student. “To me, I could only become a doctor or a teacher if I went to college, and then I came to college and I realized that there’s so many other majors and options. I felt overwhelmed by my choices. So that’s one of the big goals of the camp, early exposure to all of the different types of careers you can have if you seek a college degree,” she said.
Sigma Tau Delta es una sociedad de honor de estudiantes de Inglés, que tiene más de 900 capítulos tanto en el extranjero como en los Estados Unidos. Su principal objetivo es promover el servicio a la sociedad a través de la alfabetización.
Jesse Swan, profesor de inglés en el Departamento de Lenguas y Literaturas de la UNI, dirige el capítulo de Sigma Tau Delta en la UNI. Swan fue una parte fundamental del viaje de Townsend para solicitar ser miembro de Sigma Tau Delta y enviar su pieza a la convención.
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COURTESY/MYKEL TOWNSEND
Como un marido, padre y veterano, la experiencia universitario ha parecido diferente para Mykel Townsend. Sin embargo, él encontró su sitio en Sigma Tau Delta, una sociedad de honor mundial.
have that opportunity to see people who look like us on college campuses, so I think the impact happened beyond the sessions and in that relationship between camp counselors and the participants too.”
COURTESY/LINDSEY HUBBELL
The program is still accepting proposals for one final educational session to offer students. They are looking for options from all areas of campus and encourage the proposals to include hands-on opportunities.
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“To me it was a very empowering experience for all involved. I think that to us, we saw growth in that initially when [the students] came in, they weren’t speaking to us much, but by day five, we saw them become more outgoing, not only with us, but with others in their group,” he said.
Janine Baeza, the other co-director of the camp, was
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The students are also accompanied by student counselors to lead them throughout the day, who are current UNI students also from the Meskwaki community. As Lizárraga Estrada said, this type of representation can have a significant impact on prospective students.
“For a lot of students, it may have been their first time on a college campus and seeing a college student who looks like them, who is succeeding in a college campus, and to hear their advice. I think that’s very powerful,” he said. “Many times we don’t
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Baeza continued, “I think that a lot of the time, the university will make statements on diversity, equity and inclusion work, like how we really want to work well with students of color and support students of color, and sometimes it feels like that doesn’t come to fruition and action.”
“This was one of those times where truly we’re trying to build a relationship with the Meskwaki Nation, and this camp was a part of that,” she said. “This felt like a good step forward in that, and I think that it definitely helped us grow the communities closer together.”
UNI faculty interested in submitting a proposal for the final afternoon session option can contact Marcy Seavey at seavey@uni.edu.
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Technology is developing rapidly. The changes we’ve seen in the last five years would have shocked people just fifty years ago. As technology changes, we are seeing many benefits. The average lifespan of people is dramatically increasing. We have entered a new age of convenience that is unprecedented in the history of the world.
However, with benefits come risks and drawbacks. In a world where almost everything is online, identity theft, plagiarism and hacking is becoming harder and harder to combat. As we weigh the benefits and risks of new technology developments, there is a question we should consider: is there a line we just shouldn’t cross, no matter what the benefits may be?
There are many fields on the edge of developing technology that could be used to consider this question. Artificial intelligence replacing jobs and causing massive job loss is a possibility. The ethics of certain technology in the medical field could also be interesting. However, to narrow it down for this article, I would like to focus in on one that may sound like science fiction: BCIs.
A new field of development: brain-computer interfaces (BCIs)
BCI stands for brain-computer interface. Basically, BCIs measure electrical activity in a person’s brain. BCIs can be classified in several different ways, including invasive, partially invasive and noninvasive. Invasive devices generally require surgery to implant them inside the brain. Noninvasive devices measure the brain’s activity from the surface of the brain. They are
often not as effective as invasive devices due to the skull blocking signals, but they are improving.
HCI stands for human-computer interface. This is a type of BCI that does not measure signals from the brain directly. They measure other indicators, such as eye movements.
