Winter 2025
As I prepare to attend the annual NCAA Convention this week, I will be joined by two outstanding Willamette University student-athletes who will help shape their futures and the futures of their fellow student-athletes for years to come.
Senior track & field student-athlete Tenley Grant will attend as part of the NCAA Student Immersion Program. The program was developed to help build a pipeline of talented candidates who hope to go on to roles within college athletics. Tenley has been connected with a Division III mentor as part of this program and will see the governance process in action at the convention.
Tenley has been an active Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) member on our campus and serves as co-president this year. She is also serving as the president of the Northwest Conference SAAC. Tenley earned NWC All-Conference honors last spring by finishing 2nd in the hammer throw at the conference championships and sits at #5 on WIllamette’s all-time list with a throw of 46.68m.
Sophomore cross country and track & field student-athlete Morgan Shaw will attend as our conference’s representative on the NCAA Division III National SAAC. In that role, Morgan represents the student-athlete voice in the Division III governance structure by reviewing legislation, identifying significant student-athlete issues, and implementing national student-athlete-based initiatives.
The National SAAC meets four times a year and plays a vital role in ensuring the student voice is heard as we consider the direction of Division III, including being a part of the legislative process this week. Morgan earned All-NWC honors in cross country this past fall for her 7th-place individual finish at the conference championships, where she was part of the team that took second place overall.
We are very proud to have these two outstanding student-athletes representing Willamette University and helping to play a role in the future of Division III athletics.
Notable Fall Events
- Women’s Triathlon finished fourth at the National Collegiate Championships in November, and Sofie Szigeti, Ella Isaacson, and Abbey Staniec received All-America honors.
- Women’s Cross Country finished second at the Northwest Conference Championships as Zoe Heino, Morgan Shaw, and Anna Bikle earned All-NWC recognition.
- Nina Krassner-Cybulski was named first-team All-NWC and third-team All-Region and received academic all-district recognition in Women’s Soccer. She scored in seven consecutive matches this season and tied for the conference lead in goals.
- Krisna LaFrance earned first-team All-NWC recognition in Men’s Soccer, leading the Bearcats with 10 goals and 21 points.
- For the fall semester, every one of our twenty varsity sports had a team GPA above 3.0, and eight programs had GPAs above 3.50.
- Twelve fall sports student-athletes received all-conference recognition, and 19 earned academic all-district honors.
Other updates
- We are pleased to welcome Samuel Fecteau as our new Director of Tennis. Samuel has been an assistant coach with the program for the previous two years, and we know he will continue his great work as he takes on the leadership role for our tennis programs. Eric Sturgis will take over as assistant coach.
- Spring schedules are online if you want to catch a game, match, or meet. You can find all that information and more on our website.
I hope 2025 is off to a great start. As always, we are thankful for your support of Bearcat Athletics and hope to see you at some events this spring.
Go Bearcats!
