Historic sports seasons

One for the record books— historic winter sports season

Women’s basketball

NCU women’s basketball officially closed out 2020-21 as regular-season UMAC Champions with an overall record of 18-3 and 7-1 in the UMAC. This past season was historic for NCU women's basketball for both the team as a whole and for a number of individual players. Making a profound impact in her freshman season was Joelle Talso (Ramsey, MN, Spring Lake Park High School), while several key returners to the Rams’ rotation, including Kadija Conteh, Emily DiGiorgio, Naomi Hagstrom, and Jocelyn Talso, all put up career-highs in at least one individual category. The program saw history being made in several ways, including total wins with 18, winning percentage with .818, conference winning percentage with .875, being awarded as UMAC regular-season champions, and notching the first two UMAC postseason tournament wins ever while hosting the conference tournament.

Men’s basketball

In a season of constant change and uncertainty for the men in blue and gold, a lot can be said about the North Central men’s basketball team and the way they competed in the 2020–21 season. Several key returners made their way back into head coach Dan DeWitt’s rotation this year, while multiple newcomers also made immediate impacts in their first collegiate seasons. In just his second year of taking the reins of the NCU men’s basketball program, DeWitt increased the Rams’ UMAC standing from 7th in 2019–20 to 3rd in 2020–21. This also included a 9-9 (5-3 UMAC) record and hosting the first-ever men’s basketball conference tournament game in Clark-Danielson Gymnasium. Looking ahead to next year, the program will say goodbye to lone senior Jalen Dunlap, who was instrumental in leading the Rams to a historic season that unfolded this year. The future is bright with a young group returning!

Indoor track & field

With a distance of 9.87 meters on her final jump, Elizabeth Lofstad has brought home the triple jump UMAC title from the conference championships. The freshman had recorded a jump of 9.66 meters a meet earlier in the programs’ indoor season, which was good enough to take first place. This time around, she managed to outperform her previous firstplace jump to take top of the standings in the field event, which produced 10 points for the team. In addition to her results in the field, Lofstad recorded a successful day on the track by posting a personal-best by 13 seconds in the mile with a time of 5:47. This placed her third in the conference and produced 6 points for the team. Lastly, the freshman phenom managed a personal-best in the 800-meter with a time of 2:36. This placed her fifth in the conference and tallied an additional two points for the program. Several other personal-best times and performances were achieved by members of the indoor track and field team as well.

Learn more about all NCU sports at ncurams.com. Photos: NCU Athletics