Baseball | 9/25/2014 12:40:00 PM

WICHITA – Newman Athletics will add six new names to the Newman University Athletic Hall of Fame. NU has announced its 2015 Hall of Fame class for the 2015 Hall of Fame Banquet on Jan. 31 at the Dugan-Gorges Conference Center. Along with the Hall of Fame Class, the 2015 Sr. Thomasine Stoecklein Spirit Award has been announced.
 
The 2015 Newman Hall of Fame inductees include Kelly Gaul, Dave Skinner, Cory Simmons, Bianca Montagnino-Simmons, Bill Powers and Dondlinger Construction.  Tad Druart is the recipient of the Sr. Thomasine Stoecklein Spirit Award.
 
Kelly Gaul, a former NU baseball student-athlete, was a 1989 First Team All-American, First Team All-District and Player of the Year, First Team All-Area and Player of the Year, the only one in baseball history at NU. For his career, he is No. 1 in batting average at .462, No. 1 in career on base percentage at .577, and he name appears in many other parts of the baseball records.
 
Dave Skinner is a former NU men's basketball coach and athletic director. His basketball teams were very successful, and his 1977-78 team was inducted in the NU Hall of Fame in 2008. Skinner started the NU baseball program in his time as athletic director, hiring Paul Sanagorski, which gained consistent national prominence.
 
Cory Simmons is a former bowler for the Newman men's bowling team. In 2004 he was the National Collegiate Singles Champion, and Simmons led his team to a national championship runner-up finish in 2005. He was the 2005 national championship Most Valuable Player and a First Team All-American. He graduated from NU with a degree in criminal justice. While at NU, he earned a spot on the United Stats national team and won six medals (four goal and two silver) and since graduating he has been the Great Plains USBC Player of the Year five times with 63 "300" games and 45 "800 series" with a high of 879. Simmons also has one PBA regional title.
 
Bianco Montagnino-Simmons is a former bowler for the NU women's bowling team. She was the 2005 National Collegiate Singles Champion and helped lead her team to three national championship appearences with a fifth place finish her senior season. She graduated with a 4.0 GPA in communications and was a three-time Academic All-American. She has also been the assistant women's bowling coach for eight seasons and helped the team to seven national championship appearances.
 
Bill Powers is a former men's basketball student-athlete for NU. Powers was inducted in 2008 as part of the 1977-78 men's basketball team that went to the national tournament. He had an outstanding career in all aspects of his college tenure. He is the second leading scorer for the school, behind Mike Bayer (2007 Hall of Fame inductee). According to coach Dave Skinner, the team would not have achieved the District #10 championship without his presence.
 
Dondlinger Construction is a booster for the NU Athletics. Tom Dondlinger is an alumnus of Newman, as is some of his family. The company has been a great support system for NU athletics for many years, helping finance projects such as locker room renovations, scoreboard and soccer bench covers, which were destroyed by a storm. They have donated towards the Jet Open, play every year as sponsors and sponsor the kick-off party for the event. Colleen Dondlinger is on the Wichita Gladiator Dash committee and a member of the Newman Athletic Club.
 
Tad Druart is the 2015 recipient of the Sr. Thomasine Stoecklein Spirit Award. Druart is a former baseball student-athlete and sports information director for NU. He is the current Alumni President and has been tightly connected to supporting NU over the years, especially when teams travel to Texas. He is one of the first Academic All-Americans in NU history.
 
The Newman University Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 2007. With the 2015 class, the Hall of Fame will grow to 30 inductees. The 2015 inductees are the sixth class. The other years are 2007-09, 2011 and 2013. The Hall of Fame currently inducts new members every two years.
 
For ticket information on the 2015 Newman University Athletics Hall of Fame banquet, contact NU athletics at 316-942-4291 ext. 2118 or email Mo Rohleder at rohlederm@newmanu.edu