According to a study from the National Library of Medicine published in November of 2021 entitled, “CyberEye: New Eye-Tracking Interfaces for Assessment and Modulation of Cognitive Functions beyond the Brain,” BCIs implanted on the brain’s cortical surface can already communicate letters, words and sentences with punctuation. Some speculate that it will soon be possible to read abstract thoughts. While HCIs based on eye movement tracking are not as effective yet, some researchers believe it can test memory comprehension, reading comprehension and consciousness.
Benefits of BCIs
Research on the brain’s electrical activity has been going on for a long time, but the research has mostly focused on disabled patients or those with brain injuries. The benefits are enormous. People unable to move can type out words on a computer through their thoughts. It can greatly improve communication for those with major brain injuries. It can help blind people see.
More recently, research has also included the idea of not just helping those who are disabled, but also enhancing the lives of people in a variety of other ways, according to an article in the Harvard Business Review by Alexandre Gonfalonieri. For example, it could be used to detect drowsiness in drivers to bring down the number of car crashes. It can help detect attention level, allowing people to improve their focus and reduce stress to accomplish more work.
Managers could monitor their employees’ focus levels. Eventually, people could write files by thinking about it or use “pass thoughts” instead of passwords.
This all may sound like something far down the road, but this technology is on the doorstep. It is already being implemented in some of the above ways. However, the idea may also scare you, and for good reason. There are a myriad of risks associated with this type of technology becoming widespread.
For example, once you give a computer access to your thoughts, a hacker could steal your brain data. Others could be able to essentially read your mind. Employers could access their employee’s brain data and use it for personnel decisions. Certain companies could require the use of BCIs for employment.
Considering that this is still new technology,
there will be glitches. These machines are not perfect. If they misread brain data, it is possible that bad decisions could be made based on that brain data. Finally, another concern is that the technology could manipulate brain data, potentially causing harmful changes to a person’s actual brain or making decisions for them.
Technology is changing and developing, whether we like it or not. We have to adjust. However, I think there is a point where we have to think about the risks and draw a line which we don’t cross. BCIs are not going away. They can be very beneficial in some ways, and some people are going to choose to embrace them. However, you have to weigh the risks for yourself and decide whether to embrace or avoid new developments like this. Hopefully, people always have the freedom to make that choice for themselves.
Sigma Tau Delta es una sociedad de honor para estudiantes de Inglés, pero está abierto para todas carreras. Los estudiantes e facultdad en el imagen celebraron la ceremonia de inducción en octubre de 2022 para la división de UNI.
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“A lo largo de mi vida he tenido muchos profesores que me han animado a seguir escribiendo”, dijo Townsend. “El Dr. Swan insistió mucho en que aplicará a Sigma Tau, y una vez que fui aceptado, sugirió que presentara una de mis piezas para la convención. Él me ayudó a terminar la pieza. Realmente aprecio su enfoque de la escritura y la enseñanza. En lugar de enfocarse siempre en la organización de la pieza o mecanizarla para que se ajuste a un estándar moderno, pudimos escribir cada vez que sentía que tenía algo sobre lo que escribir, en lugar de forzar a que salieran las palabras”.
El viaje de un veterano
La colección “Fort Hudson” de Townsend trata sobre la difícil situación del TEPT (Trastorno de Estrés post-Traumático) entre veteranos a través del prisma de la no ficción creativa. La no ficción creativa consiste en contar historias reales con técnicas de escritura creativa. “Es jugar con la estructura de una memoria y mezclar elementos ficticios con lo que realmente sucedió”, dijo. “Introduzco escenas reales, pero las mezclo con escenarios que ocurrieron en otro momento o que son un
poco ficticios. A menudo, mi poesía está en una perspectiva objetiva en tercera persona, esencialmente lo que el lector ve es lo que obtiene”. Townsend no es un estudiante tradicional. “Me gradué de la escuela secundaria de Storm Lake en diciembre de 2016 y me alisté en el ejército. Completé el entrenamiento básico en Fort Benning, Luisiana”, dijo Townsend.
