Electrician Contractor in Kennesaw, GA

KENNESAW, Ga. – The Kennesaw State women's golf team stands in fourth after the first 36 holes at the Pinetree Women's Collegiate presented by Henssler Monday.

The Owls carded a 1-over 289 first round, contributing to a 12-over 589 overall score after a rainy day one.

KSU stands three strokes behind third-place Northern Illinois entering the final day of action.

LEADING THE TEAM:

Senior Meva Schmit stands in second with a score of 5-under 139. She posted a 2-under 70 in round one and 3-under 69 on the second 18 holes. She finished one below her 36-hole personal best.

Schmit will enter round three only three strokes behind first place. She led the field with a 3.85 par-4 scoring average. Her nine birdies were second among the participants.

SCORECARD:

Bella Kil was next on the scoreboard for the Black and Gold at 3-over 147. She carded an even-par opening round. The senior finished Monday in 12th.

Cameron Neilson shot 7-over 151 on day one including a 1-under 71. Neilson was tied for 21st. Her 2.75 par-3 scoring average tied for the field-lead.

Junior Lara Jecnik was tied for 24th at 8-over 152 on the day.

Individual participant Nyah Kelly shot 10-over 154 across the two rounds and is tied for 29th.

Caitlyn Campbell-Nyman carded a 157 on Monday and is tied for 34th.

Senior Tori Owens followed Campbell-Nyman with a score of 158 and tied for 38th.

GOLF CART NOTES:

>> The Owls led the field with 119 pars.

>> KSU was second in the field in par-3 scoring average (3.00).

NEXT TEE TIME: The Owls finish the 2022-23 regular season Tuesday, Apr. 4 with round three action of the Pinetree Women's Collegiate presented by Henssler.

To keep up with the latest Kennesaw State women's golf news follow the team on Twitter @KSUOwlNation and @KSUOwlsWmnsGolf or by liking Kennesaw State Owls on Facebook.

Every year, on the third Sunday in June, many people buy cards to say thank you to their father or father figure for things like teaching them to ride a bike or how to play chess or serving as a role model for them throughout their lives.

In the Gilmore house this year, things will be reversed as dad Joe Gilmore will thank his son, Nolan Gilmore, for inspiring him to go back to college to become an engineer, just like Nolan was doing at Kennesaw State University. Now both students will be graduating this month at the same Commencement ceremony for the Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology (SPCEET).

“Nolan is a person I respect,” said the older Gilmore. “He’s grown a lot the past few years so I can ask him for advice about some things, we can collaborate, and we work well together. On our senior project report, my team put him in the ‘acknowledgements and special thanks’ section of the paper alongside professors because he was a resource for us. Several times he saved us a lot of headaches with programming issues.”

Nolan started Kennesaw State in the summer of 2019 as an architecture major. It only took one semester to realize architecture wasn’t the right fit. After considering his longtime passion for vintage computers and vintage technology, he switched his major to computer engineering in SPCEET.

Less than one year later, in the spring of 2020, his dad, despite having already earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts in the late 1990s, followed him into SPCEET to study mechatronics.

“I have been working in engineering roles for many years without an engineering degree,” said Joe. “My employer makes specialized 3D printing equipment for research labs, so the customers I work with are PhD level researchers and engineers. I realized I was communicating on their level and told myself ‘If they can do it, so can I.’”

Throughout their journey at Kennesaw State, the father and son maintained a light-hearted banter with each other with who got the better grades and who was a better student.

“I had to figure out how to be more disciplined,” said Nolan. “My dad came in with the experience of college once before, whereas I was completely new to it, so he was generally better at staying focused.”

“I would tease him, as dads like to do, about how I got better grades,” said Joe. “But it was all in good fun.”

Both dad and son had Kennesaw State senior lecturer Charles Duvall for one of their classes.

“They are phenomenal students,” said Duvall. “I didn’t connect the dots at first that they were related, and I’m sure a parent and his or her child have come to college simultaneously before, but I can’t think of another time when they were graduating at the same time, too. It’s definitely unique.”

Joe and Nolan are excited to be donning caps and gowns alongside each other at the Kennesaw State Commencement ceremony. Joe will proudly be sporting an extra cord for graduating summa cum laude, while Nolan was just below the threshold to graduate with honors. The two will have at least seven family members at the ceremony to cheer on their achievements, including Nolan’s sibling, who is a math major at Kennesaw State.

After graduation, neither Joe nor Nolan will be slowing down, as Joe, a Double Owl, will be staying at Kennesaw State to finish the master’s program in Intelligent Robotics Systems. Nolan will be heading to the University of York in England in September to start the master’s program in Digital Systems Engineering.

Until then, Joe and Nolan Gilmore are looking forward to their graduation day at KSU.

“This is the busiest time we’ve ever had at Kennesaw State – this final push to the end,” said Nolan. “It’s engaging, but it’s just a lot.”

“We can’t even think about how we will celebrate this milestone,” said Joe. “We just don’t have the bandwidth right now. But I will say that I am proud of my son, and I’m proud of myself.”

