2008 UW-Oshkosh Hall of Fame
OSHKOSH, Wis. (5/4/2008) – The UW-Oshkosh Athletic Hall of Fame increased its membership to 150 with the May 4 inductions of three former athletes at a ceremony held at UW-Oshkosh's Reeve Memorial Union.
The 2008 inductees were Tara (Harding) Jaeger, Lisa (Melendez) Van Wyk and Tom Taraska.
The UW-Oshkosh Athletic Hall of Fame was established in 1974 to give tribute and deserved recognition to former athletes, coaches and friends of the university. It is also intended to enhance school tradition by honoring those people who have shown exceptional ability while on the UW-Oshkosh campus and since graduation.
The success UW-Oshkosh’s women’s track & field program would not have been possible without the dedication of excellence-driven individuals like Tara Harding.
Winning back-to-back NCAA Division III titles in the long jump and earning 11 All-America titles in indoor and outdoor track & field from 1993-97, Harding is one of the many athletes who have helped build UW-Oshkosh’s winning tradition.
Attracted to UW-Oshkosh by the women’s gymnastics program, the Fond du Lac native decided early in her freshman year that her athletic experience at UW-Oshkosh would take her on a different path – one that ended in track & field.
Making her mark as a rookie, Harding earned top conference honors in the indoor triple jump and All-America status on the outdoor 400-meter relay team. She also contributed to the team’s sixth consecutive indoor conference title.
In 1994, Harding built on the success of her triple jump career and earned sixth place and All-America honors at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship. This individual success helped the Titans to the national team title. Harding also claimed the indoor conference triple jump title and helped the Titans win the outdoor league team title.
Harding set a school record with a jump of 18-10 to win her first of two NCAA Division III indoor long jump titles and earned second place in the national triple jump competition in 1995. She also took indoor conference titles in both the long and triple jumps and the 800-meter relay to earn the title of Outstanding Field Athlete at the conference meet.
Harding clinched consecutive indoor national and conference long jump titles and a third consecutive national team title in 1996.
With two years of eligibility left in the outdoor season, Harding earned All-America titles in the long jump, triple jump and the 400-meter relay, conference titles in the 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash, long jump and 400-meter relay and school records in the 100-meter dash, long jump, and 400-meter relay. These accolades were grounds for Harding's selection as the 1997 NCAA Division III Athlete of the Year. Both conference and national team titles followed Harding's individual achievements in both 1996 and 1997.
Harding has become a seventh-grade mathematics teacher at Sabish Middle School in Fond du Lac. She also coached track & field at high schools in both Campbellsport and Fond du Lac.
Harding's husband, Joel Jaeger, ran on the UW-Oshkosh men’s track & field team. The Jaegers have a 3-year-old son, Miles.
Lisa Melendez entered the highly successful women’s track & field program at UW-Oshkosh by trying to be good at a sport she wasn’t great at.
This is a bold statement, considering Melendez won back-to-back NCAA Division III outdoor track & field titles in the 400-meter run and contributed to eight UW-Oshkosh conference and national team championships in 1995 and 1996.
Melendez stepped onto a track for the first time at age 20. Previous to her track & field experience at UW-Oshkosh, Melendez’s athletic achievements were on the basketball court, where she played guard and was a member of the University of Miami’s (Fla.) women’s basketball team that won the 1992 Big East title and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Division I Championship.
National championship titles weren’t the only awards earned by Melendez during her two-year career in track and field at UW-Oshkosh. The Pompano Beach, Fla., native also accrued 10 All-America titles, eight WIAC titles and helped break the 400-meter relay school record with a time of 47.53 in 1996. She once held five records at one time, including the outdoor 400-meter run mark that remained for 10 years.
Within the first few months of her track & field career in 1995, Melendez took home indoor All-America honors in the 55-meter dash and 1,600-meter relay. The rookie also claimed the conference indoor title in the 200-meter dash. She then went on to become an outdoor national champion in the 400-meter run while earning All-America accolades in the 200-meter dash and the 1,600-meter relay. At the 1995 WIAC Outdoor Championship, Melendez obtained first-place medal in the 1,600-meter relay.
Melendez’s second year of track and field, in 1996, proved to be as successful as her rookie showing. Melendez raced to a third-place finish in the 400-meter run at the NCAA Division III Indoor Championship while taking home first-place trophies in the 400-meter run and the 800-meter relay at the WIAC Indoor Championship.
The 1996 outdoor season featured a national title in the 400-meter run and All-America awards in the 200-meter dash, 400-meter relay and 1,600-meter relay. In the conference, Melendez was a part of first-place finishes in the 400-meter run, 400-meter relay, 800-meter medley relay and 1,600-meter relay.
Since graduating from UW-Oshkosh in 1997, Melendez has taught biology and chemistry while coaching girls basketball and track & field in the Appleton Area School District. She also earned her master’s degree in microbiology from UW-Oshkosh in 2003, and has served as an accountant, project coordinator and vice president for Steel Homes by Design, LLC.
Currently, Melendez is an IT Manager and Consultant for Appleton Lathing Corporation, the freshman girls volleyball coach at Hortonville High School and an active member in the Appleton Alliance Church.
Melendez lives in Fremont with her husband, Tim Van Wyk, and their children, Peter and Nicole.
Coaching, mentoring and motivating teenagers since graduating as a student-athlete from UW-Oshkosh in 1975, Tom Taraska is recognized by many as the most successful high school football coach in Wisconsin.
Remaining in close contact with several of his college coaches, Taraska continues to draw inspiration from these men who led the 1972 Titans to an 8-2 record and the WIAC championship.
Upon graduating with an education degree from UW-Oshkosh, Taraska started his coaching and teaching career at Franklin High School. He remained at Franklin for seven years before taking a job at Hartland's Arrowhead High School.
Taraska, who completed his 26th season as head football coach at Arrowhead High School last fall, has produced four WIAA Division 1 state championship teams, the most recent in 2007, four WIAA Division 1 state runner-ups, a WIAA Division 1 state-record 39 postseason victories, three undefeated and nationally ranked teams and an overall record that most coaches only dream of reaching, 233-91.
Taraska coached 12 high school All-Americans, 34 All-State players and numerous collegiate athletes. The most recognizable Arrowhead alumni include former University of Wisconsin quarterback Tyler Donovan; former University of Wisconsin defensive tackle Nick Hayden, who was selected by the Carolina Panthers in the sixth round of the 2008 NFL Draft; and former Dallas Cowboy, Baltimore Raven and Tampa Bay Buccaneer center Mike Solwold.
Taraska was chosen as the 2007 Associated Press State High School Coach of the Year. He also is a three-time Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Area Coach of the Year (1993, 2002 and 2007) and a three-time Wisconsin Football Coaches Association District Coach of the Year (1991, 1996 and 2002).
On the rare occasion Taraska had a free moment in the last 11 years, he was scheming under Loren Seagraves’ guidance to develop a nationally recognized physical education program known as Club Arrowhead – a cutting-edge class on the development of successful and well-rounded high school students. He also has given clinic presentations at several Big 10 universities. Taraska graduated with a master’s degree from UW-Whitewater in 1992.
Giving back to the UW-Oshkosh community, Taraska served as the first president of the College of Education and Human Services Alumni Association from 2006-07. Taraska remains a board member of this organization. He also is a lifetime member of UW-Oshkosh's National "O" Club.
Taraska currently resides in Brookfield with his wife, UW-Oshkosh alumnus and former pom-pon performer, Sue Anne.