El servicio militar de Townsend lo llevó aún más lejos de Iowa. “Estuve emplazado en Fairbanks, Alaska, durante tres años y nueve meses, básicamente en medio de la nada durante cuatro años. Los inviernos son brutales y siempre oscuros. Los veranos eran agradables, pero la gente perdía el sueño cuando llegaba el verano porque estaba soleado todo el día. Parecía que el tiempo no pasaba”, dijo Townsend.
Durante un despliegue de entrenamiento en Australia, sufrió una lesión que hizo que le licenciaran por razones médicas. “Sí, eso apesta. Así que volví y trabajé en Des Moines como fontanero. Estaba aburrido y no sabía qué hacer con mi vida. Luego conocí a una señora encantadora que me convenció de mudarme aquí e ir a la universidad, y ahora estamos casados y tenemos un hijo”, dijo Townsend.
“Como padre, no tengo tiempo para actividades extracurriculares en la universidad. No puedo unirme
a una fraternidad, así que Sigma Tau es perfecta para mí. Solo costaba setenta y cinco dólares solicitar. Solo tienes que cumplir con los requisitos académicos”, dijo él.
Sigma Tau Delta está abierta a todos los que no estudian las carreras de Inglés también. “Esta es una oportunidad muy genial para avanzar en mi carrera y progreso profesional. Esto me va a abrir muchas puertas en términos de desarrollar carrera y mi futuro”, dijo Townsend.
El proceso de escribir de Townsend es definitivamente único. “Ahorita, en este momento, estoy trabajando en ‘la siguiente gran novela americana’, como dijo un profesor de inglés en la UNI, el Dr. Jeffrey Copeland. “Va a ser sobre el significado del sueño americano”, dijo Townsend.
Para Townsend escribir es más que solo una disciplina académica. “Para mí, la escritura creativa y la poesía es justo mi cosa. Tuve un maestro en la preparatoria quien en verdad me empujó a irme por esta ruta, y ha afectado enormemente mi vida. Escribir es más que una clase o una optativa”, dijo él. Townsend escribe lo que le viene cuando le viene. “No creo en tener un sistema de escritura mecanizado u organizado”, dijo él. “Si
algo me viene a la mente a media noche, lo voy a escribir. Si algo se siente pesado en mi corazón, me siento y lo escribo. Hasta cargo conmigo notas pequeñas para mis pensamientos”.
“Mi mejor material viene de hacer trabajo significativo, o solo pensamientos espontáneos a media noche. Me inspira pensar en el mundo, mis experiencias vividas, construir una caja incubadora para criar gallinas y atender a pollitos. Cuando la musa me habla, escribo”, dijo él.
La enseñanza siempre ha rondado la mente de Townsend cuando se trata de su futuro. “Pensé en ser policía o bombero, pero la enseñanza es otro tipo del mismo servicio”, dijo él.
Townsend eligió la escritura como parte de su especialidad secundaria porque “siempre me ha gustado leer y la escritura libre. Hice mucho de eso en el ejército con la poesía. También tuve un maestro impactante quien me ayudó a sentirme lleno de confianza con estar en una posición de liderazgo. Con tal de que yo sepa de qué estoy hablando, yo sé que puedo enseñar bien. Quiero proseguir mi educación más lejos y enseñar a estudiantes universitarios un día también”.
Creando espacios para estudiantes de escritura creativa
En el futuro inmediato, Townsend quiere trabajar e inspirar a estudiantes de la preparatoria a que escriban sus sentimientos. Él hizo su Nivel 1 como estudiante de magisterio en Waterloo East High. “He vivido su vida y sé cómo es. Quiero darles a los estudiantes un espacio seguro para escribir”, dijo él.
