Issue: Fall 2017
SFA added a pair of championships to its total in 2016-17. The women’s cross-country team took home the Southland Conference championship trophy last fall followed by the women’s outdoor track and field team. With the two championships, SFA upped its total to 87 SLC titles, ranking second all-time.
For the third-straight season, bowling represented SFA at the NCAA Championships, held in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Ladyjacks finished seventh nationally, placing third at the Southland Bowling Championships. Junior Stephanie Schwartz (left) was named a first-team All-American for the third-straight year with senior Paige Kraushaar earning honorable mention All-American honors.
SFA had another impressive spring season in 2017, including men’s golf finishing second at the SLC Championships for its best finish since 1999. On the diamond, baseball made national waves with a 6-2 upset at fourth-ranked Texas Christian University in April, leading up to pitcher Will Vest ’17 being selected in the 12th round by the Detroit Tigers, the highest-drafted pitcher in program history.
For the third-straight year, SFA Athletics clinched the SLC’s Commissioner’s Cup. The cup is annually awarded to the university compiling the highest combined total of men’s and women’s all-sports points among the 13 schools that compete in the SLC. For 2016-17, SFA bested its competitors with a combined men’s and women’s score of 125.
Twenty SFA student-athletes were named Academic All-SLC selections with 198 being named to the Commissioner’s Honor Roll. Two student-athletes received national recognition for their work in the classroom as soccer’s Brooke Dunnigan was tabbed a National Soccer Coaches Association of America Scholar All-American, and football’s Marlon Walls was named a College Sports Information Directors of America first-team Academic All-American.
SFA produced two of the SLC’s best in 2016-17 as men’s cross-country’s Charles Mathenge and women’s basketball’s Taylor Ross were tabbed Player of the Year in their respective sports. In total, SFA produced 11 major SLC award winners during the year, including a pair of Coaches of the Year in Cody Clark (cross-country) and Phil Olson (track and field).