25 minute read
SHINE PROFILES
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SHINE: SKYLAR ABREGO ’20
Working the Connections
BORN INTO HOCKEY AND RAISED THROUGH HER GUSTIE PROFS, SHE’S THE CURRENT GRADUATE ASSISTANT IN GUSTAVUS SPORTS INFORMATION.
It started when communications studies professor Pamela Conners said to her, “I think you’re holding yourself back.” Abrego had planned on becoming a teacher, but she loved Conners’ holding yourself back.” Abrego had planned on becoming a teacher, but she loved Conners’ class Public Discourseclass Public Discourse far more than she loved her elementary school job shadow experience.
Then came professor Sarah Wolter ’02 and her class, Screens. “I kept picking athletic Then came professor Sarah Wolter ’02 and her class, Screens. “I kept picking athletic commercials to analyze,” Abrego says. Then Abrego had an idea—a Gustavus sports commercials to analyze,” Abrego says. Then Abrego had an idea—a Gustavus sports podcast. Without having every played Gustavus sports, or produced a podcast, or even podcast. Without having every played Gustavus sports, or produced a podcast, or even met Tom Brown, director of Gustavus Athletics, “I put on my big girl pants and knocked met Tom Brown, director of Gustavus Athletics, “I put on my big girl pants and knocked on his door,” she says. The result was Behind the Benchon his door,” she says. The result was , the fi rst campus sports podcast, which Abrego recorded through the audio on a camera placed on a music stand. which Abrego recorded through the audio on a camera placed on a music stand. More fi rsts followed. She became the fi rst woman intern for the o -season More fi rsts followed. She became the fi rst woman intern for the o -season professional hockey league Da Beauty League, where she grew the Instagram account professional hockey league Da Beauty League, where she grew the Instagram account and interviewed professional players. She became one of the fi rst two women broadcast and interviewed professional players. She became one of the fi rst two women broadcast interns at Fox Sports North to cover Northwoods League Baseball in both taped interns at Fox Sports North to cover Northwoods League Baseball in both taped and live segments. She hated the appearance, performance, and lifestyle constraints and live segments. She hated the appearance, performance, and lifestyle constraints for on-camera women reporters, not to mention the gross men who trolled her on for on-camera women reporters, not to mention the gross men who trolled her on the Internet, some with photos of their daughters in their feeds. But she loved the Internet, some with photos of their daughters in their feeds. But she loved the video editing, graphics, writing, and social media aspects. Today, among her the video editing, graphics, writing, and social media aspects. Today, among her other duties as Gustavus graduate assistant in sports information, she works with Gustie teams to develop their social media, and she’s pioneered “Women’s Coach Wednesday” profi les on the Gustavus website. Equity and inclusion in sports are central to her work, especially in hockey. “It’s all about connections. But what if you don’t have them?” she asks. As a fi rst-generation college student from a town of 600 people, and as a biracial woman devoted to the predominantly white sport of hockey, these are careerdefi ning questions. “No one should have to deal with sexism or racism as they play their sport,” Abrego says, stating what should be obvious. Gustavus, she says, is a great place to begin a career as a woman in sports. “The MIAC does a really good job with equity. I’m so lucky at Gustavus to have so many extremely strong women professors and coaches as mentors.”
It was a wild spring in Gustavus sports with 11 seasons running simultaneously. “Sometimes we had fi ve home games going on at once.” Despite the long work weeks, Abrego pulled two As and an A- in her master’s program in sports management at Minnesota State University, Mankato. More on the historic Spring 2021 sports season on page 22.
COMMUNITY
SHINE: HAYLEY RUSSELL
All Around Athletes
THIS CANADIAN PROF TEACHES SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, FRAMED WITHIN THE AMERICAN CONCEPT OF LIBERAL ARTS LEARNING.
Teaching in the health and exercise science, public health, and gender, women, and sexuality studies, Russell has a courtside seat to today’s biggest sports trends. sexuality studies, Russell has a courtside seat to today’s biggest sports trends.
First, there is equity. “The strongest student writing and refl ection has been on First, there is equity. “The strongest student writing and refl ection has been on racism in sport and inequity in exercise,” Russell says. “Students are very interested in racism in sport and inequity in exercise,” Russell says. “Students are very interested in social inequity as it relates to sports and exercise.”
