simply the best! - Saint Mary's University of Minnesota

well, but I didn’t think I hit it good
enough to go out. Then, when I
rounded first I saw that it cleared
the fence and I just thought, ‘Wow!’”
Which was exactly what Chapman
was saying about the pitching
performance of Smith.
“(Teisha) did a great job,” admitted
Chapman coach Janet Lloyd,
whose team finished runner-up for
the third straight year and the fourth
time in the last five years. “She kept
us off-balance and was in control
from beginning to end.”
Tschida agreed.
“Teisha pitched a great game,”
praised Tschida. “She had good stuff
and she hit her spots well.”
When the Panthers were able to
put their bat on the ball, the Cardinal
defense was air-tight.
“We pride ourselves on our
St. Paul, also is a member and competes
in several sports.
Nationally, there are 36 conferences
and nearly 400 schools in
NCAA Division III. Again in the
scholastic year of 1999-2000, the
MIAC’s impact in national competition
has far outdistanced its numerical
strength.
The MIAC competed in 22
sports with national team championships.
It had teams finish in the
nation’s top two in seven of those
sports. Saint Mary’s softball team and
Augsburg’s wrestling team were
national champions. St. Thomas was
the national runnerup in baseball and
men’s hockey, Macalester in women’s
soccer, Gustavus in men’s tennis and
Concordia in women’s golf.
There was more:
St. Thomas’ women’s basketball
team lost in the national semifinals.
St. John’s football team won two
playoff games before losing to
Pacific Lutheran, the eventual champion,
in the quarterfinals.
There were also national top-10
finishes in women’s tennis (Gustavus),
men’s golf (Gustavus and St.
John’s), men’s indoor track (St.
Thomas) and men’s cross country
(St. John’s).
There was also success for
MIAC teams in sports that don’t
have a Division III champion.The St.
Olaf men won the Nordic-Alpine
combined and its women finished
second in the U.S. Collegiate Ski
Association’s national meet. Augsburg
finished second in the inaugural
Women’s Hockey Alliance tournament.
Hamline’s women’s team won
the National Collegiate Gymnastics
Association tournament.
And we can’t ignore this: A
women’s team from Carleton won
the National Ultimate Frisbee
Championship.
Division III is the classification
where there are no athletic scholarships.
It is a place where scandals are
as rare as sincere apologies from
Bobby Knight.
There are many athletes in the
MIAC who wind up in Division III
because they do not have the ability
to earn a scholarship on a higher
level. There are also many with more
than enough talent to stand out in
Division II, yet they choose an
atmosphere where athletic participation
is an addendum to attending college,
and not a centerpiece.
Football to frisbee . . . there’s no
limit to the versatility of athletes
from the MIAC, a place where both
national championships and meaningful
degrees are enthusiastically
pursued.
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