“Espero inspirar a los niños a expresarse honestamente a través de escribir en vez de esconderse. Es mucho más fácil romper cosas que escribir cómo te sientes. No quiero poner obstáculos entre ellos y expresarse a través de escribir”. Townsend va a estar haciendo prácticas de maestro en el otoño y pronto va a estar enviando su solicitud a la escuela de posgrado en la UNI, para estudiar una maestría en escritura.
Townsend tiene un GoFundMe para ayudar con los gastos de sus viajes que puede encontrarse en gofund.me/4bcd5b26. Él va a estar haciendo cartas de agradecimiento para todos los que donen. El consejo de Townsend para todos sus compañeros es: “Hay mucho más que hacer en la vida que estar sentado en tu dormitorio universitario todo el día por un semestre. Persigue las cosas que quieres hacer. Las cosas solo son imposibles hasta que se hacen”.
BAILEY KLINKHAMMER Staff Writer
Constance Hansen, affectionately known as Connie, currently works in Maucker Union as the Office of Student Involvement’s Associate Director. But, it wasn’t where she originally started in terms of working at the university. Hansen has a long history with UNI, from a student to an employee, Hansen’s influence and impact at the university spans 34 years.
Originally beginning as an Admissions Counselor at Gilchrist Hall, Hansen remained a counselor for 15 and a half years.
“I loved meeting with prospective students and families!” Hansen commented on her work in the Office of Admissions.
After spending 15 years in the Office of Admissions, Hansen moved to Maucker Union for the first time to work in Student Involvement, but spent five years in Maucker Union before moving again to the Alumni Association, where she worked as the Student and Young Alumni Engagement Coordinator, overseeing Connecting Alumni to Students and the Mascot Program.
Hansen spent eight years as the Engagement Coordinator before moving back to Maucker Union, where Hansen is now and has served for the past six years, first as the Campus Programs Coordinator, and now the Associate Director of Student Involvement.
As the Associate Director, Hansen handles a number of responsibilities, including all 200 of UNI’s student organizations alongside Josh Bulten, the Campus Programs Coordinator, and Josh Farris, the Fraternity and Sorority Life Coordinator.
Although this may seem like a large challenge to a majority of people, for Hansen, who enjoys a challenge, she welcomes all 200 student organizations with open arms.
“Students need someone to say ‘you got this,’” Hansen noted. “We’re all here because we want to see you succeed, we want to be your cheerleaders.”
Hansen envisions Student Involvement as a place where students can connect to other students and not just build their organizations, but truly find a home at UNI.
“We want students to find
themselves in places where they can make relationships and find their people at UNI.” On top of rooting for students who are dipping their toes into the water of student involvement, Hansen also provides support for student leaders within their organizations, assisting them in event planning and organizing, financing, and speaking at Greek Leaders Retreat to guide student leaders in their respective organizations.
Hansen noted that one of the crises plaguing student organization can be drawn back to a lack of confidence.
“Students that are already leaders need to be open to their failures and their successes – if an event doesn’t get as many people involved as you’d want, leaders need to be able to realize that at least you gained the skills and knowledge of what to do next time and how to improve it.”
Hansen also acknowledges the struggle that student organizations have recently gone through as we emerge from the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. “We all went through a very traumatic experience and many student organizations had to put everything on pause.” Hansen said.
As Hansen was the main contact for the Student Involvement Office during
the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hansen assisted the 200 student organizations struggling during lockdown. “It was definitely a challenge, but I’m never one to shy away from that.”
Hansen acknowledged the difficulty of assisting these student leaders and working towards solutions for them, but also acknowledged her support staff who gave her words of encouragement and help when she needed it.
“I’m surrounded by support people; Mike Bobeldyk was the first person to remind me to take time for myself, and Pam Creger was always there telling me ‘I can do this for you’...The way they supported me is the way I want to support students – it’s contagious.”
