Knox in the News

From The Register-Mail-

Knox College point guard Tanner Carlson has received an honorable mention selection to the All-Midwest Conference team.

Carlson’s seasons highlights included a triple-double January 21 at Lawrence University by scoring 11 points, grabbing 11 rebounds and handing out 14 assists.  It was the only triple-double in the conference this season.  The 14 assists rank as the second most in Knox College men’s basketball history, one short of the all-time record held by three players: Tim Irby, Steve Dimovski and Kyle Zimdar.

Carlson, one day after his triple-double, scored a career-high 28 points and made 16-of-18 free throws at Beloit College.  He was named the Midwest Conference Player of the Week January 24, the first Prairie Fire men’s basketball player to win the award since Grant Kluge received the honor in February of 2008.

Carlson finished the season averaging 12 points per game and led the Prairie Fire with 4.9 assists per game…

From The Register-Mail:
Nick Vasquez said it was like hitting an iceberg in the face.

Others used simple terms: cold, frigid and shocking. But regardless of how it was described, the ninth annual Polar Plunge lived up to it’s name with temperatures in the 30s and snow and ice still covering Lake Storey Beach on Sunday.

Wintry conditions didn’t keep the participants away, however, as the plunge continued to raise a record amount of money to benefit Special Olympics Illinois.

In all, 270 plungers from roughly 25 teams raised $41,621.47, a figure that exceeds this year’s goal of $36,000…

…Some of the most active members of the community on Sunday were Knox College students. The college was represented in droves as fraternities and sororities raised funds and took the plunge.

A regular for the past five years, fraternity Beta Theta Pi had one of the strongest showings on Sunday with roughly 30 students taking the dive almost all at once. Nothing, they said, could prepare them for the icy waters.

“You can say, ‘it’s so bad,’ but you’re not ready for that initial shock,” said student Dan Page.
To help raise money, the group bagged groceries, set up tables at school and collected money online. A total of $2,719.30 was raised for charity.

While they were happy to raise money for a good cause, the group also was relieved when it was over.
“That was the best shower I’ve ever had,” said student Mike Youkhana.

Out-raising the fraternity by a few hundred dollars was sorority Alpha Sigma Alpha, who brought in $2,911.46. Several donors, they said, contributed in anticipation of seeing photos of them freezing in the frigid lake.

From The Register-Mail:
Hundreds of area residents attended free screenings Sunday and Monday of the National Geographic Channel documentary “Lincoln’s Secret Killer?” at the Orpheum Theatre.

In addition to feeding the audience’s craving for Abraham Lincoln, attendees also enjoyed seeing the Orpheum Theatre on the silver screen, as it was chosen as the filming location for the Lincoln assassination scenes.

Whether the documentary holds any significance to historians or biographers, however, remains to be seen.

The film documents obscure diagnosis expert Dr. John Sotos’ journey as he seeks to prove that Lincoln was already dying of a rare, inherited cancer long before he was assassinated.

“The idea he must have had something wrong with him medically is an idea constantly brought forward,” said Doug Wilson, co-director of the Knox College Lincoln Studies Center and professor emeritus. “This is not so much an historical question as a medical question. In terms of what historians concern themselves with, they wouldn’t want to spend much time on it.”

From The Register-Mail:

Jon Pierce-Ruhland rushed into the Francois Room of the Knox College Science-Math Center just before the Ninth Annual Sumo++ Robot Competition was to begin.

He took his diligently crafted robot, lovingly named Pi, out of a brown paper bag, installed a fresh set of AA batteries, set it aside and began nervously tapping his fingers and stepping side to side as spectators began pouring into the makeshift arena.

He called to his competition, “What’s your strategy?”

“No comment,” replied Max Galloway-Carson, whose robot was named Jack IV, before whispering to one of his supporters, “There will be blood. Robot blood.”

Pierce-Ruhland, a senior computer science and physics double major, was unaffected by his competitor’s confidence. This was his third and final Sumo++ Robot Competition, and having tasted second place twice before, he meant business.