– Amanda CookPhotos by Darnell Wilburn

Related Stories

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 43,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.

KENNESAW, Ga. – Kennesaw State baseball travels to the University of Georgia for its second of four-straight midweek games against Power Five opponents. The Owls enter the contest after sweeping Jacksonville last weekend and compiling 37 runs on 42 hits.

The Rundown Matchup: Kennesaw State Owls (22-20, 12-9 ASUN) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (24-20, 8-13 SEC) Date: May 2 Site: Foley Field; Athens, Ga. TV: SEC Network + Game Notes: KSU | UGA 2023 Schedule: Click Here

GAMEDAY INFORMATION Tuesday vs. Georgia First Pitch: 6:00 p.m.

Probable Starters: KSU: TBA Georgia: TBA Live Stats | Watch

THE SERIES The Owls and Bulldogs have met 30 times in series history. Georgia leads the all-time series 19-11, with KSU's last win coming in a 6-4 victory in 2021.

THE LAST MATCHUP Kennesaw State fell to Georgia 6-4 earlier this season in front of the third-largest crowd in Stillwell Stadium history. The Bulldogs scored all six runs in the first two innings before Luke Cooper and Agyei Quinichett combined to throw 7.2 innings of scoreless relief. The duo limited Georgia to only two hits.

FIVE OWLS NEAR THE TOP OF THE ASUN Several Owls are leading the charge at the top of the ASUN Conference in multiple categories. Senior Nick Colina leads the ASUN in three categories. The Dallas, Ga. native leads the ASUN in triples (5), OBP (.534) and walks (45). Freshman Jackson Chirello's 13 doubles are tied for eighth. Donovan Cash is 11th with 44 RBIs. Blake Wehunt is 9th in the league with 64 strikeouts and Nick Zegna is 16th with 58 punchouts.

HANSON'S HOT STREAK Spencer Hanson has been on a tear over his last seven games. The KSU designated hitter has homered six times while collecting six multi-hit performances and 19 RBI over that span. Hanson recorded 11 RBI in the three-game series with Jacksonville and was named the ASUN Conference Player of the Week for the first time in his career.

THE BABY OWLS During Opening Weekend, Kennesaw State baseball played 14 student-athletes who were either freshmen or sophomores. The underclassmen consisted of eight position players and six pitchers that took the field during the three-game series. Of the 14, seven were true freshmen.

EIDSON DOES IT ALL Junior Brayden Eidson has shown that he can do it all through the first part of the new season. The Owls' utility player leads the team in batting average (.331) and has also pitched quality innings on the mound. In the midweek versus Clemson (Mar. 22), Eidson tossed a season-high six innings and set a new career-high with six strikeouts. To top it all off, he homered at the plate and was only a triple shy of the cycle.

CASH MONEY Donovan Cash put together an incredible weekend against LIU (Feb. 24-26). The KSU first baseman homered in all three games and finished the series 8-for-14 with 10 RBI to earn ASUN Conference Player of the Week honors.

FRESHMAN PHENOMS Coach Coe and his staff focused on recruiting high school talent during their first, full, recruiting cycle at Kennesaw State. The class features 13 true freshmen and were ranked as the No. 57 class out of 302 Division I programs by Perfect Game USA. Two of these players, Jackson Chirello and Tanner Franklin, were also named to the Perfect Game Top 100 Freshmen List prior to the season.

DIAMOND DEBUTS The Owls feature many new faces on the diamond in the 2023 campaign. 21 out of the 37 players on this year's squad are in their first season with KSU baseball. This accounts for 57% of the team's roster.

ON DECK The Owls travel to Nashville this weekend for a three-game series with Lipscomb set to begin on Friday night. The Bisons enter as the conference's No. 2 team while KSU sits in fifth place. First pitch is slated for 7:00 p.m. inside Dugan Field.

To keep up with the latest on the Kennesaw State baseball team, follow the team on Twitter @KSUOwlNation and @KSUOwlsBaseball or by liking Kennesaw State University on Facebook and Instagram.

KENNESAW, Ga. - Head coach Laura Maness has led the Kennesaw State Owls women's lacrosse program to its best six-year stretch in program history, but this was almost impossible when she was graduating from West Virginia.

She went to school for dietetics because she was told as a player that there was no future in lacrosse. She never thought that being a coach could be a career, but with her degree in dietetics, she could stay in the sports world. As the years went on, Maness found that lacrosse opportunities kept presenting themselves to her.

Maness was working at Waynesburg University as a dining service coordinator, and the school wanted to start a lacrosse program at the Division III level. She coached there from 2006 to 2008, then was offered a full-time position at Lake Erie College at the Division II level. This was the moment she knew coaching was her future.

"That's kind of where the journey started, and I was offered a full-time lacrosse position at a Division II school," said Maness. "That's really when I made the decision that this is going to be a full-time career for me."

She wanted to continue to be the best she could be and wanted to be at the highest level possible, so she took the head coach position with the University of Detroit Mercy. At the time, Detroit Mercy was in the same conference that Kennesaw State is in now. That's when she got her first taste of what Kennesaw had to offer.

