Four athletes who went on to play Division I sports in college and set standards for future New Richmond High School athletes will be honored Jan. 26 as the 2013 Class of the New Richmond Lions Sports Hall of Fame.
Tom Behymer (1956), David Duncan (2005), Nate Kramer (2007) and Eric Finan (2007) will be inducted at the annual Hall of Fame banquet Jan. 26 following the 4 p.m. boys’ varsity basketball game against Bethel. Tickets for the banquet are $15 and available at the high school office.
Tom Behymer
Tom Behymer was the quarterback on New Richmond’s first football team in 1955 and ran the school’s first offensive play, scored its first touchdown and threw the first touchdown pass in leading the team to a 4-3-1 record. He played three years of baseball at New Richmond and compiled a career average of over .400. He also lettered in basketball and track in high school.
New Richmond was an independent during his high school career so all-league honors were not available for New Richmond athletes.
Behymer went on to play college baseball at Morehead State where he compiled a career batting average over .325. He became a starter at third base in baseball as a freshman after he had 7 straight pinch hits and kept that position throughout his college career.
Behymer, along with fellow Lions Hall of Famer Joe Hawkins, helped start the youth football program at Pierce Elementary (now Locust Corner Elementary) which provides a feeder program for our high school and middle school programs.
David Duncan
David Duncan, who pitched the Lions to three straight Division II district titles in 2003, 2004 and 2005, played three years at Georgia Tech and played three years with the Houston Astros organization before a career-ending shoulder injury in 2012.
Duncan, who is New Richmond’s career leader in wins (40), shutouts (14), strikeouts (413) and strikeouts per 7 innings (10.9), pitched three no-hitters and one perfect game for the Lions.
Duncan had a career record of 21 wins and 9 losses with 211 strikeouts at Georgia Tech and was named the team’s most valuable pitcher in 2007 and 2008. He earned a B.S. degree in business administration from Georgia Tech in 2011.
Duncan was a four-time Southern Buckeye Conference first-team all-star in baseball and a three-time SBAAC player of the year as well as a three-time Cincinnati Enquirer all-star and a two-time Enquirer Player of the Year selection.
Duncan also was a two-time SBAAC first-team all-star in basketball and was the team’s most valuable defensive player as a sophomore, top rebounder as a junior and senior and the most valuable player as a senior. He finished his high school career with 930 career points and 450 blocked shots. He was also named the school’s top golfer as a junior and senior.
Eric Finan
Eric Finan is New Richmond’s first All-American athlete with a list of athletic achievements matched only by his academic honors at both New Richmond High School and the University of Cincinnati.
The valedictorian of the 2007 Class of New Richmond High School, Finan achieved All-American status in both track and cross country in 2011 for the University of Cincinnati along with being named an academic All-American for both sports, named the 2011 Big East Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year and inducted into the UC Athletic Academic Hall of Fame.
Finan won four medals for New Richmond in the Ohio high school track and cross country championships including a 2nd place finish in the 3200 meter event in 2007. He holds New Richmond distance records in for 800 meters (1:58.6), 1600 meters (4:15.0), 3200 meters (9:15.6) and 5K in cross country (15:48). He holds UC’s records in the indoor 5K (14:17.07), outdoor 5K (13:44.91), outdoor 10K (29:37.29), indoor 3K (7:59.02) and was the 2011 Big East and NCAA Great Lakes regional champion in cross country and the Big East champion in the 5K.
Finan was the Cincinnati Enquirer’s runner of the year for both track and cross country in his junior and senior years at New Richmond and was a three-time SBAAC runner of the year in cross country and SBAAC track runner of the year in 2006 and 2007.
Finan, who earned a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering (finishing a 5-year program in four years) and a Masters in Business Administration with a 3.9 GPA at UC, missed the 2012 track season and Olympic trials due to injury. He is looking to run as a sponsored professional athletic with a goal of running in the 2016 and 2020 Olympics.
Nate Kramer
Nate Kramer was named most valuable swimmer for New Richmond High School as a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior and was the first male swimmer in school history to qualify for the OHSAA state swimming meet, qualifying in both the 200-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle events in his junior and senior seasons.
Kramer placed 8th in the 200 freestyle as a senior. He set school records in the 200 and 500 freestyles, the 100 backstroke and 200 individual medley events.
A 2007 graduate of New Richmond, Kramer was also recruited by the University of Cincinnati where he enjoyed an outstanding career including qualifying for the Big East Conference swimming championships all four years. Kramer also excelled in the classroom at UC where he maintained a 3.9 GPA.
“Nate had a work ethic that exceeded any high school athlete that I’ve ever seen or worked with,” said New Richmond swim coach Judy Middeler. “He wasn’t your natural born athlete, but he became an outstanding athlete because of his drive, his high standards, self-motivation, his guts . . . He was a role model as a freshman and pushed his teammates to be better swimmers and members of the school community.”
