Schmaedeke led the Pipers to a second place finish in last weekend’s MIAC championship meet. Hamline challenged eventual team champion St. Thomas to the finish, with the Tommies edging the Pipers by just seven points in the closest indoor finish in conference history.

“Paul is richly deserving of this award. Year in and year out, he brings a team to the table that is as competitive as any in the conference,” said Hamline director of athletics Bob Beeman. “This honor is a testament to his ability to bring out the talents of all the student-athletes in the program.”

The Piper men totaled 156 points in the MIAC meet, shattering their previous record of 133 points. They tallied four individual conference champions, a meet-high 26 athletes who scored points, one NCAA automatic qualifier, three NCAA provisional qualifiers and one school record.

Hamline will send five athletes to this weekend’s NCAA Division III indoor track and field championships this weekend, all of whom already have an All-American performance to their credit. Derall King (Jr., Inver Grove Heights, Minn.) will compete in both the weight throw and the shot put and was an All-American at the 2009 indoor nationals in shot put.

Additionally, the 1600-meter relay team of Andy Marnach (Sr., Hokah, Minn.), Tyson Molitor (Jr., Belgrade, Minn.), Brant Luehman (Sr., Amery, Wis.) and Brent Nelson (Sr., New London, Minn.) qualified for nationals. This relay team was All-American at the 2009 outdoor national championships and earlier this season they broke a 27-year old school record while competing at the University of Minnesota.