March 10, 2004
A member of the University of Iowa men’s tennis team, Chaitu Malempati, a sophomore from Windsor, Ontario, has been added to the McLeodUSA StarHawks team.
“Chaitu is doing a great job playing at number one singles for us right now,” said UI Head Coach Steve Houghton. “Of course, since he’s only a sophomore a lot of things can happen, there are a lot of intangibles, but in my opinion he definitely has the potential to earn all-Big Ten honors and to be in our top two or three all-time players over the course of his career at Iowa.”
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“Chaitu is a great young man-you’ll never meet anyone nicer. He has a great work ethic and a great attitude. He’s definitely a leader on our team.”
Iowa Coach Steve Houghton
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Malempati finished the fall 2003 season with a 5-7 record in singles competition and won his first-round match at the Big Ten singles tournament. He also advanced to the round of 32 in the qualifying round of the ITA Midwest Regionals. In doubles play, he tied a team-best record of 4-3.
According to Houghton, Malempati is a “prototypical” student-athlete. “His ability to balance both his academic and athletic responsibilities is outstanding.”
A pre-medicine and chemistry major, Malempati is a Dean’s List student. He is also a member of the Iowa Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, a group of student-athletes from each of the UI’s varsity sports programs who help to shape departmental policies and procedures and to initiate department-wide outreach programs.
“Chaitu is a great young man-you’ll never meet anyone nicer,” Houghton said. “He has a great work ethic and a great attitude. He’s definitely a leader on our team.”
The StarHawks program is an initiative funded in part by McLeodUSA, a leading telecommunications company with corporate headquarters in Cedar Rapids and a long-time member of the UI’s Partners in Excellence corporate sponsorship program. The StarHawks team is a collection of student-athletes at the University of Iowa who truly represent the very best the intercollegiate athletics program at the UI has to offer. StarHawks typically excel athletically and academically, and also are active in community or leadership activities.