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Belton, TX – The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor athletic department may have put together the finest academic and athletic year in the program’s history in 2009-10. The Cru qualified more teams for American Southwest Conference Championship Tournaments than any other ASC school. UMHB also tied the school single-year record for teams advancing to the NCAA Division III National Championships.
The Cru would send four different athletics programs to the NCAA Division III National Championships, matching the school’s single-year high first set in 2007-2008. The UMHB football, men’s soccer, men’s basketball and women’s tennis teams were all represented in the NCAA Division III National Championships. The appearances for the men’s soccer team and women’s tennis doubles team of Megan and Mallory Aarhus also represent the first NCAA appearances for both of those programs.
The Cru men’s soccer team and men’s basketball team were also selected to host NCAA Division III National Championship First Round games. Those were the first home NCAA postseason contests in the history of those programs. UMHB also played host to the ASC Men’s Soccer and Men’s Basketball Championship Tournaments, marking the first time in school history that the Cru had hosted more than one ASC postseason event.
UMHB sent 10 of its athletic programs to ASC Championship Tournaments to post the highest figure in the league in that category. Mississippi College was second with nine ASC Tournament appearances. The Cru football team also advanced to the NCAA Championships to give UMHB postseason appearances for 11 of its 12 athletic programs.
UMHB also won a pair of ASC Championships with men’s basketball winning its second league title in the last three years and football claiming a co-conference championship. The league crown gives the Cru football program at least a share of seven of the last eight ASC titles. Only U.T.-Tyler won more ASC Championships than UMHB in 2009-10
The Cru men’s soccer team won the ASC regular season championship for the first time in the program’s history. UMHB also won a league-high three ASC West Division titles. The softball team was West Division champions for the third time in the last four years, men’s basketball won the West Division for the second time in the last three seasons and the women’s basketball team won its first ASC West Division title. The women’s soccer team set new single-season records for victories and conference win. The Cru women’s soccer program also won an ASC Championship Tournament match for the first time in the program’s history.
“I am very proud of our success athletically, academically and in service to our community,” UMHB Vice-President for Athletics Ben Shipp said. “It is a credit to our student-athletes, our coaching staff and the support of the entire UMHB family that we have been able to have this kind of success across the board.”
Four UMHB coaches won ASC Coach of the Year Honors: men’s soccer’s Brad Bankhead, men’s basketball’s Ken DeWeese, women’s basketball’s Kim Kirkpatrick-Thornton and the softball coaching staff of Kasey Blomquist, Denise Lira and Jessica Batey. Four Cru athletic programs also won ASC SAAC Team Sportsmanship Awards this year.
The Cru also won its share of individual honors during the 2009-10 school year. Baseball player Seth Lynn was voted ASC Male Community Service Award Co-Winner to become the first UMHB student-athlete to claim that title. Football player Quincy Daniels became the first Cru student-athlete to win the National Football Foundation’s Scholar-Athlete Award. Men’s soccer player Daniel Green was voted the ASC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete for men’s soccer. Sterling Phillips was named Most Valuable Player at the ASC Men’s Basketball Championship Tournament. UMHB had seven ASC Players of the Year, five All-Americans, eight All-Region selections, five ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District selections, 85 ASC All-Conference picks, 53 ASC All-Academic selections and 37 Player of the Week selections during the 2009-10 Academic year.