Football gets No. 5 final national ranking in Div. III

December 21, 2009

St. Thomas took the No. 5 national ranking in the final Division III polls of the season by both D3Football.com and the American Football Coaches' Association (AFCA).

Coach Glenn Caruso's Tommies went 11-2 and reached the Division III quarterfinals for the second time in 19 seasons.

West Region teams received four of the top six and seven of the top 14 spots in the final AFCA poll, and eight of the top 18 spots in the D3Football.com rankings.

St. Thomas football, which was rated 12th in the final AFCA regular-season poll, had three All-Americans for the first time in school history. Junior RB Ben Wartman, sophomore KR-WR Fritz Waldvogel, and junior center Josh Ostrue helped the Tommies post the biggest two-year improvement in Division III football -- from a 2-8 finish in 2007, to 7-3 last season, to 11-2 in 2009.

St. Thomas men's teams finished in the top five of the standings or polls in four sports in 2009:

--Baseball won the national championship

--Men's basketball went 30-1 and was ranked third in the final national rankings after being ranked first for five weeks

--Outdoor track and field placed third, one point out of second

--Football cracked the top 10 for the first time since polls begam 11 years ago and its No. 5 ranking is its highest ever.

Click here to view AFCA poll:

http://www.afca.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9300&ATCLID=204860735

Click here to view the D3Football.com poll:

http://www.d3football.com/top25/2009/week-16