A Look Back at 2019-20 Highlights
IRVING, Texas – The 2020-21 academic year is underway. Due to concerns stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference announced the suspension of NCAA intercollegiate competition during the Fall 2020 semester.
Prior to the shutdown last March that resulted in which about 40% of spring sports season completed, the University of Dallas athletic teams had been battling in the 2019-20 athletic season. Highlighting the year was the school’s first NCAA Division III All-American Anna Wilgenbusch. She ran the headlines last fall as she qualified for the National Championship via winning NCAA Division III South/Southeast Region Runner-of-the-Year via a record breaking time 21:29.3. Other feats for the sophomore and team MVP for consecutive years included: USTFCCCA All-Region, SCAC Runner-of-the-Year (1st Place), USCAA All-American (1st Place), and nine first-place finishes to set the single-season record and match the career record. Wilgenbusch also made the record books for total competitions in a season (10), and broke times for the 5k, two mile, and 3.1 Miles. She was successful in the classroom, as she went on to gain spots on the USCAA National All-Academic and USTFCCCA All-Academic teams.
The University of Dallas women’s soccer team qualified for the SCAC Semifinals back-to-back campaigns with a big improvement record wise. Head Coach Lexi Stinson led the UD women’s soccer program to a 10-win season, which was a seven-game improvement and most since matching that total in 2014. The Crusaders eliminated Texas Lutheran University in the SCAC Tournament consecutive years, but this time did so as the fourth seed. Elisa Duran and Alyssa Mencacci provided the goals and Olivia Severson notched her eighth shutout on the campaign. Mencacci earned SCAC Newcomer of the Year.
Another solid freshman for the Crusaders was Thomas Lagarde on the men’s cross country team, as he posted top team times in all seven competitions. This included top-three places at the CROOsader Dual and University of Dallas Invitational. His finish at the USCAA National Championship earned him All-American Second Team.
The women’s cross country team captured a first place finish at Dallas’ home invitational with Emma Callahan taking second behind Wilgenbusch. Mary Korth, Libby Regnerus, Angelina Huffman, Isabella Childs, and Maria Pecha all finished within the top 10. The team went out six days later in its first 6k competition and won the ETBU Home Meet. Wilgenbusch shattered the record in that distance and broke her own mark three more times the remainder of the fall slate.
UD volleyball won a pair of home thrillers with conference rivals Austin College and Centenary College in five sets. Those victories played crucial in helping Head Coach Kelli Trautmann’s squad earn the fourth seed in the tournament two years straight.
Head Men’s Soccer Coach David Hoffmann improved his win total to 154 to maintain his stranglehold of that record in his 17 seasons. Dallas mustered a rally in the last regular season game with three second half goals to pick up a must-win on the road at Schreiner University to keep its SCAC Tournament streak alive at six years. Seniors Chima Ogueri and Hunter Haugland (2) put in the goals to extend their season.
The department’s other tenured coach for over a decade, Head Men’s Basketball Coach Jarred Samples, added to his all-time wins total with 133 in his 12th season at the helm. UD men’s basketball raced out to a 4-0 start and won five-of-six to start the 2020 portion of its season. This streak included an 82-76 overtime win over Trinity University in a game that featured a delay due to a tornado warning at the start of the second half.
The UD Men’s Golf team opened the fall season with a second place finish at the John Bohmann Memorial Invitational and was led by Erik Hamm with a 214 to tie for third. The Team MVP shot a personal-low 68 in the opening round. Robby Evans notched a top-five individual at the Rockwind Links Intercollegiate (147). The Crusaders debuted a NCAA Division III women’s golf team that for the first time had four golfers complete three tournaments last fall.
First-time head coaches Bri Calver and Kaitlin Cochran earned their first UD coaching victories respectively in women’s basketball and women’s lacrosse. They were the two-of-three new additions to the UD Coaching Staff.
The other newest coach was Nick Schneigert over cross country and track and field. He took the track and field team to its first indoor competition since 2014 with an appearance at the Texas Tech Shootout. Korth placed a record time in the 600 Yards. On the men’s side, McGuirk also took a record in the 600 yards and added program-best in the 60 meter hurdles. Freshman Joseph Rawicki broke the 200 meters indoor time. Additionally, McGuirk won 400m Hurdles at Leap Day Relays.
Softball had a 3-0 start and ended its early season with an extra inning victory at Centenary College for its lone SCAC win. Annabel Anderson tore the cover off the ball with a .391 average to lead the team along with home runs, doubles, and RBI. Maggie Watts delivered her first seven-inning shutout that was part of the unbeaten start.
Baseball raced out to an 8-1 start on the season, its best stretch in nine games to open a spring since going unbeaten in that amount in 2012. The Crusaders did it behind the strength of win leaders Conrad Voss and Jamie Wallace with three apiece to tie atop the SCAC. Tyler Montemayor notched three saves to tie the league lead. Voss was the strikeout leader, and Joseph Vondrachek was the stolen base leader. Zach Taylor creeped into the top five in the conference for RBI.
Off the field, UD baseball was busy serving in the community. The players helped with Special Olympics, Miracle League, Catholic Charities, and Readers 2 Leaders. The department did its second annual Blue Christmas with the Irving Police and Fire Department.
Three were added to the Hall of Fame on November 17, 2019, with Fait Elkins (Football, Baseball, Men’s Basketball, Track & Field), Brian Stanfield (Men’s Basketball head Coach), and Kylie Yoshimura (Women’s Basketball) added.
16 players earned All-Americans. Wilgenbush had multiple while men’s soccer and women’s soccer placed a quartet. Five Crusaders earned an honor consecutive years.
Isabella Childs was awarded UD Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
Dallas had several named to the SCAC Academic Honor Roll. 39 (Fall), 24 (Winter), and 70 (Spring). Several programs placed their highest totals in the conference including: Baseball (22), men’s basketball (18), women’s lacrosse (14), and softball (10).
Men’s Basketball earned NABC Academic Excellence Award and had five players: Jack Gallant, Isaiah Hayes, Joshua Nunn, John Russell, and Joshua Nunn on the Honors Court.
Women’s Track and Field claimed USTFCCCA Academic Award. Wilgenbusch had an individual honor and the women’s cross country team also came up with a team honor.
Dallas announced it would honor the original University of Dallas athletic teams with a retro year by wearing some athletic gear of purple and gold, the colors of the school teams from 1907 to 1926. Athletics Director Dick Strockbine and the Student Athlete Advisory Committee met and enthusiastically supported the idea.