Computer Science Department Chair John Dooley called the room to attention and had each contestant announce their robots’ names. First was Pierce-Ruhland with Pi, followed by Galloway-Carson and Jack IV.

There was also Wall-E, built by Sung Joo Lee and Stefan Feer; Josh Wood with Unknown, and first timer Sarah Leahy, a Costa Catholic Academy seventh grader and daughter of Knox math Professor Andrew Leahy, whose robot Jinx would have an unfortunately prophetic name.

The double-elimination tournament was friendly and intense, with Wall-E’s self-destructive nature, Jinx’s detrimentally light weight, and Jack IV’s painful inability to detect the coveted can, which the robots had to push out of a four-foot “Ring of Death” in order to win.

“Originally, we just had the robots pushing each other,” said Dooley. “It worked well for a few years, but we wanted to up the ante a little bit.”

In the end, it came down to Pierce-Ruhland’s Pi and Wood’s Unknown in the championship match, and in less than three minutes, Pierce-Ruhland tasted the victory he’d craved all these years…

From The Register-Mail:

Prize-winning and honorable mention photos from the third annual Off-Campus Study Photo Contest, sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, are on display in Monmouth College’s Hewes Library through March 23.

The exhibit contains the work of one Monmouth College student and five Knox College students.

The photos were taken by students at ACM colleges who have participated in off-campus study programs, either in the U.S. or other countries. Ten prize-winning photos were selected in the contest and 14 other photos received honorable mention recognition.

The 2010-11 contest’s grand prize was awarded to Anna Carlson Schattauer, a senior at St. Olaf College, for her mesmerizing photo “Whirling Dervishes at Sunset,” which captured the graceful movements of Sufi mystics in the gathering dusk.

Photos were also awarded first, second and third place in each of three categories — people, stories and artistry. In all, 99 photos were submitted for the contest through the ACM colleges’ off-campus study offices.

The photo contest celebrates the history and role that off-campus study plays in liberal arts education.

The local angle

- Knox College junior Victoria Ezell’s photo, “Stained Glass,” which was taken at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, was awarded second in the artistry category. Ezell was studying at the Danish Institute for Study Abroad in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the fall of 2010 when she took the photo.

- Knox College senior Jae Hyoung Lee’s photo, “Bracelets,” which was taken in Tarangire, Tanzania, in the fall of 2009 while studying at ACM Tanzania, earned her third place in the artistry category.

- Monmouth College senior Ben Morrow’s photo, “You Don’t know Where You’re Going, Unless You Know Where You’ve Been,” was taken in Pune, India, while studying at ACM India during the fall of 2009. It earned him an honorable mention.

- Knox College sophomore John Evan Feeley, earned an honorable mention for his photo, “Juggling Anarchy,” while participating in the college’s program in Barcelona, Spain, last fall.

- Knox College senior Andrea Houlihan was studying at ACM Botswana in the spring of 2010 when she took her photo, “Mosadi Mogolo,” in Maun, Botswana. It earned her an honorable mention.

- Knox College senior Sara DeMaria earned honorable mention for her photo, “Out to Dry,” taken in Waitomo, New Zealand, while enrolled in AustraLearn Semester Abroad at Lincoln University during the fall of 2009.

From The Register-Mail:
Registration deadline is Tuesday for Knox-Galesburg Symphony’s 18th annual Young Pianists Competition sponsored by Carl Sandburg College.

The competition will start at 9 a.m. March 19, in Building F at Carl Sandburg College, 2400 Tom L. Wilson Blvd.

There is no cost to enter the competition, which is open to pianists ages 5-14 as of March 19 who reside in Knox, Henry or Warren counties. Participants compete in categories by age.

Judges are Bruce Polay, artistic director/conductor of the Knox-Galesburg Symphony and professor of music at Knox College; and Ian Mosenchross, associate professor of music and department chair at Monmouth College.