Instant Replay
From Kenyon News - May 30, 2018
From record-breaking discus throws to a national golf tournament, 2018 was an exciting year for Kenyon’s spring sports. Take a look back at six top accomplishments from this season:
- A culmination of steady progress over the last few years resulted in a successful 2017-18 season for the Lords golf program. Kenyon won two events, finished in the top three in six others, and sent two golfers – Ryan Muthiora ’18 and Lawrence Courtney ’21 — to the NCAA Division III Championship. Muthiora went on to win the North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Player of the Year honor and became Kenyon’s first All-America selection since 1976. Head Coach Grant Wallace was named the NCAC Coach of the Year and one of five finalists for the Dave Williams National Coach of the Year honor.
- Lords tennis defeated the Denison University Big Red 5-0 in the NCAC Tournament final. It was the men’s 12th-straight title and 21st overall. As a team, the Lords wrapped up the 2018 campaign with a 20-5 record, giving them their seventh 20-win season in the past 11 years. Kenyon went on to make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament after beating University of Mary Washington. The Lords fell 5-1 to Washington University in St. Louis and exited the tournament after the third round.
- Ladies tennis started the year 13-0, the best start in program history, on their way to a 21-3 record. The 21 wins attained were the most since the 1997 squad went 22-4 and won the national title. The Kenyon women also won their second-straight NCAC Tournament title by beating Denison 5-0, and later defeated Wheaton College (Illinois) in the NCAA Tournament first round before falling 5-1 to the Carnegie Mellon Tartans.
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Lords track and field member Jordan Potter ’19 broke his own College record in the discus throw during the NCAC Championship. Two weeks prior, during the Kenyon Spring Invitational, Potter set the Kenyon record at 143-6 1/4, erasing the old mark of 139-2 set by Mike Dailey ’79 in the 1976 season. The following week, at the Denison Big Red Invitational, Potter's best throw measured 144-2. He topped that at the NCAC Championship with a throw of 151-11, setting an even higher Kenyon record.
- Heading into the end of the season, Lords baseball was in a decent position to make its first NCAC Tournament since 2012 but needed a couple of late wins to solidify their berth into the four-team event. Kenyon got its first key victory at Allegheny College by winning 6-1. That was followed three days later by a stunning, 11-10 road victory against then No. 1-ranked College of Wooster. With that win, paired with an Ohio Wesleyan University loss, Kenyon found itself in the conference’s postseason tourney. Denison knocked the Lords out by a score of 9-4.
- The Ladies lacrosse team had a memorable spring, including reeling off seven-straight wins. Under first-year coach Jess Fugate, Kenyon posted an 11-5 record. That was the most wins attained by a new coach in Ladies lacrosse history during the NCAC era. Among the 11 wins was a 16-14 road victory against then-unbeaten in the conference Oberlin College. The 2018 season was capped off by a 21-5 Senior Day victory against DePauw University.