But prior to Hansen’s employment at the university, she was a student first, receiving her undergraduate degree in elementary education. Hansen accredits parts of her success today to the women that guided her in her undergraduate. Of these women include Dr. Sue Follon, who taught Hansen “how to use my gifts and talents in the right way and how to corral [her] passion and enthusiasm. She taught me to pick the things that really mattered, and other things can work themselves out.” Hansen also discusses the likes of other women
have similar impacts on students going through undergraduate at UNI. “I have 34 years of watching students go on to do great things, I have students who come back with children of their own who are now UNI students, I get notes of appreciation from students who have graduated, it’s so great to see that work come full circle.”
The biggest takeaway Hansen noted about living, working and studying at UNI are the human connections people make everyday. The “trails” we leave of connections students and faculty alike have made that will carry on for the rest of our lives.
The work Connie Hansen has done for UNI and its Office of Student Involvement cannot be understated. Providing a toolbox for UNI’s 200+ student organizations and its many student leaders on campus shapes the leaders of our future governments and communities.
who lifted her up during her undergraduate and during her early years of employment at UNI, naming Jan Hanish, the former Director of Maucker Union and Amy Mohr, who works in the Alumni Association with Hansen, “So many people gave me little gifts along the way.” Hansen also discussed how cool it is to be able to
The connections Hansen has made at UNI will prove to nourish and provide us with the leaders of tomorrow, right here at UNI.
Courtesy of University of Northern Iowa
BEN LAHART Sports Writer
The UNI Panthers wrestling team competed at the Big 12 Championships in Tulsa, Okla. this past weekend, March 4 and 5. UNI competed well with one champion as well as four other medalists and finished seventh overall.
Parker Keckeisen became the first Panther to win three straight Big 12 championships with his title in the 184 pound weight class. He went 4-0 in his bracket with the last three wins all coming against ranked opponents.
Keckeisen started off the tournament with two dominant wins over Wyoming’s Quayin Short and eighth-seeded Anthony Carman from West Virginia. A close victory over 25th-ranked Colton Hawks
out of Missouri put him in the championship match against in-state rival Marcus Coleman from Iowa State. A 6-2 decision gave Keckeisen the title. This continued UNI’s run of dominance at 184 pounds. A Panther has won the conference championship in that weight class every year since joining the Big 12 as an affiliate member in 2018.
UNI also had two fourth place finishers, Kyle Biscoglia at 133 pounds, and Tyrell Gordon at 285 pounds. Biscoglia wrestled as the two-seed in his bracket but suffered a second round loss to third-seeded Zach Redding out of Iowa State. Another win and loss and he finished 2-2 for the weekend.
Gordon entered the championships seeded seventh in the 285 pound weight class.
He went 4-2 losing to the two-seed before beating both the sixth and fourth-seeded wrestlers. Gordon ultimately lost to third-seeded Zach
Elam out of Missouri.
The Panthers also had two fifth-place finishers, Colin Realbuto at 149 pounds and Austin Yant at 165 pounds. Realbuto won his first two matches before losing to the eventual champion Paniro Johnson of Iowa State. Realbuto went 1-1 in his final two matches to finish fifth.
Yant won his first match before also falling to the future champion from Iowa State, David Carr. He went 2-1 over the next three matches before a forfeit in his last match earned him fifth place.
The Panthers had five other wrestlers compete at the Big 12 Championships that did not place. Kyle Gollhofer wrestled in the 125 pound weight class but lost to the third and fifth place finishers. In the 141 pound class, Cael Happel lost to the second and fourth place wrestlers.
Derek Holshlag competed in the 157 pound class and
finished with a 1-2 record on the weekend. Finally, Lance Runyon wrestled at 174 pounds but after winning his first match, lost to eventual champion, Dustin Plott from Oklahoma State, finishing 1-2. Noah Glaser wrestled at 197 pounds but went 0-2 in his bracket.
As a team, UNI finished with 73 points, good enough for seventh place out of 13 teams. Missouri was crowned as the team champion for the second year in a row with 148 points, followed by Oklahoma State with 134 and Iowa State with 131.
