Gene's Blog: A dynamite decade for UST athletics

December 30, 2009

Twenty teams. Ten years. One deep and decorated resume.

The 2000s decade produced achievements galore for St. Thomas athletics.

Instead of ranking the Tommies’ feats in list form, as is the custom as a new decade arrives, I’ll let you find your favorite as we take a quick stroll down memory lane from 2000-2009.

St. Thomas won four NCAA team titles and collected four NCAA runner-up team finishes in the 10-year span.

Softball’s John Tschida, baseball’s Dennis Denning and men’s hockey’s Terry Skrypek combined to receive five National Coach of the Year honors.

UST baseball and softball each made the NCAA playoffs nine of a possible 10 seasons and combined to make seven College World Series appearances.

Tschida joined the Tommie coaching staff in the summer of 2000. His softball units captured all three national team titles won this decade by MIAC women sports teams -– the 2000 crown with St. Mary’s, and the 2004 and 2005 championships at UST.

Tommie teams won a conference-best 90 MIAC regular-season team championships in 16 different sports in the 10-year span. That included all 20 indoor crowns in men’s and women’s track and field. Joe Sweeney guided women’s cross country and track teams to 22 of a possible 30 MIAC titles in the 2000s.

St. Thomas was ranked No. 1 nationally in Division III during the decade in baseball, men’s basketball and softball. UST also ranked in the top five or had top-five NCAA finishes in football, volleyball, men's cross country, women’s golf, women’s basketball, women’s hockey and men’s and women’s track and field.

NCAA gold

Kristal Grigsby’s three long jump titles led a parade of UST’s seven individual national championships -– all in field events. Mark O’Connell, Carol Comp and Shara Guidry won in throwing events, and Andretta Colley was another long jump champ.

St. Thomas also claimed Minnesota’s first two NCAA men’s relay championships as Pat Jager anchored both the 4x100 and 4x400 to victory last May. James Ewer and Joe DeFrance also ran on both winning relays, with Sam Moen and Matt Griswold each contributing on one.

Tommie men’s basketball became the first conference team in any sport to start a season 30-0 in last winter’s 30-1 finish. Coach Steve Fritz won his seventh MIAC title of the decade, and his team’s five-week national No. 1 ranking was a first for conference men’s hoops.

All-American pitcher and basketball defensive stopper Lonnie Robinson contributed to 15 of a possible 16 MIAC team titles (regular season/playoffs) in baseball and basketball from 2005-2009.

Peter Mullee was an NCAA runner-up in the 200 backstroke last March -– the best national finish in the men’s swimming program’s history.

St. Thomas won CoSIDA Academic All-American honors 46 times in the decade, in 13 different sports. Andrew Hilliard joined a select group of collegians and is the lone MIAC student-athlete to become a five-time honoree.

UST football had a national AFCA Good Works Team honoree for campus and community service all 10 years, a feat unmatched nationally.

Steve Aronson broke the all-time MIAC hockey career scoring record, was National Player of the Year, was the first free agent signed by the Minnesota Wild, and helped Tommie hockey and baseball teams claim NCAA runner-up finishes in the same year (2000).

Denning’s baseball teams won 342 games in the decade, including 60 in the postseason, highlighted by the 2001 and 2009 NCAA championships. His teams also won 13 regular-season and playoff crowns in the conference, including an unprecedented seven regular-season titles in a row from 2003-2009.

Special weekend

During the same weekend in March 2000, Terry Skrypek coached a son and his UST team in the Division III hockey Final Four in Wisconsin, and also had a daughter playing with the Tommie women’s basketball team in the Final Four in Connecticut.

Tommie softball broke an NCAA Division III record with 43 consecutive victories in 2004 and early 2005 and won national championships each season. The 2006 Toms shattered the Division III record for home runs with 72 and tied a record with 48 season victories in an NCAA runner-up finish. UST led Division III with its 86% winning clip from 2000-2009, and its 403 softball wins included a 229-10 record against conference opponents.

In 2004, St. Thomas celebrated its first 100 years of varsity athletics. Forty-three individuals were inducted into the St. Thomas Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001, 2004 and 2007.

A redesigned Tommie mascot was unveiled in 2001.

Maria Bye (shown at right) joined a select group of NCAA student-athletes to be a three-time first-team All-American, three-time first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American, and a member of a national championship team. Bye, who had a 3.93 GPA in Biochemistry, was also named the College Sporting News MIAC Female Student-Athlete of the Year. In Bye's four-year era, St. Thomas went 175-19, including a 98-2 mark vs. conference foes. She batted .403 over 173 games with 37 homers, 175 RBI and 192 hits, and on the mound was 85-10 with an 0.99 ERA.

Out of 400 eligible programs, St. Thomas finished in the top 40 of the D-III Directors Cup all-sport standings in each of the 10 years, with a best of fourth in 2000.

Tommie men’s hockey became the nation’s first current Division III program to reach 1,000 all-time victories.

Four-year starter Jake Mauer closed his baseball career with a 2001 NCAA team championship. He still holds the MIAC career hits record. He was drafted and played with the Twins, and his star is rising as a coach in the Minnesota organization.

Glenn Caruso, hired as head football coach in 2008, has guided St. Thomas to Division III’s best current two-year turnaround, He come on after a 2-8 finish in 2007 and led UST to records of 7-3 and 11-2 in his two seasons. His 2009 Tommies broke school records for wins (11) and All-Americans (three), and ended with a program-best No. 5 national ranking. UST reached the NCAA playoffs for the first time in 19 seasons.

St. Thomas men’s track and field went 10-for-10 in MIAC indoor team championships, and the current 25-for-25 run is the longest consecutive team title streak in conference history. UST also won eight of the 10 MIAC outdoor championships.

Milestones

Coaching milestones were recorded by Fritz, Denning and Tschida in the 500-win club; Skrypek and tennis’ Terry Peck in the 400-win club; and Fritz, Sweeney and swimming’s Tom Hodgson in reaching 30 seasons as UST coaches.

Tommie women's golf won seven consecutive MIAC team championships and had the meet medalist six times.

UST volleyball had 10 All-America honors, won six MIAC team titles and reached the NCAA regional finals three of the last five seasons. The Toms have won 80% of their matches in seven seasons under Coach Thanh Pham and have been ranked in the top 15 nationally for a conference-record 51 polls in a row. UST had a 36-match conference win streak end last fall.

At least one Theisen sibling -- P.J., Katie or Becky -- has competed for St. Thomas since fall semester 2003. The trio (shown at right) has helped Tommie teams win 19 MIAC team titles in six different sports. P.J. and Katie combined to win 13 All-America honors, and each won an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship, and each was named MIAC Student Athlete of the Year by College Sporting News. P.J (3.92 gpa) and Katie (4.00 gpa) also combined to capture six CoSIDA Academic All-America honors, while Becky (3.97 gpa) will be nominated for the same award next month for basketball.

In January 2000, Tommie baseball became just the second college team in the country to travel to Cuba for exhibition play. UST hosted a return trip in May 2000 by a team from Cuba. UST also had recent international trips to Brazil for women’s basketball, to Canada for football, and to Sweden for a current trip in women’s hockey.

In 2009, the UST campus said goodbye to 29-year-old Schoenecker Arena and 70-year-old O’Shaughnessy Hall. In their place, the $54 million Anderson Athletics and Recreation Center will open in August 2010. It likely will be a springboard for the next wave of St. Thomas athletics success into the next decade.