CSR (Deters and Meckes to Make Professional/USTAF Debuts This Week)

Calvin Sports Report (Part Two) for June 20, 2005

CALVIN ROOMMATES TO COMPETE AT PROFESSIONAL/NATIONAL LEVEL

This figures to be an exciting week for former college roommates Jim Deters
and Nate Meckes.

Deters is expected to make his professional baseball debut this week while
Meckes is scheduled to compete at the USTAF Track and Field Nationals in the
discus.

The two athletes were Calvin roommates this past year and combined to produce
two of the most sensational individual spring campaigns in recent Calvin
athletics history.

A native of Portage and a graduate of Kalamazoo Christian High School, Deters
was recently selected in the seventh round of the 2005 Major League Baseball
draft by the Cleveland Indians. Deters signed a contract with the Indians just
over a week ago and has been assigned to Cleveland's short season Class A
affiliate in Youngstown, Ohio, known as the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. The
Scrappers are scheduled to open their season tomorrow night. The home web site
for the Scrappers can be found at: http://www.mvscrappers.com/

This past spring, Deters was named the MIAA's Pitcher of the Year and also
landed a spot on the All-Mideast Region first team. He fashioned a pitching
record of 7-1 along with an earned run average of 2.79. He also struck out 99
batters in 71 innings of work and recently finished fifth in the final NCAA III
statistics in strikeouts-per-nine innings (12.5).

Meckes is from Bay City and is a graduate of Lutheran Westland High School in
suburban Detroit. This past spring, Meckes shattered Calvin and MIAA records
in the shot put and discus and later earned NCAA III All-America honors in both
events as he took second in the discus and fourth in the shot put at the NCAA
III Track and Field Championships. His second place throw of 194-10 in the
discus marked the second-best throw in NCAA III track and field history and
qualified him provisionally for the USTAF Track and Field Championships in
Carson, California.

This past weekend, Meckes was informed that he had indeed made the cut in the
discus and will be part of the discus field, scheduled for 8:00 p.m. (EST) June
23 at the Home Depot Center. Meckes will be joined at the meet by Calvin
throwing coach Norm Zylstra. In addition, he will be spending time with
top-seeded Carl Brown. A 1995 graduate of Siena Heights, Brown spent time
during the 2002-03 academic year training with Meckes individually at
Calvin's throwing complex.

For a link to the USATF Championships site, please visit its web site at:
http://www.usatf.org/events/2005/USAOutdoorTFChampionships/

More information on Deters and Meckes will be released later this week as
events unfold.

Jeff Febus
Sports Information Director
Calvin College
(616) 526-6169 Office
(616) 526-8551 Fax
Received on Mon Jun 20 13:19:35 2005