Category: College Sports Highlights

The Standards of North Central Baseball As five-time defending College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin regular season champions and looking to start a new streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances after the pandemic snapped a twelve year run, North Central College baseball began this year like they do every year: building on the program’s existing…

Cardinals Softball Returns to Excellence Every North Central team has high standards, but few hold themselves to a level comparable to that of Cardinals Softball, who this year were looking for their thirty-fourth consecutive winning season. However, winning on it’s own isn’t enough and this year presented a unique opportunity. It was the first full…

As they reached the end of their regular season, confidence couldn’t have been much higher for the North Central Men’s Tennis team. A final 9-0 sweep over Carroll was their 14th consecutive victory to close out a 21-2 campaign. Winning a first conference title for over 60 years and a first ever trip to the…

“All we want  is a CCIW championship.” “Tell you what, the goal has always been CCIW championship.” “I think this might be the year that we pull it off and get our first CCIW championship.” It was the year, and the North Central Men’s Lacrosse team got what they wanted: a first ever College Conference…

Returning to Normal With only 14 games played over the previous two seasons, pandemic cancellations hit North Central Women’s Lacrosse hard. Given that only the senior class had previously experienced a full season, a 14-4 campaign back in 2019, the team’s graduating members can now provide perspective on how much this year meant to them.…

Individual CCIW Bowling Honors When end of season athletic awards are handed out, they’re usually concentrated among the top couple of teams in the standings. But North Central Women’s Bowling crashed the party this year, taking home several College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin honors in a season where they finished fifth. In his first…

Winning is Fun “We had so much fun.” – North Central Men’s Volleyball junior outside hitter Jared Moser “Too much fun, that’s for sure.” – senior setter Matt Nealon It’s easy to have fun when your team is having its best ever season, as was the case this year for North Central Men’s Volleyball. Four…

Babinec The Brightest Star for Women’s Indoor The North Central Women’s Indoor Track and Field team was as star-studded as ever this winter, and one of the brightest stars was Julia Babinec, who won a national championship in the 60 meter hurdles by three one-thousands of a second to cap an excellent season for the…

A Successful End to a Dominant Era of Indoor Track and Field The North Central men’s indoor track and field team has had two constants over the last several decades: winning, and the coaching combination of Al Carius and Frank Gramarosso. The former continued this year, as five individual titles helped the Cardinals capture their…

Another New High for NCC Wrestling The success of both the men’s and women’s wrestling teams made 2021-22 without question the best year North Central wrestling has ever had. On the women’s side, talking about that success has to begin with Yelena Makoyed, who is in rarified air with her latest title: unscored upon, undefeated…

Cardinals Wrestling Makes History In ninety years of North Central wrestling, there has never been a more successful one than 2022. On the men’s side, the Cardinals achieved their highest ever team finish placing third at the NCAA Division III National Championships, with two individual national champions and two additional All Americans. But the North…

The North Central women’s basketball team said goodbye this year to a couple of era-defining seniors, while a sophomore guard became a star.