Then there is the issue of specialization in youth sports. Athletes used to come Then there is the issue of specialization in youth sports. Athletes used to come into college having played a wide range of sports. Those days are long gone. “For into college having played a wide range of sports. Those days are long gone. “For decades, student-athletes have specialized very young in one sport and have a lot of decades, student-athletes have specialized very young in one sport and have a lot of identity and experience in that one thing.”
Russell grew up playing multiple sports in a small Nova Scotia fi shing Russell grew up playing multiple sports in a small Nova Scotia fi shing community. She tore her ACL playing high school basketball, which kicked o an community. She tore her ACL playing high school basketball, which kicked o an interest in kinesiology. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota, interest in kinesiology. Her doctoral dissertation at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, explored the psychosocial readiness to return to sport after ACL Twin Cities, explored the psychosocial readiness to return to sport after ACL reconstruction surgery.
“The fi rst class I taught was Introduction to Sport and Exercise “The fi rst class I taught was Introduction to Sport and Exercise Psychology,” Russell says. She now teaches similar classes at Psychology,” Russell says. She now teaches similar classes at Gustavus, including the popular First-Term Seminar, Youth Sport Gustavus, including the popular First-Term Seminar, Youth Sport and Society. It’s rocked many a former high school athlete’s and Society. It’s rocked many a former high school athlete’s outlook on their favorite sport. “As students grapple with the outlook on their favorite sport. “As students grapple with the challenges of the thing they love, it sparks critical thinking.” challenges of the thing they love, it sparks critical thinking.”
Russell relishes a holistic learning approach to teaching in the Russell relishes a holistic learning approach to teaching in the health & exercise science department. “I was completely unfamiliar health & exercise science department. “I was completely unfamiliar with the concept of liberal arts before studying in the United with the concept of liberal arts before studying in the United States. It’s not a term we use in Canada. But I’ve always been doing States. It’s not a term we use in Canada. But I’ve always been doing it,” she says. At a small school like Gustavus, “I like the research it,” she says. At a small school like Gustavus, “I like the research opportunities, the close connections with students, the personal opportunities, the close connections with students, the personal aspects.” And, of course, Gustie students. “They are willing to try aspects.” And, of course, Gustie students. “They are willing to try whatever. They’re enthusiastic, thoughtful, and nice. They’re really whatever. They’re enthusiastic, thoughtful, and nice. They’re really fun to teach.”
EXCELLENCE
Russell represents the health & exercise science department on the Lund Expansion and Renovation team. She’s particularly excited about the new fi tness facilities— “We’re improving them for all students,” she says—and the Human Performance Lab, a state-of-the-art teaching and research space. Lund Expansion and Renovation team.
GUSTIE
Sports WOMEN IN WOMEN IN ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF TITLE IX, A CELEBRATION OF SOME OF THE BEST OF GUSTAVUS WOMEN IN SPORTS.*
BY SKYLAR ABREGO ’20, STEPHANIE ASH, BRUCE BERGLUND, EMMA MYHRE ’19, BRUCE BERGLUND, EMMA MYHRE ’19, AND CORINNE STREMMEL ’21 AND CORINNE STREMMEL ’21
*“THE PLAYING FIELD STILL ISN’T LEVEL.” GENDER EQUITY IN SPORT IS THE LIFE WORK OF NICOLE LAVOI ’91. NICOLE LAVOI ’91. SEE WHAT SHE SAYS ABOUT WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NEXT, PAGE 18.
KAELENE BAVERYLUNDSTROM ’10 FROM TRACK TO RUGBY
Currently vice president of the Twin Cities Amazons, BaveryLundstrom didn’t know what rugby was when she showed up at Gustavus. “I came for track,” she says. But she started playing club rugby her fi rst year, eventually leading the Gustavus team to nationals her senior year. Then, fate intervened. “None of us on the team were old enough to rent a van to get there. We connected with women who played for one of the teams in the Twin Cities,” she says.
That team was Twin Cities Amazons, and she began playing for them after graduation. In 2012, she became one of the fi rst of seven women to be contracted to play Olympic rugby in 2016, its inaugural year. Between 2011 and 2013, she played for the U.S. in such places as England, Italy, France, Netherlands, and Canada. “It’s a crazy feeling the fi rst time you put on a Team USA jersey and you stand for the national anthem,” she says.
