This Saturday (Sept. 22) will mark the 34th induction ceremony for six decorated former student athletes into the Ashland University Athletics Hall of Fame.

The inductees include: Vince Cashdollar (football- ‘08), Brandon Cornell (baseball- ‘05), Mary Kate Glowe (volleyball- ‘08), Casey Jirsa (baseball- ‘07), Jackie Mason (women’s basketball- ‘05) and Chris Peretti (wrestling- 03).

It is all apart of homecoming weekend on the campus of AU; it will begin with this induction ceremony in upper convocation and will continue with the football game against Northwood at 1 p.m.

Dusty Sloan, AU’s Director of Athletic Communications is in his first year as the chairman of the hall of fame committee, but has been on the board the past four years.

“It’s interesting for me because now we are inducting hall of famers who I covered and who I went to school with,” Sloan said. “It’s a great thing that we do because this athletic department is so rich in tradition.”

These six very talented and special athletes will make their return to AU to receive one of the biggest honors of their athletic careers that will move the number of AU hall of famers to 204. They will be enshrined into the hall of fame of the school that meant so much to them 10-plus years ago.

From a number of different teams, these six individuals represent a class that got the ball rolling for AU athletics once again and really set the bar high for their programs and teammates.

“This year’s class all having come from the decade of the 2000s, it’s unique, but it also shows the start of our athletic success with all of the top finishes in the Learfield Cup and the NCAA tournament appearances,” Sloan said. “It is filled with a lot of student athletes who could be considered among the top within their programs at AU.”

Breaking down these athletes by their accomplishments, Cashdollar was a center from 2003-07 for the AU football team and is arguably one of the best at his position to play at AU. He was selected to play in the Cactus Bowl which is the NCAA Division II all-star game, following his senior year.

Now a high school football coach for local Manchester high school, Cashdollar’s team had a game the day of the induction. Knowing this, the opposing team agreed to move the time of the game to later in the day so that Cashdollar could attend this important induction.

Next on the list is Cornell who was an outfielder for AU baseball from 2001-04, was named GLIAC Player of the Year as a senior and was a three-time All-GLIAC winner. Statistically, Cornell controls a number of the hitting records in AU baseball history.

While still holding the spot tied for third all-time in batting average at Ashland (.392), Cornell holds the record for most career triples (22) and total bases (434) and is second all-time in career hits (255) and runs scored (213) in Ashland history.

Arguably one of the best players in program history, Glowe dominated the volleyball court from 2004-07 as an Eagle. She was the first Ashland volleyball player to record both 1,000 career kills and digs and continues to hold the all-time record in both categories (2,136 kills, 1,969 digs).

Glowe was a three-time national All-American who was a started on four NCAA Division II postseason teams and was also a three-time winner of All-Region and All-GLIAC honors.

The second baseball player that joins the hall of fame in this class is Jirsa who followed directly in the footsteps after Cornell by playing as an Eagle from 2004-07 as a versatile infielder/outfielder.

1. “I’m very humbled to even be nominated and be apart of this,” Jirsa said. “It’s good recognition with all that we accomplished, one as an individual but two as a team.”

Jirsa has been working for the J.M. Smucker Company in Orrville, Oh. since graduation in 2008 from AU and is on the commercialization team which falls under marketing and development.

With too many All-American honors to mention over the time of his career, Jirsa is first all-time in doubles (59) and drove in the most runs in a game (nine) vs. Mercyhurst on April 17, 2007.

From a program that will soon begin to have many more members inducted into the AU Hall of Fame in a number of years, comes Mason who was one of the starting blocks for the AU women’s basketball team during her time as an Eagle from 2000-05.

“I purposely chose a school that was smaller because I wanted that relationship with professors, coaches and teammates,” Mason said. “You make those life long friends that are family to you.”

As the center, she led her squad to the program’s first NCAA Division II postseason her junior season. Mason is now a teacher for Brunswick local schools and has been since her graduation from AU.

Wrapping up this year’s class is the oldest inductee, Peretti, who wrestled for the Eagles from 1998-2002 and was a dominant force in the 125 and 133 pound weight class. During his Eagle career Peretti posted a record of 101-16 (.863) and qualified for NCAA Division II nationals all four years finishing sixth as a freshman and was national runner-up as a sophomore.

“You kind of take a step back and you look at things and you realize that you worked hard for your accomplishments and it makes you feel proud of what you did and how hard you worked,” Peretti said.

Peretti is now an eighth grade history teacher at Loudonville local schools and has been the head wrestling coach for the high school team since 2010. He has also been inducted into his high school’s athletic hall of fame at Boardman high school in the Youngstown, Oh. area.

This class of highly decorated and honored athletes include four student athletes of the year, two men (Cashdollar and Jirsa) and two women (Glowe and Mason).

The Hall of Fame induction ceremony will also honor AU’s 2017-18 Student-Athletes of the Year: Andi Daugherty (women’s basketball) and Dominic Giunta and Matthew Wilcox (football) as well as the 2018 Eagle Forever Award recipients, Bob Potter and Tony Daniel.

“When you look at this group as a whole, when you look at their accolades and their accomplishments and what they did on the court, field and wrestling mat, it is a very deserving group,” Sloan said.