"When the job was posted for a new lacrosse coach maybe about seven years ago, I had already seen the campus and the potential in the players that were here as I was recruiting or scouting against them," said Maness. "I really thought it was a good opportunity and so I put my name in the hat for that and that's how I ended up down here."

Going into her first season, Maness wanted those seniors who had been there since the program started in 2013 to leave their mark on the program.

"They had felt all the growing pains but not much of the reward for all the hard work, so that first year we really focused on having the best possible year," said Maness. "I think we broke the single-season wins record that year with that with that group of girls so that was really exciting for them to know that they're going on the field to compete and to win and to put their best foot forward."

The 2022 season was the most successful season in KSU's history. Maness led the team to 11 wins in the season, which was a new school record. This was the team's first-ever winning season.

Maness believes that her current team still has so much more to accomplish. This season was filled with ups and downs, but it helped make the team mentally stronger as they get ready for ASUN Conference tournament play.

Mia Mackenzie, Zoe King, and Natalie Welch, who were freshman when Coach Maness recruited them in 2018, are currently seniors on the team. Maness stated that it has been great to watch them become mentors to the freshman on the team and create an environment where they feel welcome.

"Those girls have been a part of teams, like last season's team, that have had a high level of success, but they have also been a part of the teams where sometimes things don't come easy, and you have to work through a lot of adversity," said Maness. "That's why down the stretch you have seen us have success against Stetson late and Delaware State late because our seniors aren't quite ready to be done."

Maness talked about Shannon Harrington, who has had a phenomenal season, and how she will continue to improve as she goes throughout her lacrosse career at KSU. She noted that she is a hard worker, absorbs information well and is able to apply it to the game.

"I think a lot of people don't realize how different the game is in high school as it is in college, so there is a learning curve with that with younger players," said Maness. "The rules are different, the structure of the game is different, the pace of the game is different, so to see our freshman, like Shannon doing well right out of the gate is awesome."

Coming off of a win one week and a loss the next, this season has been a roller-coaster, but Maness preaches to her team that grit and determination they exhibit when they fight for wins builds high character. She wants her players to have great character on and off the field.

"The only thing you have at the end of the day is your character," said Maness. "Regardless of the score, the players on my team are demonstrating high character in those moments."

With the 2023 season coming to a close and conference tournament play starting this month, Maness wants this team to lay it all out there.

"Something they [the team] are probably sick of hearing me say, but we train 132 days a year for 17 games, so why wouldn't you put your best foot forward."

Susan Dyess was installed as the director and Thomas M. and Elizabeth D. Holder Endowed Chair in Kennesaw State University’s Wellstar School of Nursing at an investiture ceremony on Friday morning.

As the endowed chair, Dyess oversees the day-to-day operations of the nursing school, boosting opportunities for teaching, research and innovation in the nursing field.

“In her short time as director, Dr. Dyess has transformed the Wellstar School of Nursing,” said Monica Swahn, dean of the Wellstar College of Health and Human Services. “She has reorganized and optimized roles and responsibilities, engaged faculty at a new level and provided and nurtured a collaborative culture. To those who know Susan, it is no surprise that she makes decisions quickly and she rolls up her sleeves and just gets things done. She is kind, funny, generous and so very talented.”

Thomas and Elizabeth Holder’s $1 million gift to the KSU Foundation established the endowed chair in the Wellstar School of Nursing (WSON) in 2014. Thomas Holder served as chair of the KSU Foundation from 2002-2007 and said he and his family are thrilled to help the Wellstar School of Nursing further its mission of improving healthcare outcomes in Georgia and beyond.

“Nursing is a profession that requires dedication, hard work and compassion, and we are honored to support the next generation of nurses who will continue to make a positive impact on the world,” he said. “We offer our most sincere congratulations to Dr. Dyess and wish you great success in the coming years.”

Dyess was named interim director in July 2021 and earned the permanent position in September 2022. She lauded Wellstar’s faculty and staff and her family for their support and commitment to the College’s mission of student success, and the Wellstar College administration in fostering the environment for world-class nursing instruction. Dyess pointed to implementing a competency-based approach to nursing education, which will give future nurses more specific skills to acquire and their instructors a more hands-on approach to observing and assessing them.

“It is an exciting time with the re-envisioning of nursing education across the nation,” Dyess said. “Wellstar School of Nursing is busy responding to the national charge that will transform and shape the profession for years to come. The transformative work will in turn provide more practice-ready, educated nurses who are able to be agile professionals, critically think and use evidence-based clinical judgment to provide quality and safe clinical caring in a variety of healthcare settings.”

Dyess has served as a tenure-track professor of nursing at Kennesaw State since the 2019-20 school year and has more than 30 years of experience in nursing practice and academic service. Since joining the faculty at Kennesaw State, Dyess has also served as an associate dean and helped create both University and College policies dedicated to student success.

Friday’s ceremony was attended by students, faculty and staff from the Wellstar College, as well as members of the KSU Foundation and family and friends of Dyess.

Photos by Judith Pishnery

Related Stories

A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degrees to its more than 43,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 7 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.