TAM MEUWISSEN ’13 TWO NEW WAYS TO WIN
She was a two-sport Gustie athlete: soccer and hockey. Ten years later, she is still a two-sport athlete: ice cross and bandy.
In ice cross, four skaters hurtle down a narrow course, navigating jumps and hairpin turns, hitting speeds up to 50 miles per hour. “Anyone who tells you they’re not scared is lying,” Meuwissen says. She’s traveled the world on the Red Bull Crashed Ice tour, competing in France, Finland, and Japan, as well as on Cathedral Hill in St. Paul. She’s currently ranked eighth on the tour.
Bandy resembles hockey but is older. It was invented in England in the early 1800s. It’s played on a rink about the size of a soccer fi eld, with 11 skaters on a side. Players use short sticks to hit a ball, not a puck. Meuwissen was fi rst invited to play bandy by a former Gustavus hockey teammate. “The fi rst time on the ice, I absolutely loved it,” Meuwissen says. “It’s a combination of all the things I know.”
Seven of the 11 starters on the U.S.A. Women’s Bandy Team are former Gustie hockey players, as is their coach, Chris Middlebrook ’79. Spot them? Tam Meuwissen ’13, Marah Sobczak ’14, Meagan Wanecke ’13, Maddie Bergh ’14, Jenna Christensen ’13, Kelsey Kennedy ’13, Allie (Schwab) Johnson ’12, Mollie Carroll ’12. This winter, they’ll play for the world title.
NO PERSON IN THE UNITED STATES SHALL, BASED ON SEX, BE EXCLUDED FROM PARTICIPATION IN, BE DENIED THE BENEFITS OF, OR BE SUBJECTED TO DISCRIMINATION UNDER ANY EDUCATION PROGRAM OR ACTIVITY RECEIVING FEDERAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. —Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972
NICHOLE PETERSEN PORATH ’05 ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS
During her senior year of high school, Porath worried she had already hit her fastest time, and almost didn’t go out for cross country at Gustavus. “I knew that I would feel left out, so I decided to join anyway,” she says.
She still had faster times ahead of her. In 2011, alongside Gustavus coach Brenden Huber, Porath ran Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, where she qualified for the Olympic trials, which earned her a contract with Brooks shoes, which allowed her to run professionally for two years. She set a world record in the indoor marathon, and twice a world record in the half-marathon while pushing a double stroller and six months post-partum.
Today, as a cross country coach and finance professional, she tries to instill the love of the process and the importance of hard work that she learned at Gustavus. “I’m better able to handle everything from deadlines to the chaos of motherhood,” because of Gustavus cross country, she says. She’s back to training after the birth of her second baby, and will run the Boston Marathon in October.
ADELE BURK ’04 THE BIG(GER) PICTURE
Burk has always loved sports, statistics, and writing. When she got to the hill, she worked with then sports information director Tim Kennedy ’82, translating statistics into exciting stories. “I learned to see everything I worked on in big pictures,” she says.
After graduating with a secondary education and mathematics double major, she missed the rush of working in athletics. Looking at her life in the big picture, Burk turned back to sports information. Today, she is Associate Director for Championships and Compliance for the New England Small College Athletic Conference, coordinating 26 conference championships and assisting members with NCAA and conference compliance.
She’s excited about the direction college athletics is moving in to further address racial and gender equity and mental health. And she uses her Gustavus experiences every day. “I’m still teaching. I’m still working with statistics. Now, I’m doing all of that to an even higher degree.”
IN MEMORIAM NANCY BAKER ’56
She launched the Gustavus gymnastics program in 1962, setting the foundation for women’s gymnastics in Minnesota and beyond. In 1963, Gustavus hosted the first women’s gymnastics meet in the state, and
ANNIE ODEGARD ’17 TO DO WHAT SHE LOVES
As an athletic administrator for the University of Minnesota women’s basketball team, Odegard is shaping women’s sports. From recruitment coordination to marketing, she helps push the team forward.
Her passion for teambuilding started as a Gustavus first-year. “I have always wanted to work in sports, so I asked Coach [Laurie] Kelly if I could work in her office,” Odegard says. She played on the women’s basketball team, including in the NCAA tournament. “It was an amazing experience to compete every day and work with all kinds of people to reach a common goal.”