UNI has seven qualifiers for the NCAA Championships. Keckeisen, Yant, Gordon, Biscoglia, Realbuto, Happel and Holschlag have all qualified to compete for a national championship. The NCAA Championships will also be taking place in Tulsa. They will be held from March 16-18.
The UNI women’s golf team kicked off their 2023 spring season this weekend at the UTRGV Invitational in McAllen, Texas. The team battled schools from all across the nation, ranging from the usual suspects like Drake, Creighton and Indiana State to teams they don’t usually compete against like Houston Christian and Texas A&M-
Corpus Christi. The team placed eighth out of 14 teams, tying Indiana State with a score of 936 or a +84 on the day as a whole. Houston Christian took home the gold, followed by UT Rio Grande Valley and Lamar.
UNI’s top three golfers were all even with each other for the bulk of the competition. McKenna Mallow led the team with a total score of 232. She finished with 76 in the first round, 79 in the
second round and rounded the competition out with a 77 in the final round. She finished tied for 36th place with three others. Victoria Hualde Zuniga and Anna Nacos were right behind her with a score of 233, tying with each other for 40th place. Both Hualde Zuniga and Nacos shot a 77 in their first round. Hualde Zuniga shot an 82 the next round but finished the invitational with a 74. Nacos stayed pretty consistent throughout
the competition, scoring a 77 in the second round and a 79 in the third.
Anna Jensen finished alone in 53rd place, shooting a 238 in the tournament. She shot an 82 in the first round and finished the next two rounds with a score of 78. Rylie Driskell, playing as an individual, finished in a tie for 62nd position. She shot an 84 in her opening round and shot an 80 in the final two rounds. Madison
Humke tied for 73rd to
finish the tournament. She shot an 84, 82 and 88 in all of her rounds, respectively. Lily Bredemeier, also competing as an individual, played an impressive first round, shooting a 77, before ultimately withdrawing from the competition.
The Panthers will return to action this weekend as they compete in the Bobby Nichols Intercollegiate in Sevierville, Tenn. from March 12-14.
Paige Holub didn’t always have the aspirations to become a college runner, but, as she grew older and her love for running continued to grow, it became clear she couldn’t let her career end. Being a successful Division I athlete in just one sport is no easy task, and the endeavor of being a multi-sport collegiate athlete proves to be even harder. Dedicated, hard working and committed are a short list of characteristics to define Paige Holub.
“Track and cross country give me a sense of belonging, especially in college,” Holub said. “Since I no longer live with my family, my teammates have become my family.” The tight knit community and at-home feel is what drew Holub to UNI from the beginning.
During high school, Holub visited UNI, Iowa State and Iowa with the intent to join their running programs. In the end she chose to become a Panther. “I feel like UNI is just a smaller environment team-wise and coaches, overall just more personable and that’s really why I chose UNI,” Holub explained.
The fifth-year senior is a
distance runner for the track and field team, as well as the cross country team. She is the daughter of Larry and Renee Holub and is originally from Monticello, Iowa. In 2018, she graduated from Monticello High School as one of the school’s most decorated athletes. She participated in basketball, track and field, and cross country, but her athleticism shined the brightest while in her running shoes. All four years of high school Holub was voted All-Conference, All-District and All-State, while holding the 4x800-meter relay school record.
Sports aren’t the only aspect of life in which Holub has been successful, as she also thrives in the classroom. She is a triple major in human resource management, marketing and psychology. In years past, she has received honors such as Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) track and field scholar athlete, MVC honor roll and the MVC Commissioner’s Excellence Award of 3.5 GPA or higher.
“My goal after college is to get a job in HR. I really like talent acquisition,” Holub said. “You know we’re not all going to be professional athletes after college, so my career is really import-
ant to me.” Finding the balance to be a working student athlete has challenged her to grow as a student, a runner and a regular college kid. But heading into her fifth-year season, she still has high goals of how she wants to cap off her career. Holub said all-conference in the mile is her end goal, and maybe even qualifying for Midwest Outdoor Regionals.
