Spartan Club Announces Hall of Fame Class of 2012
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Spartan Club, in conjunction with Case Western Reserve University Athletics, has announced its Hall of Fame induction class of 2012. Six former student-athletes will join the 328 members previously inducted since the club’s inception in 1975. The new members will be enshrined at the annual Spartan Club banquet on Friday, April 27.
This year’s class includes five Case Western Reserve inductees and one Heritage selection.
The five CWRU inductees include:
Brian Casselberry ´95 (cross
country/track)
Scott Feskanich ´98 (baseball)
Guy Genin ´90, G ´91 (swimming)
Becky Palmer Murphy ´00 (softball)
Sue Waniewski Lelko ´93 (soccer)
Charles “Chuck” Wiedman, a 1954 graduate of Western Reserve University, is this year’s Heritage selection.
“The Spartan Club is thrilled to introduce the Hall of Fame induction class of 2012,” said President and 2001 CWRU graduate Gordon Daily. “Each year, our selection committee is faced with the challenge of choosing an induction class from an incredibly accomplished pool of nominees. Once again, the committee did an outstanding job of identifying the best of the best, and we are looking forward to enshrining such a fine group on April 27.”
Casselberry, a local product out of Seven Hills and Normandy High School, is one of the most accomplished runners in the decorated history of CWRU cross country and track & field. He was a two-time All-American during the 1994-95 season, earning the award in both cross country and the outdoor track 10,000-meter run. A cross country team captain, Casselberry won the North Coast Athletic Conference Championship as a senior with a course record time of 26:02. He then followed as a track captain with NCAC titles in the 5k (indoor) and 10k (outdoor) in addition to being named the conference’s Middle/Distance MVP during the indoor track & field championships. He was also the 10k outdoor champion in the University Athletic Association. During his junior campaign in 1993-94, Casselberry qualified for the NCAA Championship meet in cross country and track (outdoor 5k and 10k) while earning three more NCAC track crowns in the 5k (indoor and outdoor) and the 10k (outdoor) and one in the UAA 10k (outdoor). In addition to his NCAC Cross Country Championship in 1994, Casselberry also earned first-team all-league honors in three-consecutive seasons from 1991 to 1993 and first-team All-UAA honors in 1993 and 1994.
Following graduation, Casselberry continued to compete and has since completed eight marathons. He currently works for Swagelok Company in Solon, Ohio. He and his wife, Amy, reside in the Cleveland area.
Feskanich was one of the best to ever don a Spartan baseball uniform. A local product out of Strongsville, he ranks in the top-five in program history in nine major statistical categories. In 140 career games in the outfield, Feskanich batted .389 with six homeruns, 93 runs batted-in, 34 doubles and 79 stolen bases. He is CWRU’s all-time leader in steals, triples (10) and walks (91) while ranking second in runs (144), hits (183) and total bases (255). His lifetime .389 average is fourth all-time and his .519 clip as a senior in 1997 is a school record that ranked second in the nation that season. Feskanich was a four-time All-University Athletic Association and All-North Coast Athletic Conference selection with three first-team nods from the UAA and a pair from the NCAC.
After earning his degree in mechanical engineering, Feskanich continued his playing career for seven years in the area with clubs from the Cuyahoga County AAA and Cleveland Adult Baseball League. He currently resides in Grafton with his wife, Amy, and their daughter, Ella. Feskanich serves as Manufacturing Engineering Supervisor for Ridge Tool in Elyria.
Genin was a standout both in the pool and in the classroom for the Spartan swimming & diving program. An eight-time All-American and school record-holder, Genin earned All-America acclaim in each of his four seasons. During his senior campaign, the Las Cruces, New Mexico-native earned a career-best three All-American finishes in the 400-yard individual medley, the 200-yard IM and the 200-yard breaststroke. He again earned All-American status a year later in the 400 IM while studying for a master’s degree in the civil engineering department at CWRU. Also a standout in the classroom, Genin was a multiple-time NCAA Academic All-American and a GTE/College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Academic All-American.
