The softball team, under seventh-year head coach Pete Brown,
participated in the program's first-ever NCAA tournament last year (advancing
to the championship game of the Eastern Regionals). Brown, who enters the 2004 campaign with a career record of
130-72-1, has guided his team to four 20-win seasons and into post-season
tournaments in each of the last five years.
The 2001 team captured the program's first-ever New York State Women's
Collegiate Athletic Association championship.
The Dutchwomen lacrosse and softball teams were each ranked
20th in their respective pre-season national polls.
The lacrosse team, which opened its season on March 11 with
an 11-3 victory over visiting Oswego, also had three of its players named to
the preseason All-American team. Junior
attackwoman Molly Flanagan was a first-team selection, senior midfielder
Corinne Hennessy was a second-team pick and junior defensive-midfielder Liz
Flanagan earned third-team honors.
Head coach Linda Bevelander entered her seventh season at
the helm with an overall record of 65-32 (a winning percentage of .747) while
taking her team to five post-season tournaments. Bevelander, a three-time “Coach of the Year” selection, has
guided the Dutchwomen to a pair of NYSWCAA championships and has led her team
into two NCAA National Championship Tournaments.
The Dutchwomen return 14 players from last year's 11-5 team
that won the New York State Women's Collegiate Athletic Association
championship.
Freshman swimmer Sydnie Wells was the only Dutchwoman to
qualify for the NCAA Division III championship meet, which was also held the
weekend of March 12-13. While she missed her personal goals of finishing in the
top 16 for the 400 IM (she was 26th) and the 200 butterfly (she was
21st), head coach Scott Felix was very excited about her opportunity
to see what it is like to compete at the national level.
“It was a great experience for her to be able to compete and
to see the quality of the competition at the national level,” explained
Felix. “The experience she gained will
help her to be successful in the future.”
Sophomore D.J. Hogenkamp will be at the NCAA Championship
Meet this weekend (March 19-10). He qualified to compete in the 100 and 200
backstrokes and is also eligible to compete in the 200 IM. Hogenkamp finished
second at the state meet in the 100 and 200 backstroke events as well as in the
100 butterfly.
Senior sprinter Sean Washington picked up his second
indoor All-American award the weekend of March 12-13 when he finished seventh
in the 55-meter dash at the NCAA Division III championships.
Washington, who has been a career leader for the indoor and
outdoor track teams as well as a starter for the football squad, earned his
All-American status by running the event in 6.53 seconds. As a junior Washington picked up
All-American status by finishing fifth with a time of 6.47.
The Dale City, Virginia, earned the “Sophomore Athletic
Prize” and also won the “William A. Pike Award” as Union's junior male athlete
of the year.
Union
College head women's hockey coach
Fred Quistgard announced March 17 that he is resigning to pursue other career
interests.
Quistgard, who has served as the
Dutchwomen's head coach for six seasons, will remain at the College until the
completion of his contract in June. Meanwhile, assistant women's hockey coach Myia Yates has
announced that she will be leaving Union to accept
coaching positions at Division III
Daniel Webster College
in Nashua, N.H.
Quistgard made the following
statement after announcing his resignation to his team at their season-ending
banquet on March 14: “For the past six years, building a strong foundation for
the Union College
women's ice hockey program has been my passion. Taking a program from the club
level to Division III and then moving to Division I in a short amount of time has
been very tiring. It is time for me to pass the torch to someone who will
appreciate Union College
and the special student-athletes we have.”
Originally hired by former Union
College Director of Athletics Dick Sakala to turn a club program into a varsity
women's hockey program, Quistgard successfully managed the challenging task, improving
each season as a member of the ECAC's Division III women's hockey conference,
before making the major step this past season to the Division I level.
“Fred has done a tremendous job of
building a program that now competes in the nation's most prestigious women's
collegiate hockey conference (ECAC),” said Union Director of Athletics Val Belmonte.
“Fred is extremely passionate about his coaching and the student-athletes he
works with every day. He has made a positive and lasting impression on the many
young women he has coached while at Union.”
Quistgard and Belmonte said they are
proud of how the Union program has been built over the past six years. “Junior
captain Jamie Laubisch's nomination for the Hockey Humanitarian Award this
season is a testament to the type of student-athlete that Fred has helped bring
to the Union campus,” said Belmonte. “I am confident that Fred has laid the
groundwork for his successor and that the Union women's hockey program will
continue to improve as we move into the future.”
Looking back on his experience at Union,
Quistgard commented, “I am grateful to Dick Sakala and Val Belmonte for their
support and I look forward to following the growth of Union's
women's hockey program in the coming years.”
Yates leaves Union
after serving three years as an assistant coach under Quistgard. She will take
on head coaching responsibilities in softball and women's soccer at Daniel
Webster and will be given the opportunity to begin a women's hockey program as
well.
“I have had a great experience at Union
and was able to grow as a coach in many different ways,” said Yates when
announcing her decision to leave the program. “I had a wonderful mentor in
Coach Quistgard and a great group of student-athletes to work with. I am going
to miss everyone tremendously.”
Assistant women's hockey coach
Laura Hays will assume all coaching and administrative responsibilities. Hays,
who joined the Union staff last summer after serving two years as an assistant
coach at Utica College,
will remain as an assistant coach once Quistgard's replacement is hired.