As her journey is coming to a close in the near future, it’s intriguing to realize where it all began. Back in Monticello when Holub was growing up, her mom ran road races for a hobby. In middle school, she made the decision to run next to her mom in just a simple mile long race, but the impact of this race still lingers on today. “I won it, so I thought ‘oh this is cool, I’m good at this’ so I just kept doing it.”
This mentality led Holub to soar at UNI. She has collected an All-Conference title at the 2021 MVC Indoor Championships in the distance medley relay and the 1500-meter run with a time of 4:58.52. In Holub’s senior year she placed 42nd at the MVC Cross Country Championships, clocking in a time of 23:04.8. But to her, the times and rankings aren’t the most important thing to
her in college sports. The connections have created a unique pathway for her.
“There’s really so many impacts. I would say the people that I’ve met and the connections that I’ve made. Not only team-wise, the coaches, and even other competitors as well. It led me down some different avenues,” Holub said when asked how college sports have impacted her personally.
Coming back for a fifth year wasn’t a hard decision for Holub. UNI, her team -
mates and the community surrounding her have left an enormous impact on her. “Why enter into a job when I have the rest of my life to work? I might as well run as long as I can because I love it,” Holub said. Even with the crazy schedule of a working two-sport athlete, Holub’s humbled and dedicated character keeps her determined, “I love track… the community is just awesome. I mean it’s my fifth year here, so I’ve loved it enough to stick around longer.”
The UNI women’s basketball team is headed to Moline, Ill., for the annual Missouri Valley Conference
(MVC) Women’s Basketball
Tournament. The Panther women secured the threeseed after posting a 16-4 record in conference play and a 21-8 record overall.
The Panthers fought all season near the top of the MVC, but ultimately fin -
ished the season one game back from Illinois State and Belmont. February losses to the Redbirds and Bruins eventually cemented UNI in the three-seed spot. UNI will play the winner of Valparaiso and UIC in their first game in Moline this Friday at 8:30. Friday’s game will be a favorable matchup for the Panther women, regardless of who they play. The Panthers are a combined 4-0 against Valparaiso and UIC this season, averaging a 24-point margin of victory in their four games against the Beacons and Flames.
A quarterfinal victory for the Panthers would likely result in a semifinal matchup against Belmont, which is a tough draw for the Panthers. Belmont’s last loss came in mid-January, and the Bruins finished the year on a 14-game winning streak. UNI and Belmont faced off twice during
the regular season, with Belmont winning on Jan. 8, 67-61, in Cedar Falls, and on Feb. 23, 82-77, in Nashville, Tenn.
However, a semifinal matchup in Moline, Ill., would give UNI a homecrowd advantage. Cedar Falls is only 147 miles from Moline, while Belmont is 537 miles away, and there’s no one more excited than Coach Tanya Warren about the location of the MVC Tournament. “I know we’ll have a lot of fans, and we’re extremely excited for the opportunity,” Warren said. Should UNI make it through the semifinals, a championship match would most likely be against either Illinois State or Drake. The Panthers are 2-0 against the Bulldogs this year and 1-1 against the Redbirds.
If UNI wants to guarantee a spot in the NCAA Tournament, it must win the MVC Tournament. While the Panthers have
received an at-large bid once in program history, more times than not, only one team from the MVC will receive a bid to the NCAA Tournament, and it’s the conference champion who gets the automatic bid.
UNI has qualified for the NCAA Tournament three times in program history. In 2010 and 2011, they won the MVC Tournament, and in 2017, they received an at-large bid to the tournament. Last year the Panthers narrowly lost to Illinois State in the final of the MVC Tournament. UNI had a 48-42 lead with five minutes to play in regulation but failed to score in the last five minutes and lost 50-48.
The Panthers will be challenged by teams across the MVC this weekend, but this UNI squad looks poised to make another run at the MVC championship.