Genin received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship for his doctoral studies at Harvard University, and he continued swimming as a post-doctoral fellow at Cambridge University and Brown University. While at Brown, Genin was a United States Masters Swimming All-American. He is currently a member of the engineering faculty at Washington University in St. Louis.
Palmer Murphy (formerly Becky Palmer) is one of, if not the most significant student-athlete in CWRU softball history and will be the first from her sport inducted into the Spartan Club Hall of Fame. Following the program’s inaugural season in 1996, Palmer Murphy joined the team and pitched the Spartans to three-straight University Athletic Association Championships from 1997 to 1999. For her career, she posted a 40-15 record with a 2.49 earned run average and 206 strikeouts in 387.2 innings pitched. In 1999, Palmer Murphy was selected as the UAA Most Valuable Player as the team posted a 25-9 record with the second of its three league titles. The Bennington, Vermont-native also garnered North Coast Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year acclaim in 1998 and was a three-time first-team All-UAA pitcher.
Following graduation, Palmer Murphy obtained her master’s degree from CWRU through a coordinated internship with the Louis Stokes VA Medical Center. Currently, she serves as the Clinic Dietitian in the intensive care unit and the cardiac surgery intensive care unit at Hillcrest Hospital in nearby Mayfield Heights. She recently became a Certified Nutrition Support Clinician – a title that only a little over 3,000 people in the United States currently hold. She and her husband, David, have two children, Evan and Collin.
Lelko (formerly Sue Waniewski) is one of only three student-athletes in CWRU women’s soccer history to earn All-America acclaim. As a senior in 1992, the team captain and Ridgefield, Connecticut-native garnered third-team All-American honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America, and she was the only player in program history to receive that honor from the NSCAA prior to 2011. Despite playing her 66 career matches as a defender, Lelko ranks amongst the program leaders in a number of statistical categories. She is sixth all-time with 16 assists, tied for seventh with 50 consecutive starts, 11th with 38 points, and 15th with 11 goals. A four-year letterwinner, Lelko helped lead the 1991 squad to 12 wins and 10 shutouts – each school records until the 2011 season.
A psychology (pre-med) major, Lelko went on to earn her medical degree from New York Medical College before returning to University Circle as an intern at Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital. She currently owns a private practice specializing in pediatric medicine in Meriden, Connecticut. Lelko and her husband, Ronald, have two children, Owen and Julia.
Wiedman was a standout student-athlete for the Western Reserve Red Cat track & field program in the early 1950s. A three-year captain, Wiedman captured numerous pole vault championships while setting the WRU record in the event on three separate occasions. As a senior in 1954, his personal-best of more than 13 feet ranked second in the state of Ohio and helped lead the Red Cats to a third-place finish in the highly competitive Mid-American Conference. Wiedman was named the Litwak Trophy winner as the Most Outstanding Student-Athlete and was a Rhodes Scholar candidate in 1954. He was also heavily involved on campus with membership in Omicron Delta Kappa, Phi Society and Student Senate in addition to serving as Senior and Sports Editor of the yearbook as well as President of Delta Tau Delta as a senior.
Following graduation, Wiedman enlisted in the United States Army and continued athletic competition in track, basketball and softball from 1954 to 1956. He then returned to Cleveland and earned his degree in dentistry from WRU in 1961 before starting a dental career that spanned nearly 50 years in nearby Parma. Currently a resident of Frisco, Texas, Wiedman continues to compete athletically as an avid golfer and in Senior Olympic games. He and his wife, Dolores (Kasprzak-FSMC-1955), have been married for 54 years and have three daughters and three grandchildren.
The 2012 Hall of Fame induction banquet begins at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, April 27 at the Veale Center. The event will also include a special dedication of the Del Rosa Study Area.