Relationships and leadership are at the center of her work growing women’s basketball, and the center of her very being. “I could have taken a job in anything, but I wanted to pursue what I love.”
for the next two decades, Baker’s teams won 15 state meets in 17 appearances. In 1982, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) hosted the fi rst-ever national championships for small colleges. The Golden Gusties won the title. Baker’s teams would go on to win six more national titles until her retirement in 1992. Baker died in March. “Not only was she a dear friend but also a mentor. She had such foresight about the growth of health and wellness and the future of women’s sports,” says former Gustavus coach (and fellow women’s athletics pioneer) Gretchen Koehler.
The 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament has Gustie Dr. Virginia A. Caine ’73 (former Gustie hooper, top, second from right) to thank for the health and safety of fans and teams. She’s the public health director of Marion County, Indiana.
“ IT GIVES ME GREAT PLEASURE to smash through
preconceptions of what a girl or woman can do on the ice—and I’ve been able to harness that drive to prove my capabilities while getting a PhD in the male-dominated fi eld of physics.” —Nara Higano ’12 (hockey, lacrosse), research faculty in pediatric pulmonary medicine, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
“ REPRESENTATION OF WOMEN in sports shows the younger generation all the life-enhancing opportunities that come from coaching and participating in sports.” —Jaime Gaard Chapman ’07 (tennis), co-founder of Gaard Performance Academy
“ I FEEL EMPOWERED as a woman coaching Division III athletics to pave the way for future student athletes to pursue their dreams.” —Megan Gaard Gunderson ’12 (tennis), co-founder of Gaard
Performance Academy, head tennis coach, St. Catherine University
GREAT MOMENTS IN WOMEN’S ATHLETICS HISTORY
FROM THE FIRST TIP-OFF TO THE LATEST NATIONAL CHAMPION, AN INCOMPLETE LIST OF EXCELLENCE.
1903 The fi rst-ever sports season included women’s basketball. Gustie women played Mankato Normal women at the fi rst intercollegiate game.
1920 The Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) debuts. Women’s teams are not a part of it. Shortly after comes the Women’s Athletic Association— with no intercollegiate competition.
1923 Gustavus women make news playing football. See page 44.
1951 Inga Carlson ’53 competes as a diver on the men’s team. See page 24.
1962 Coach Nancy Baker ’56 starts the women’s gymnastics program.
1965 Coach Mary Dahl Williams ’63 starts the Gustavus women’s swimming program.
BRENDA MAGOBA ’97 FOOD, FRIENDS, TEAMMATES
“When Coach Tom Thorkelson ’70 recruited me, he told me how good the food was at Gustavus. That’s really all I needed to hear. We throwers did a lot of eating,” Magoba says. She starred in the shot put and discus, earning allconference honors 11 times and, in 1997, taking fifth place in shot put at NCAA Championships. She was also a threeyear letter winner for the soccer team, with three MIAC championships. “I honestly don’t remember many of the awards and accomplishments,” she says. “I do remember leaving practices and meets with my stomach hurting more from laughing than from working out. My friends and teammates made my athletics experience memorable.” After graduating with a degree in religion, Magoba has spent her career in nonprofit agencies, serving at-risk youth in sports, camps, and Christian ministries, as well as domestic violence survivors. She’s stayed active in sports as a college basketball and soccer referee.
ELLIE ROSCHER ’02 SPORTS, FAITH, AND EQUITY
After a gymnastics injury at age 13, doctors told her they might have to amputate her left arm. She was devastated. “Then, I became acutely aware that I still had two arms. And I was going to use them.”
She launched a new trajectory. Gustavus was a perfect fit. Roscher competed for four years on the gymnastics team and two years on the softball team. She became a Greeter, started an eating disorder awareness week, and finished the premedicine track while studying religion and the Three Crowns Curriculum. Her gymnastics team was especially formative. “They’re still my best friends today,” she says. Roscher earned a master’s in theology and joined the Lutheran
Volunteer Program in Uruguay, which inspired her first book, the spiritual memoir How Coffee Saved My Life. After teaching high school theology and coaching gymnastics, she led research in Kenya while studying writing. Her second book, Play Like A Girl, tells the story of how the Kibera Girls Soccer Academy in Nairobi, Kenya transformed gender equity and education in the region through sports. Her latest book, the co-written 12 Tiny Things, Includes stories about how being a college athlete taught her to trust the wisdom of the body.
