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PrintKhamari Ballard became the first Columbia College basketball player to earn NAIA All-American honors Tuesday.
Teammate Andre Amos received NAIA All-American honorable mention honors.
The All-Americans are the top 10 players in NAIA Division I. With a record-breaking 791 points and an average of 22.6 points per game, Ballard led his team in scoring. He also broke the game scoring record twice with 47 points on Jan. 24 and 52 on March 9.
Ballard shot 45 percent from the field and 76 percent from the line. He also had 114 rebounds and 89 assists. In two seasons at Columbia College, Ballard moved to sixth on the scoring list with 1,377 points and earned American Midwest Conference Most Valuable Player honors.
Amos averaged 16.9 points, shot 46 percent from the field and hit 102 3-pointers. He averaged 5.3 rebounds per game and led the team in assists (121) and steals (93).
Amos also earned All-Conference honors.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE SOFTBALL: The Cougars swept Hannibal-LaGrange College 12-0 and 1-0.
Columbia (21-4) finished the first game in six innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.
The Cougars scored two runs in the third, fourth and fifth innings and scored six in the sixth to end the game.
Monica Mueller earned the win allowing one hit and two walks. She had six strikeouts.
During the second game, Columbia earned one run in the first inning but had a strong defensive game to complete the shutout. Kerry Gapka earned the win allowing three hits. Columbia College holds it rank at seventh in the NAIA Top 25 poll.
ROCK BRIDGE TENNIS: The Bruins defeated Quincy (Ill.) 7-2 in their first match of the season.
Rock Bridge won all of its singles matches but lost two of the three doubles matches.
MU ATHLETICS: Pat Ivey is the new strength and conditioning coach.
Ivey, a former student athlete at MU, will start April 12. He has a long history as a strength coach. For the past two years, Ivey worked at the University of Tulsa’s strength coach. Ivey spent five years as a Missouri strength coach after spending two years as assistant director of strength and conditioning for football.
During his career at Missouri, Ivey was a three-time letterman in football and earned All-American Strength and Conditioning honors in 1995.
MU BASEBALL: Today’s game against Illinois State was canceled because of expected bad weather in Normal, Ill.
MU SWIMMING: The College Swimming Coaches Association of America named the men’s and women’s swimming and diving teams Academic All-American teams for the third consecutive semester. The women received honors for a 3.08 grade point average and the men had a 2.91.
MU GOLF: Senior David Jenkins finished seventh to help the team finish seventh in the CU/Stevinson Ranch Invitational at Stevinson Ranch Golf Club in Stevinson, Calif.
Missouri finished the invitational with four-man score of 911, 26 strokes over par. Jenkins finished 3-under with 213 to tie for seventh.
Sophomore Ben Scott finished 26th (221), senior Michael Radek, was 46th (226), John Kelly was 53rd (227), and Justin Bliss finished 68th (236).
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