Raptor of the Week: Michelle Schlichtig

During her two years at Rutgers University-Camden, junior pitcher Michelle Schlichtig (Barrington, NJ/Haddon Heights) has accomplished more than any softball player in program history.

Schlichtig raised the bar again Thursday night when she became the first All-American softball player in Rutgers-Camden history. Schlichtig was named to the 2005 Louisville Slugger/National Fastpitch Coaches Association Division III All-America First Team at a dinner in Raleigh, North Carolina, the site of the NCAA Division III National Tournament.

Schlichtig was one of 46 student-athletes named to the Louisville Slugger/NFCA All-America First, Second and Third Teams. She was one of 15 players on the First Team, and one of only two pitchers on that squad, joining Aurora University’s Taylor Petersen to form a potent pitching duo.

Schlichtig’s honor came less than a week after she was named to Louisville Slugger/NFCA Division III Softball East Region First Team, and also earned a berth on the East Regional all-tournament team.

Over the last two years, Schlichtig has sparked Rutgers-Camden to a 71-19-1 record and a pair of second-place finishes at the NCAA regionals. Last season, while leading the Lady Raptors to their first New Jersey Athletic Conference crown in program history, Schlichtig was named the NJAC Player of the Year. This season she earned NJAC Pitcher of the Year honors while helping Rutgers-Camden earn the regular-season conference title and finish second in the NJAC Championships.

Schlichtig was named NJAC Pitcher of the Week March 14, March 21, April 4 and April 11. She also earned ECAC Division III Metro Pitcher of the Week honors March 22, April 5 and April 12.

Schlichtig posted a 27-6 record with a 0.61 ERA in 35 appearances during her junior season. She started 30 games, completing 27 and posting 12 shutouts. She struck out 318 and allowed only 106 hits in 231 innings pitched, holding opponents to a .136 batting average. Of her six losses, four of them came by 1-0 scores, including one on an eighth-inning tie-breaker run and another in the bottom of the 15th inning. One other defeat came by a 2-1 score in 13 innings.

Schlichtig also was the Raptors’ top offensive threat, compiling team-high totals in batting average (.388), runs (37), doubles (12), home runs (9), total bases (95) and walks (23). She also finished second on the team with 33 RBIs and led the team defensively with a school-record 92 assists. She made only one error in 120 chances for a .992 fielding percentage.

In addition to her single-season record in assists, Schlichtig set season records on the mound with her 35 games, 231 innings, 27 wins, 318 strikeouts, 779 at bats, 6 HBP and 12 shutouts. She also set single-season offensive records with her 37 runs, 54 hits and 95 total bases.

For her two-year career, Schlichtig already holds Rutgers-Camden pitching records for wins (50), starts (61), complete games (55), innings (434-1/3), strikeouts (602) and shutouts (23). Next season she will easily pass the marks for appearances, at bats and batters faced, and will threaten or break several career offensive marks which were set in four seasons.

TRACK & FIELD
May 16 at Tuppeny Twilight Invitational (at Villanova University)

NO TEAM SCORES

Rutgers-Camden winners:
* Carmen Zimmitt, long jump, 17-1.75

May 17 at Spiked & Psyched Last Chance Meet (Elizabethtown, PA)

Rutgers-Camden School Records:
* Women’s 4x100 (Carmen Zimmitt, Imani Hafiz, Tiffany Logan, Tameka Jackson), 48.19 (Old: 48.31, at the NJAC Championships, May 7, 2005)

May 18 at Spiked & Psyched Last Chance Meet (Elizabethtown, PA)

Rutgers-Camden School Records:
* Women’s 4x100 (Carmen Zimmitt, Imani Hafiz, Tiffany Logan, Tameka Jackson), 48.13 (Old: 48.19, at Spiked & Psyched Last Chance Meet, May 17, 2005)

May 19-20 at ECAC Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships (at Springfield College)

