26 February 2002
CONTACT: Stew Salowitz, 309-556-3206IWU's Kasten, Cross Named to All-CCIW Squads
BLOOMINGTON, Ill. -- Illinois Wesleyan's Luke Kasten has repeated as a first team selection and teammate Laban Cross earned third team honors in voting for the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin all-league players, conducted by league coaches today in Wheaton.
Kasten, a 6-foot-7 junior forward from Coffeen (Hillsboro HS), was a second team all-CCIW selection as a freshman. He is joined on the first team by Drew Carstens of Augustana and Jason Wiertel, Rob Garnes, and Antoine McDaniel, all of league champion Carthage.
McDaniel won the "Fred Young Most Outstanding Player" honor and all first team players except Kasten were unanimous choices.
Kasten led the league in scoring with a 20.9 average in 14 games. He was fifth in recounds (7.1) and field goal percentage (.549) and was 14th with a .677 free throw percentage.
On the second team was Kevin Blomstrom of Wheaton, Jason Collins of North Park, Bill Stang of North Central, and Elmhurst freshmen Reuben Slock and Chris Martin.
Cross, a 6-foot-2 junior guard from Dahlgren (McLeansboro HS), was joined on the third team by Wheaton's Nate Collord, Jeff Love of Millikin, Augustana's Mike Nee, and Justin Carley of Elmhurst.
Cross was 16th in the CCIW with a 10.9 scoring average and sixth with 1.64 3-pointers per game. He was also 11th in free throw percentage (.727).
The Titans finished with a 6-8 league record and 12-13 overall, the first losing season since the 1988-89 team 7-9 in the CCIW and 12-14 overall. Since the CCIW began in 1946-47, IWU teams have only had four losing conference campaigns (4-6 in 1948, 6-8 in 1959, 1989 and 2002). Five other teams were at .500. Meanwhile, 24 Titan teams have been conference champions and 13 IWU squads finished second in league play.