Top Stories of 2022 in St. Olaf Athletics

In many ways, the 2022 calendar year was a memorable one for St. Olaf College Athletics. In addition to their academic endeavors and involvement on campus in other areas, Ole student-athletes and teams won conference championships, competed on the national stage, recorded historic victories, and set numerous school records. Condensing a year's worth of memories down to a short list is a difficult task, but below are 10 of the top stories from a notable year on the Hill!

Women's cross country eighth at NCAA Championships

Full Story | Photo Gallery

Competing in frigid conditions in East Lansing, Mich., women's cross country recorded its top finish at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships since 2012 by placing eighth on Saturday, Nov. 19. Led by an All-America finish from senior Christine Albrecht, the Oles took eighth in the 32-team field to log their highest national finish since also finishing eighth in 2012.

The top-10 finish was the 12th in program history for St. Olaf, which competed in the national meet for the 27th time in program history and improved by five places from its 13th-place finish in 2021. The Oles finished ahead of four teams ranked ahead of them in the most recent U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National Coaches' Poll and were the highest-finishing team that entered the meet ranked outside the top 10.

Men's cross country wins MIAC Championship

Full Story | Photo Gallery

For the first time since 2016, men's cross country finished atop the team standings at the MIAC Championships to claim its 10th MIAC team title at Highland 9 Golf Course on Saturday, Oct. 29. The Oles finished 27 points ahead of second-place Saint John's with a total of 32 points.

St. Olaf had seven of the top-16 individual finishers in the race, including six All-MIAC performances, and got a 2-3-7-8-12 showing from its top-five runners. Junior Will Kelly and senior Logan Bocovich led the way for the Oles by finishing second and third, respectively. St. Olaf went on post its second-straight top-20 national finish by placing 14th at the NCAA Division III Championships three weeks later.

Men's soccer wins MIAC Playoffs, returns to Sweet 16

MIAC Championship Recap | MIAC Championship Photos | NCAA First Round Recap | NCAA Second Round Recap

This past fall, men's soccer won a conference title and advanced to the “Sweet 16” of the NCAA Tournament for the second-straight season. In early November, St. Olaf returned to the championship game of the MIAC Playoffs for the second time in as many seasons and knocked off top-seeded and fifth-ranked Gustavus, 2-1, on the road thanks to a long-range strike by first year Robi Buzakovic with 1:01 remaining. Buzakovic's second goal of the game gave the Oles their third MIAC Playoffs title (2011, 2015, 2022) and earned the team an at-large bid into the NCAA Tournament.

In the national tournament, St. Olaf rolled to its largest-ever NCAA Tournament victory with an 8-1 first-round win over Lake Forest before ousting host and No. 10-ranked North Central (Ill.) by a 2-1 margin in overtime on a 97th-minute goal by junior Hakeem Morgan. The two wins in Naperville, Ill. sent the Oles back to the “Sweet 16” for the second year in a row, making St. Olaf one of only five programs in the country to advance that far in each of the last two season. The run matched the program's deepest-ever NCAA Tournament run before the Oles fell in a shootout to Gustavus following a 2-2 tie.

Men's basketball hangs with Gophers until late in exhibition

Full Story | Photo Gallery

In the first meeting between the two programs in 100 years, men's basketball hung with the University of Minnesota for over 35 minutes before the Gophers pulled away over the final four-plus minutes for a 71-55 exhibition win at historic Williams Arena on Wednesday, Nov. 2. The game was the first for the Oles against an NCAA Division I opponent since 2009 and marked a return to “The Barn” for head coach Dan Kosmoski, who spent nine seasons as an assistant coach for the Gophers from 1985-94.

St. Olaf jumped out to a 13-6 lead in the early stages and led for nearly 11 minutes in the opening half before going into the locker room tied at 31-31. After trailing by as many as 12 in the second half, the Oles made it a six-point game with 4:46 remaining, only for the Gophers to scored 13-straight points to seal the win for the hosts.

Women's basketball and women's soccer pick up first-ever playoff wins

Women's Basketball Recap | Women's Soccer Recap

Women's basketball secured the first MIAC Playoffs victory in program history by scoring the final 11 points of the game in a 62-57 road victory over Saint Mary's in the opening round on Saturday, Feb. 19. Trailing 57-51 with less than three minutes to go, the Oles held the Cardinals scoreless for the final 2:57 and got a go-ahead three-pointer by then-senior K'Lynn Lewis with 1:35 remaining to advance to the quarterfinals in its fourth appearance in the tournament.