ANNA EAMES ’13 SWIMMING IN A VILLAGE
Eames was born with fibular hemimelia, a congenital disorder that caused her right leg to be shorter than her left. “I had to adapt to some activities, but I never felt excluded,” she says. She wanted to be an athlete, and swimming didn’t cause her pain. Her high school talent led to the U.S. Paralympic National Team in 2005, and gold and bronze medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing.
When it came time to pick a college, she wanted to be competitive in swimming and chase her dream to study biology to become a genetic counselor. When she wasn’t in the bio lab at Gustavus, she was training with her Gustie and Paralympic teams. In 2012, she took silver with her relay team at the Paralympics in London.
Today, she’s patient navigator for the National Marrow Donor Program/ Be The Match. Her work centers on accessibility, inclusivity, and scientific advancement. Those values grew through Gustavus and her swimming career. “I was always meeting people I wouldn’t otherwise meet. Everyone had different backgrounds, from majors to disabilities to nationalities.”
LINN ERICKSON AHRENDT ’87 AND ANGELA AHRENDT ’12 MOTHER-DAUGHTER DUO
The two share a passion for volleyball that’s part DNA, part developed. “Pretty much since I was a baby, my mom has been there to coach me,” Angela says. In fact, she was 11 years old when she attended her mother’s induction to the Gustavus Athletics Hall of Fame. At that point she knew she’d be a Gustie too. Six years later, the Gustavus volleyball team went to nationals, the fi rst time since her mother, Linn, played on the team. “It was like I left Gustavus but brought back an o spring so they could go to nationals again!” jokes Linn.
She and her daughter continue to play and coach volleyball, keeping strong ties to each other through their sport.
LISA BROWN ’09 THROWING IT OUT THERE
After three months at MSU, Mankato, she called up coach Tom Thorkleson ’70 and asked if there was still time to join the Gustavus team. She transferred that January, got introduced to javelin, and by spring had placed fi rst in Division III nationals. “It got me thinking the Olympics would be cool,” she says.
Her dream became reality her junior year. “At nationals, throw after throw was better than the last. Finally I heard someone read the number that was the B qualifi er for the Olympic Trials.”
Attending trials was another dream come true as she competed alongside athletes she’d watched and learned from. She brings with her today as she coaches youth hockey and mountain biking.
“ MY EXPERIENCES on the track &
fi eld team taught me perseverance, patience, and hard work. These skills are also what I need as a journalist and will carry on to grad school.” —DeAnna Giles ’21, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland 1967 Women’s athletics shows up as a line item in the college budget.
1968 Coach Gretchen Koehler starts an organized women’s basketball program, then volleyball a year later, then softball a year after that. Mary Dahl Williams ’63 starts coaching women’s tennis.
1972 The Title IX Amendment passes Congress.
1974 Women’s track and fi eld is introduced under coach Sally Hokanson ’69.
1975 Gustavus women’s volleyball makes the Small College National Volleyball Tournament.
1981 The MIAC sponsors Women’s Championships for fi rst time. Women’s tennis claims its fi rst league title. The team has won 28 more since.
1984 The new Lund Center ushers in equal space for men’s and women’s athletics and recreation.
1991 The women’s tennis team wins its fi rst NCAA D-III National Team Championship.
1992 Sarah Edmonds Harris ’93 Wins NCAA D-III National Cross Country Championship, the fi rst national individual title for a women Gustie in NCAA competition.
Where We Go
FROM HERE
NICOLE LAVOI ’91, DIRECTOR OF THE TUCKER CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON GIRLS & WOMEN IN SPORT, ON HOW WE ACT NEXT TO ADVANCE TITLE IX’S PROMISE.