Men: Rutgers-Camden Did Not Compete

Women: 1. Oneonta College, 48; 2. New Jersey City University, 43; 3. Bates, 38; 4. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 37; 5. Wheaton College, 36.50; 6. Amherst College, 36; 7. Williams College, 35.50; 8. SUNY Cortland, 35; 9. Springfield College, 34; 10. University of Southern Maine, 28; 11. University of Rochester, 24; 12. Westfield State, 23.50; 13. St. Lawrence University, 21; 13. Richard Stockton College, 21; 13. Keene State University, 21; 16. Hartwick College, 19; 17. Bowdoin, 18; 17. Colby College, 18; 19. (tie) Ithaca College and Cabrini College, 17; 21. Muhlenberg College, 16.50; 22. York College, 16; 23. Frostburg State, 15; 24. (tie) Smith College and Dickinson College, 14; 26. Washington and Jefferson College, 13; 26. Trinity College, 13; 26. Brandeis University, 13; 29. Rutgers University-Camden, 12.50; 30. Hunter College, 11; 31. College Misericordia, 10; 32. (tie) Ramapo College, Grove City College, Colby-Sawyer and Tufts University, 8; 36. Coast Guard Academy, 7; 37. Middlebury College, 6; 38. (tie) Lehman College and University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 5; 40. (tie) Connecticut College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Penn State-Brehrend, 4; 43. Carnegie Mellon, 3; 44. (tie) New York University and Franklin & Marshall College, 2; 46. Westminster College, 1.50; 47. (tie) U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kean University, Rhode Island College and Lebanon Valley College, 1.

Rutgers-Camden School Records (May 20):
* Carmen Zimmitt, long jump, 17-8.75, 5.40 meters – qualifying (Old: 17-7.75 by Zimmitt, at NJAC Championships, May 7, 2005)
* Carmen Zimmitt, long jump, 17-9, 5.41 meters - finals (Old: 17-8.75 by Zimmitt, at ECAC Championships, qualifying, May 20, 2005)

Rutgers University-Camden junior Carmen Zimmitt (Woodstown, NJ/Woodstown) and freshman Imani Hafiz (Franklinville, NJ/Delsea Regional) broke school records in the long jump and triple jump, respectively, at the ECAC Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 20 at Springfield College.

Zimmitt broke her own long jump mark twice on her way to a fourth-place finish in the event. She had a leap of 5.40 meters (17-8.75) in the preliminaries to get the fourth seed and qualify for the finals, where she jumped 5.41 meters (17-9) to finish fourth. Both of those marks erased her previous school record of 5.38 meters (17-7.75), which was set at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships May 7 during a second-place finish.

Later in the day, Hafiz and Zimmitt both broke their own triple jump mark of 10.69 meters (35-1.25) that they had set at different meets this season. Zimmitt finished tied for eighth with a jump of 10.89 meters (35-8.75), but Hafiz established the new school mark with a triple jump of 11.17 meters (36-7.75). She finished sixth in the event.

Zimmitt also finished fifth in the 200-meter dash in a time of 26.03.

Despite being the only two competitors from Rutgers-Camden at the ECAC Championships, Zimmitt and Hafiz managed to combine for 12.5 points, helping the Lady Raptors finish 29th among 50 scoring teams at the event.

Zimmitt also competed in the 100-meter dash on May 19, finishing ninth in the preliminaries. She posted a time of 12.65 as she barely missed qualifying for the finals by 0.02. The eighth-place time, which qualified, was 12.63.

Earlier in the week the Lady Raptors competed in a couple of last chance qualifying meets in an attempt to improve their times for the NCAA Championships.

At the Spiked & Psyched Last Chance Meet at Elizabethtown College May 17-18, the Lady Raptors’ 4x100-meter relay team set a pair of school records. The team, composed of Zimmitt, Hafiz, senior Tiffany Logan (Turnersville, NJ/Washington Township) and senior Tameka Jackson (Camden, NJ/Sterling), finished third in the preliminaries on Tuesday, May 17. They posted a school-record time of 48.19, breaking their old program mark of 48.31 set at the New Jersey Athletic Conference Championships May 7.

The team didn’t waste any time breaking their mark. On May 18, they finished second in the finals with a new record of 48.13.

The Raptors opened the week May 16 at the Tuppeny Twilight Meet at Villanova University, where Zimmitt won the long jump competition (17-1.75) and finished eighth in the 100-meter dash (12.63), while Jackson finished fourth in both the 100-meter dash (12.16) and the 200-meter dash (25.17).

Senior Joelle Diener (Rickenbach, Switzerland/Kantonsschule Olten) played fourth in the 5,000-meter run (19:39.61), while senior Taiwan Lamb (Atlantic City, NJ/Atlantic City) was the Raptors’ lone male representative. He finished seventh in the long jump with a leap of 20-2.