Women's soccer earned its first-ever win in the MIAC Playoffs by topping Saint Mary's, 2-1, in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, Nov. 1. St. Olaf got goals from its top-two scorers - sophomore Sadie Klassen and senior Tessa Anderson - in either half to take a 2-0 lead early in the second half and held on despite a late goal by the Cardinals. The Oles had lost their first game in each of their previous five appearances in the MIAC Playoffs.

Eight inducted into St. Olaf Athletic Hall of Fame

Full Story | Photo Gallery

Eight all-time great Oles were inducted into the St. Olaf Athletic Hall of Fame as part of Homecoming and Family Weekend on Sunday, Oct. 2. The class included seven former student-athletes and one former head coach and was the first group of inductees to be enshrined since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Pete Cathcart ‘06 - Football, Men's Track & Field
• Justin Herzog ‘99 - Men’s Basketball
• Jacob Koch ‘09 - Men’s Swimming & Diving
• Phil Lundin - Men's Cross Country and Track & Field Coach
• Charlie Ruud '04 - Baseball
• Kim Smisek '11 - Volleyball
• Kelsey Watt ‘07 - Women’s Soccer
• Lindsay Weier ‘06 - Women’s Hockey

St. Olaf posts top LEARFIELD Directors' Cup finish since 2015-16

Full Story

The 2021-22 academic year saw St. Olaf record its highest finish in the LEARFIELD Directors' Cup since 2015-16 by placing 71st out of the 327 NCAA Division III institutions to earn points over the year-long competition. St. Olaf's 245 points and 71st-place finish were the school's best since placing 36th with 447 points in 2015-16.

St. Olaf earned points from its men's soccer, women's cross country, men's cross country, men's hockey, women's swimming and diving, and men's track and field team's performances at the NCAA Division III Championships. The LEARFIELD Directors' Cup honors institutions maintaining a broad-based program, awarding points based on each institution's national finish in the NCAA Championships.

Peper concludes career with MIAC title and All-America accolade

MIAC Championships Recap | MIAC Championships Photos | NCAA Championships Recap | NCAA Championships Photos

Stephen Peper concluded his standout men's track and field career by winning the MIAC outdoor title in the high jump and earning All-America honors in the decathlon. On day two of the MIAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships, Peper won his second-straight conference crown in the high jump by clearing 2.08 meters (6' 9 ¾") inches on his first attempt to break the Saint Mary's facility record set in 2010. The clearance also moved the then-senior into a tie for second on St. Olaf's all-time list in the event.

Two weeks later, Peper earned the second All-America accolade of his career by placing sixth in the decathlon in Geneva, Ohio with a school-record score of 6,872 points. The sixth-place finish over the grueling two-day, 10-event competition made Peper St. Olaf's third-ever All-American in the decathlon and matched Todd Jorgenson '86 for the best finish by an Ole in the decathlon.

Men's hockey claims improbable MIAC Playoffs title

Full Story | Photo Gallery

As the No. 7 seed, men's hockey went on an improbable run to claim its second MIAC Playoffs title by defeating the tournament's top-three seeds on the road to clinch its second NCAA Tournament berth. After defeating third-seeded Concordia-Moorhead and second-seeded Saint John's, the Oles knocked off top-seeded and fourth-ranked Augsburg by a 5-2 score in Minneapolis on Saturday, March 5 to cap the remarkable run through the MIAC Playoffs.

In just its third appearance in the conference's championship game, St. Olaf dealt Augsburg its first home loss of the season and ended the Auggies' 16-game home winning streak by building a 3-0 lead after two periods to earn just its second win over a top-five team in the last 15 seasons. After securing an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, the Oles led sixth-ranked St. Norbert by a 3-1 margin after two periods before the Green Knights rallied for an overtime win in the opening round of the national tournament.

Treanor wins MIAC diving title, qualifies for NCAA meet

Full Story | MIAC Championships Photos

On the final day of the 2022 MIAC Swimming & Diving Championships, then-sophomore Izzy Treanor won the conference title in the one-meter diving in Minneapolis on Saturday, Feb. 19. Treanor became the third Ole in the last six conference meets to win the one-meter board with a school-record score of 431.00 in the finals.

Treanor went on to qualify for the NCAA Division III Swimming & Diving Championships at the regional diving competition, becoming the first Ole diver to appear at the national meet since 2016 and the first Ole women's diver to do so since 2008. She placed 19th on the one-meter board and 28th on the three-meter board in Greensboro, N.C.

Here's to another memorable year in 2023! Um! Yah! Yah!