Ask LaVoi her Gustavus major and she’ll laugh and say, “Tennis!” Coach Steve Wilkinson recruited the St. Cloud native to join the team as a fi rst-year. That team “was a group of women that made no excuses.” They won the NCAA Championship her junior year. LaVoi was inspired. After completing her health fi tness and communications double major, she went on to coach tennis at Wellesley College (an all-women institution), earn a PhD in kinesiology at the University of Minnesota, and conduct research at the Center for Sport, Character & Culture at Notre Dame. “I became passionate about women and girls empowerment through sport.” Today she directs the Tucker Center for Research on Girls & Women in Sport. When it was founded in 1993, the Tucker Center was the only research center of its kind in the world. LaVoi was at the starting line. As a grad student, she worked on the Center’s fi rst groundbreaking report on sport for girls and women, released in 1997. Today, Tucker Center research spans Title IX and gender equity, physical activity and girls, media representation, and the women’s sports industry. In July, the ninth annual Women in College Coaching Report Card was released with LaVoi’s graduate student advisees and fellow Gustie alums Courtney Boucher ’15 and Hanna Silva-Breen’18 sharing authorship. Its focus is to hold decisionmakers accountable for hiring practices. (New this year: data on racial identity and use of the word “gender” rather than “sex” to move away from binary assumptions.) In 2019, Gustavus professor Sarah Wolter ’02 released a co-authored longitudinal analysis of Division I media guides through the Tucker Center. Here at the 50th anniversary of Title IX, where do we stand? As LaVoi is known for saying, “The data tells the story.” The good news: “In two generations we’ve gone from girls and women hoping there is a team to girls and women hoping they’ll make the team,” LaVoi says. More participation means more girls and women get the physical and psychological benefi ts of sports, and the corresponding career, relationship, and life satisfaction and success. The not-so good news: though there have been slight increases, the number of women coaching and leading sports has not risen on par with the growth in participation. Neither has media coverage of women’s sports. Not even close, in fact. Why? “The simple answer is it’s about power.” With coaching, “It’s not that we
(L) LaVoi and former championship teammate Heidi Rostberg Carlson ’93. (R) With former PhD advisee Tommy Valentini ’02, Steve Wilkinson Endowed Professor of Sports Ethics and Tennis and head men’s tennis coach.
have less qualifi ed women or women who don’t want those positions. It’s about the opportunity that women are given to have access to positions of power that are controlled by men.” With media coverage, it’s her oft-repeated mantra: “If you show it, they will come.”
NEXT MOVES
“The people at the top must change. They’re the ones that make the decisions, the policies, and the occupational culture that either supports and values women or does not.” First among many such decisions is a commitment to equal resources. “You’re going to have to double down and invest above and beyond,” she says. Then there’s coverage. A surprising thing happened during COVID-19. The Women’s Soccer League adopted a closed “bubble” model and was the fi rst professional league to return to play. The WNBA followed with “the wubble” as well as a focus on social justice issues. Both leagues saw astronomical increases in viewership, social media engagement, marketing, and platform streaming. “People are fi nally realizing that this is an untapped, underserved market,” LaVoi says. “As we emerge from COVID, people see women’s sports as more aligned with values. When you watch you become a fan. When you become a fan you buy merchandise. This is what the Tucker Center has been arguing for decades.” For the next fi ve decades, LaVoi’s got clear targets. “I would like equal resources dedicated to women’s sport scholarships, participation opportunities, facilities, treatment, coverage, sponsorship, marketing, and viewership,” she says “I hope it doesn’t take 50 years to get there.” And she’d like new defenders of Title IX to come along. “We need courage to make change among those who don’t want to.” If that’s you, “Welcome,” LaVoi says. ”There’s still more work to do.” •
GUSTIE WOMEN ALUMS DOING THE WORK: Skylar Abrego ’20 (sports information), Stephanie Jensen Otto ’00 (professor, health and exercise science), Sara Wolter ’02 (professor, communication studies), Kelsey Letourneau ’13 (assistant women’s basketball coach), LaVoi, Heidi Rostberg Carlson ’93 (director, Swanson Tennis Center; assistant women’s tennis coach), Aryn Bell DeGrood ’09 (head gymnastics coach), Cal Carlson ’17 (Tennis & Life Camps) 1998 Women’s hockey becomes a varsity sport. It’s since won 16 MIAC titles.
2000–01 The women’s program wins its fi rst MIAC AllSports title, with league titles in hockey and tennis, and second fi nishes in soccer, swimming and diving, and nordic skiing.
2005 Volleyball player Rachel Batalden Hollerich ’05 is the fi rst woman Gustie to receive the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Since then, 17 Gustie women have earned it.
2009 Softball advances to the NCAA Division III World Series for the fi rst time.
2017 Volleyball team claims its fi rst NCAA Regional title and advances to NCAA Finals.
2018 Women’s basketball advances to NCAA Sweet 16 for the fi rst time.
