Sports update June 2010

Track teams compete at 2010 NCAA championships

The men’s and women’s outdoor track and field teams sent a combined 11 competitors to the 2010 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 27-29 in Berea, Ohio. The WUSTL women tied for 67th place overall, while the men’s team finished in a tie for 74th.

Sophomore Michael Burnstein and junior Taryn Surtees each garnered All-America honors in the 10,000-meter race to account for the Bears’ scoring at the meet.

Burnstein finished seventh with a time of 31:04.62, marking the first outdoor track All-America finish of his career.

Surtees posted a 10,000-meter time of 36:38.67, leading to an eighth-place finish and All-America honors in the 10,000 for a second year in a row.

Klein named freshman of the year in women’s tennis

Women’s tennis player Kate Klein was named the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) Division III national rookie player of the year.

Klein, who became just the second student-athlete in program history to earn Central Region rookie of the year honors, is the first to be tabbed for national honors.

Klein made an immediate impact during her freshman season, playing most of the year at No. 1 singles and doubles. She posted an overall singles record of 22-6, and was 10-3 playing the No. 1 position.

Klein advanced to the Wilson/ITA Central Region singles tournament semifinal during the fall.

WUSTL moves to second in Directors’ Cup standings

Washington University moved to second place in the 2009-10 Division III Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup Standings, as announced by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics.

Williams College, 13-time champions, holds the lead through the first round of spring championships with 990.75 points, while Washington University is second with 701.50 points. Amherst College, who was second through the winter rankings, drops to third with 663.25 points, while the University of St. Thomas (530) and Messiah College (528.25) round out the top five.

WUSTL has recorded seven straight top 10 finishes in the Directors’ Cup: 2008-09 (fourth), 2007-08 (second), 2006-07 (fifth), 2005-06 (seventh), 2004-05 (third), 2003-04 (ninth), 2002-03 (fifth).
The final standings will be released June 23.

Baseball coach Lessman announces retirement

Head baseball coach Ric Lessmann, the winningest baseball coach in WUSTL history, announced his retirement May 25. Lessmann spent 17 seasons at the helm of the baseball program, compiling an overall record of 396-231-1.

Citing health concerns as the primary reason for his departure, Lessmann leaves the program as the most successful coach in the team’s 65-year history.

He guided WUSTL to 12 consecutive winning seasons dating back to the 1999 campaign, and his 2006 squad posted a program-record 34-7 overall mark. Eleven of his 16 teams won at least 20 games and he guided four squads to postseason play, including a stretch of three-straight NCAA appearances from 2005-2007.

Lessman was inducted into the National Junior College Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1991, and was a 1992 inductee into the St. Louis Amateur Baseball Hall of Fame.

In 45 seasons as a collegiate baseball coach he tallied an overall record of 1,365-556-1 for a winning percentage of .711.

A national search is underway for a new head coach.

Tennis team finishes fourth in NCAA tournament

The men’s tennis team fell short of advancing to its second-national championship match with a 5-4 loss to No. 1 ranked Middlebury College May 26 in the semifinal of the NCAA Division III championship in Oberlin, Ohio.

In the third-place match May 27, the Bears suffered a 5-2 defeat to Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Colleges.

The team finished with a 20-6 overall record, and was making its third straight final four appearance.

Two WUSTL athletes named Academic All-Americans

Senior national champion swimmer Alex Beyer and junior men’s tennis player Isaac Stein were named to the 2010 ESPN The Magazine First-Team Academic All-America Men’s At-Large Team, as selected by CoSIDA.