Monmouth College Athletics: Seasons Cut Short

In what can best be described as heartbreaking for numerous Monmouth College seniors, the NCAA has cancelled baseball, softball, men’s tennis, outdoor track and field, women’s water polo, and men’s and women’s lacrosse due to the COVID19 outbreak. Because of this, the opportunity to build on recent success for all of these MC programs has abruptly ended.

For the baseball team, the season began with a 6-4 record, as the team was looking to gain more momentum, coming off of back-to-back seasons with a winning record both in the regular season and in conference play. The softball team was planning on squaring off against Augustana mid-March before the virus ended their season. The tennis team had just gotten back from Florida, where they finished with an impressive 4-2 record. For the men’s track team, they had just won yet another Midwest Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship at the end of February. Seniors Stone Darrow and Joe Krall, as well as junior Drew Thaxton, had all qualified for the indoor national meet, only to have it cancelled a few days later. The women’s track team had also performed well at the indoor conference meet, placing second as a team with several conference champions. The women’s water polo team was looking to build off of a 7-11 record a year ago but had their season cut short seven games in. Finally, for both lacrosse teams, promising seasons had to come to an end. The men won their first four games of the season, finishing with a 4-2 record, with a notably thrilling victory over Augustana to open the year. For the women, they were only able to get three games in, finishing with a record of 1-2.

While freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will still get another chance to improve in their sports, for the seniors, it was extremely unfortunate that it had to end this way. Regardless of the unfair outcome, it is clear that the MC seniors left their mark on the athletic programs and campus community as a whole, and their presence on campus will be missed.

Riley Dulin - Sports Editor