PLAYTIME MEN’S BASKETBALL


Balancing beakers and basketballs


J


ulius Erving was nicknamed “Dr. J.” Darrell Griffith was known as “Dr. Dunkenstein.” Fellow basketball players Ben Averkamp and Walt Gibler may someday lay claim to the “Dr.” title, but they’re going about it another way. Both are pre-med majors.


The rigors of a pre-med major


are tough enough for any student, but these two are doing it while playing on a Division I basketball team. “It takes a fair amount of focus,” says Averkamp. “You need to be organized and manage your time well.” “You must use any spare time


you have to study, even if it means staying up until 3 a.m. after a game,” Gibler says. “It means not having much of a social life.” Besides playing 30 games a


season, and traveling by bus to road games, there is an average of 20 hours a week of practice. “People think you can study on the bus when you’re on the road,


but it just doesn’t happen. There are too many distractions: guys talking, someone puts in a movie,” Gibler says. Cracking the books is only part


of the responsibilities of a pre-med major. There is a significant amount of laboratory time, and because of the demands for space, lab time is difficult to reschedule. “I remember that big snowstorm


last February and how we couldn’t leave early because I had a chem- istry lab that I couldn’t make up,” Averkamp recalls. “I went running out of the lab when I was done and everyone was waiting on the bus.” Gibler is graduating this spring, while Averkamp still has another


BEN AVERKAMP Biology


(Minor: Sports management)


3.78 430 15.4 7.1


GPA


TOTAL POINTS POINTS / AVG REBOUNDS / AVG


year at Loyola. Both plan to take the Medical College Admission Test this summer. And they both plan to delay their applications to medical school to give a shot at playing professionally overseas. “I hope to experience playing a


WALT GIBLER MAJOR(S)


Psychology/ Natural Sciences


3.74 311 12.4 5.8


couple of years professionally be- fore going to med school,” Gibler says. “My dad [who is a physician] says, ‘You’ll always have your brain. You won’t always be able to play basketball.’ I have to give it a shot while I’m young.”


SPORTS SHORTS


Junior Candice Carajohn broke her own two-week old school record in the long jump and moved into second place on Loyola’s all-time list in the 400m to highlight a terrific day for Loyola’s track and field team at the Raleigh Relays on March 30. Four Loyola women and two Rambler men plus their sprint medley relay team posted all-time top-10 times on the opening day of competition.


Sophomore James McLachlan and junior Declan Murray (left) etched their names alongside some of the all-time Loyola indoor track and field greats at the 2012 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Champion- ships in Nampa, Idaho, on March 10. They became the Ramblers’ first United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-Americans since 1992.


32 LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO


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