A Community Collaboration Between IU Health and St. Vincent Health
The RHI Pacers adult wheelchair basketball team racked up another successful season on the court. After winning the always tough Bluegrass Invitational Tournament in Lexington, KY, the Pacers headed in to the Championship Division National Tournament as the 6th overall ranked team. Nationals took place in Colorado Springs, CO in March, 2012 and the team took full advantage of its opportunity. After winning its first 4 games the team finally fell in the Championship Game. But it was an amazing run and 2nd place finish in the Championship Division.
Dan started his skiing career at the RHI Sports water ski clinic back in 2002. After experiencing the thrill of water skiing for the first time, he committed himself to the sport.
Since then, Dan has gone on to five National Championships, earning two Silver Medals and one Bronze, in addition to the Royce Andes Award, given to a promising National’s skier among other awards. He was the first skier ever selected for the US worlds team from Indiana and he finished fifth in Slalom and sixth in Tricks in his division 2009, helping the US to win their first ever Gold Medal at the 2009 Disabled Water Ski World Championships in Vichey, France!
Dan has continued to succeed in his sport of choice. His newest accomplishment took place at the 2011 World Disabled Ski Championships where he placed 9th in the world jump with a 57 foot leap. He also took 13th place in Slalom to help team USA win its second gold medal.
RHISP athlete and wheelchair fencer, Cat Bouwkamp, won a gold medal in the foil and a silver medal in epee at the Wheelchair Fencing Pan American Championships in Campinas, Brazil in August, 2011. Cat is the top ranked female wheelchair fencer in the United States in epee, foil, and saber. In Brazil she faced the best women fencers from the US, Canada, Chile, and Brazil. By winning the Gold Medal in Brazil, Cat qualified to fence and represent Team USA at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London! At 16 years old, Cat is one of the youngest athletes on Team USA qualified to compete in the 2012 Paralympic Games. In September 2011, U.S. Parlympic News named her as one of 12 of the top U.S. athletes to watch as we near the London 2012 Games.
RHISP’s Jon Mize Took the Para-Archery world by storm, with a fourth place finish at the World Championships out of 69 archers! Jon was pretty new to the game and competed against seasoned archers who had competed in the Beijing Paralympics. But because of his obvious natural talent, Jon was named to the Para-Archery World Championship team.
In September of 2011, RHISP’s Jon Mize traveled with the USA Para Archery Team to Stokemandvile, England, the birthplace for Paralympic Sport for the Stokemandville Open. Jone made it to the quarterfinals of the individual competition where he missed the semi finals by 1 point. Luckily there was another competition going on at the same time, solely for the purpose of earning points toward a team slot for the London 2012 games, Jon took part. Jon ended up making it to the medal matches in this competition and winning the gold and a slot for Team USA in the 2012 Paralympics! Jon is now focusing on earning his individual slot on the USA team for the London games.
After winning Gold in 2011, Timmy Dowell has not stopped striving to be the best.
This past June Timmy competed in track at the Glasa Games in Chicago, IL. Dowell competed in the 60m, 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m and took first in all categories for his age group. Not only was he beating the competition, but he was beating himself, with new personal best times in all the events. With the success in Chicago, Timmy qualified for the 2012 National Junior Disability Championships in all five events above in the T53 category.