Athletics News

National Champions

Powered by the play of NCAA Championship MVP Paige Beeney and NCAA Championship All-Tournament team selection Dakotah Hazlewood, the SFA bowling team captured the program’s — and SFA’s — second NCAA Division I national championship in April by defeating top-seeded Vanderbilt University. The Ladyjacks rebounded from a setback in game one and emerged as victors in the next four games to claim their second national championship in four years. Beeney and Hazlewood became the only student-athletes in SFA history to win multiple national championships.

2019 MLB Draft

Two more Lumberjacks joined the MLB ranks in June when senior right-handed pitcher Trayson Kubo (right) and junior right-handed pitcher Alex Palmer heard their names called on the final day of the 2019 MLB Draft. It marked the first time in eight years that multiple SFA players were chosen.

Kubo, who hails from Waipahu, Hawaii, was chosen by the Oakland Athletics in the 24th round after a two-year career at SFA. Palmer, who hails from Arlington, remained in his home state after the Houston Astros chose him in the 20th round.

Track and Field

One of the most decorated programs across all of SFA’s 18 NCAA Division I sports, the Ladyjacks’ track and field squads captured both the 2019 indoor and outdoor Southland Conference titles.

It’s the sixth time the Ladyjacks hoisted both the indoor and outdoor Southland Conference championship trophies in the same year and upped the number of Southland track and field titles to 25.

All-Americans

Not only did SFA enjoy great success at the Southland Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships, it maintained its reputation as one of the nation’s premier programs by seeing a number of student-athletes claim All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

At the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships in Birmingham, Alabama, freshman pole vaulters Nastassja Campbell and Branson Ellis became All-Americans in their first appearance at the national meet. Campbell cleared a height of 4.26 meters to post a seventh-place finish on the women’s side, while Ellis soared over a bar set at 5.58 meters to a ninth-place finish on the men’s side.

A little more than three months later, Campbell and Ellis competed at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin. Campbell was joined by senior Madison Pecot, and together they became one of two sets of teammates in women’s pole vault to earn All-American honors. Pecot vaulted 4.20 meters en route to a ninth-place finish while Campbell finished in a tie for 16th to finish as second-team All-Americans. Ellis cleared the 5.50-meter bar on the men’s side to finish 11th, claiming a second-team All-American honor.

SFA’s only participant in a track event at the championships was its 4x400-meter relay team of Cayla Burch, Daijia Carr, Imani Nave and Aaliyah Teel. That group received second-team All-American honors after securing a 15th-place finish.