2018-19 Athletics year in review

It gets busy around here – CUW teams competed in 530 events during the 2018-19 athletics season. Those events took place from August 31, 2018, through May 16, 2019. Men's and Wome's Golf, Women's Tennis and Men's Soccer began the athletics calendar, while Samual Spranger from Men's Track & Field competed at the North Central Gregory Invitational on May 16, 2019, to close out the year.

 

Overall record – CUW finished the 2018-19 season with a 240-186-8 record in the 19 sports that measure W-L records in some capacity. The Falcons posted a .553 winning percentage as a department. The highest winning percentage went to Men's Lacrosse who won 79 percent (15-4) of their games.

Playing at home – Of the 530 events during the 2018-19 athletics year, 173 were played at home. The overall record for CUW on its home playing surface was 116-54-3 or a .671 winning percentage. No program took advantage of home games better than Men's Lacrosse who was a perfect 9-0 at Fitting Field. Of the 17 sports we used to measure this statistic, 14 finished with a .500 winning percentage at home games or better during the past athletic year.

Conference record – The Falcons were once again excellent in conference play, posting a 159-81-5 record in the 18 sports that were a member of a conference this past year. CUW takes part in the NACC, MLC, MWLC, CCIW and ACHA conferences. Men's Lacrosse was the only squad to go undefeated in league play, while 14 of the 17 had records above .500.

 

Live stream broadcasts: The Department of Athletic Communications produced 164 live stream broadcasts of home events during the 2018-19 season, adding up to roughly 366 hours of footage. In all, there are 17 teams that have their games broadcasted live.

 

Produced video content: The Department of Athletic Communications produced 347 videos this past year during the 2018-19 year, equating to 26 hours of content. Everything from highlights, post-game interviews and packaged content covering 32 sports and over 600 student-athletes.

All-Americans – CUW had one student-athlete honored as All-American during the 2018-19 season, as Garrett Wohlford earned USILA All-America Honorable Mention honors. The Men's Lacrosse goalkeeper led the country in save percentage and was second in goals-against average.

 

All-Region honorees – The Falcons were once again well-represented on All-Region lists during the 2018-19 season. CUW had 10 student-athletes earn All-Region status in their respective sports. Here is a list of those student-athletes: Garrett Wohlford (Men’s Lacrosse) – IMLCA All-West Region First Team; Gavin Falotico (Men’s Soccer) – USC All-Central Region First Team; Dagoberto Diaz (Men’s Soccer) – USC All-Central Region Third Team; Sam Dunn (Field Hockey) - NFCA All-Great Lakes First Team; Megan McPike (Field Hockey) - NFCA All-Great Lakes Second Team; Molly O’Connell (Softball) - NFCA All-Great Lakes Region Second Team; Jenna Pozezinski (Softball) NFCA All-Great Lakes Region Third Team; Lauren Paquin (Women’s Lacrosse) IWLCA All-Great Lakes Region Second Team; Shannon Carroll (Women’s Soccer) - USC All-Central Region Third Team; Amanda Schultz (Women’s Volleyball) - AVCA All-Midwest Region Honorable Mention. The Falcons also had three student-athletes earn Academic All-Region honors in their respective sports Jacob Mason was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in football and Justin Totsky was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in Men’s Soccer and Jennifer Miller named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in Women’s Track & Field.

Players of the Year – In all, there were eight student-athletes were recognized by their respective conference for superb play on the field or court, while two coaches were honored for the leadership abilities. The following is a list of those individuals: Wesley Schiek (Men's Cross Country - NACC Runner and Freshman of the Year), Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse - MLC Defensive Player of the Year), Stephen Gregory (Men's Lacrosse - MLC Co-Offensive Player of the Year), Megan McPike (Field Hockey - SAA Newcomer of the Year), Lauren Paquin (Women's Lacrosse - MWLC Midfielder of the Year), Mackenzie Dorth (Women's Cross Country - NACC Freshman of the Year), Gina Followell (Softball - NACC Freshman of the Year), Ricki Budewitz (Women's Tennis - NACC Freshman of the Year), Michael Fahey (Men's Lacrosse - MLC Coach of the Year), Steve Crook (Softball - NACC Coach of the Year).

All-Conference accolades – CUW was once again well-represented on All-Conference lists throughout all sports. The Falcons had a total of 84 student-athletes receive All-Conference honors. Any player who was listed on a first or second team, honorable mention or all-freshman team was listed in the 91 student-athletes.

Advancing to the national stage – The Falcons had one team secure a conference tournament championship and advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament in their respective sport during the 2018-19 athletics year. In the spring Men's Lacrosse secured an MLC Tournament title for the first time in program history.

National rankings – Only one student-athlete can be crowned an NCAA Division III statistical champion per year and the Falcons were fortunate to have Garrett Wohlford crowned a statistical champion after he led all divisions of Men's Lacrosse with a.671 save percentage. As well, the Falcons had numerous who were close to winning, however, a top-10 finish will always be respected. In all, six student-athletes ranked in the top-10 in their respective statistical categories and three teams. Below is a list of student-athletes and teams who achieved a top-10 ranking nationally in a statistical category:

Andrew Fratzke (Men's Basketball) – sixth in field goal percentage (.665)
Nick Guerra (Men's Hockey) – 10th in power-play goals (7)
Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse) - first in save percentage (.671)
Garrett Wohlford (Men's Lacrosse) - second in goals-against average (6.37)
Natasha Wanless (Women's Hockey) - sixth in power-play goals (8)
Ellie Woodman (Women's Lacrosse) - seventh in caused turnovers per game (3.43)
Maddie Zazas (Softball) - sixth in sacrifice flies (5)

Men's Lacrosse - second in scoring defense (6.47)
Women's Basketball - sixth in 3-point field goal percentage (38.3)
Women's Lacrosse - eighth in caused turnovers per game (15.76)

Social Media – The Department of Athletic Communications strives to connect with its fans via its various social media accounts and this past year strived to provide a better experience with game day photos and videos. In addition, there were 284 new followers being added to bring the total Twitter followers count to 3,852. As well, CUW spent countless hours improving it's content on it's Instagram, posting nearly 180 photos or videos and raising the followers count to over 2,300.

Those behind the scenes – Steven Schauer, Jeremy Crawford, Jordan Benson and Brian Schipferling (now at Edgewood) would like to thank all those who helped the Department of Athletic Communications throughout the 2018-19 athletic year, especially the staff of 25-plus student workers who tirelessly helped the behind the scenes efforts. Those student workers assisted in updating CUWFalcons.com in a variety of capacities, oversaw multi-camera live video streams, took official statistics, ran scoreboards, announced and played music, took photos, captured highlights and produced content for social media; and did other tasks as needed to run the games the fans watch with ease. As well, our broadcasters deserve credit for their work in calling dozens of Falcon games.

Athletic Communications working overtime – Those who work in the Department of Athletic Communications had to work a little extra during the 2018-19 athletic year, as they were challenged with the task of hosting a multitude of tournaments (regular season and postseason) and various other athletic events.