By PATRICK MEEHAN, Centenary Assistant AD for Communications
The crossover season between winter and spring sports is providing plenty of excitement for Centenary athletics.
Today, the Centenary swimming teams begin the annual Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference Championships concluding on Saturday in Garland, Texas.
The Gents finished fourth at the event last season and earned 292 points as they recorded their best finish in the event since also finishing fourth in 2021. The Ladies placed sixth and tallied 265 points.
Junior Reece Esser owns 16 wins this season and was named the SCAC Women’s Swimmer of the Week once while sophomore Hunter Hedges, SCAC Men’s Swimmer once, has eight individual wins this season.
Today’s schedule begins with the 200 meter medley relay followed by the 800 free relay, both set for 5 p.m. Competition begins at 10:30 a.m. Thursday with the prelims of the 500 freestyle followed by the 200 IM, then the 50 free and finishes with the 400 medley relay. The finals of those events will be held starting at 6 p.m.
Friday’s schedule starts with the 100 fly at 10:30 a.m. followed by the 400 IM, 200 freestyle, 100 breaststroke, and 100 backstroke. Recognition of all the senior student-athletes is set for 5:45 p.m. on Friday followed by evening finals. Saturday’s action begins at 10:30 a.m. and is followed by the finals at 6 p.m.
SOFTBALL: Starting a day earlier than planned, the Ladies open their home schedule and begin conference play on Thursday against Schreiner with a doubleheader set for 4 p.m. at the Centenary Softball Complex.
The Ladies (0-2) and Mountaineers (2-4) will complete the series on Friday with a single game at 3. The original schedule started the series with a Friday doubleheader and had a single game on Saturday but was revised due to the potential for bad weather on Saturday.
Centenary was swept in a non-conference doubleheader by Millsaps College to open its season last Saturday, falling 7-6 in game one and 3-1 in game two in Jackson, Miss.
Senior third baseman Morgan Dawson got off to a hot start as she hit .600 (3-5) with three RBI and a walk as she finished with a .571 OBP and slugged .600. Senior second baseman Catherine Stokes and senior leftfielder Laine Sullivan combined to go 4-8 with three runs scored, four walks, two RBI, and a stolen base. Stokes drew three of those walks herself and had both RBI.
LACROSSE: The Gents will play on the road for the first time this weekend for a pair of non-conference contests this weekend beginning with a matchup against the Warren Wilson College Owls on Saturday at noon in Swannanoa, N.C.
The Gents (2-0) boast the nation’s leading Division III offense after home wins over LaGrange College (27-10) and Hendrix College (21-11). Through two games, they have scored 48 goals, tallied 30 assists, and 78 points.
Sophomore Gamble Harvill, a former Airline star, scored an NCAA single-game record 14 goals in the win over Hendrix last Saturday. That’s the most in a game across all NCAA divisions (DI, DII, and DIII). The previous mark was 13. Harvill scored seven goals and added one assist in the victory over LaGrange in the season opener and has a team-leading 21 goals this season.
Sophomore Noah Walsh enjoyed entering his name into the program’s record book after his first career game that he did it again in Game 2, notching a single-game record 11 assists against Hendrix. Walsh set a new program record for points in a game with 15 following eight goals and seven assists in a 27-10 victory over LaGrange in the season opener at home on Jan. 31. His 15 points are the sixth-most in a single game by a D-III player in NCAA history and Walsh’s 11 assists are also the sixth-most in a single game by a DIII player in NCAA history.
Freshman Gavin Ferrington recorded a program-best 95 faceoff winning percentage (going 20-21) against Hendrix. The former Parkway star is 39-42 for the season for a superb 93 percent.
Centenary wraps up the weekend with another non-conference contest against Brevard College in Brevard, N.C. on Sunday at 2.
Look for more Centenary sports notebook items in Friday’s edition, including a preview of the last home basketball action this year with the Gents riding a five-game winning streak.
Contact Patrick at pmeehan@centenary.edu
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