By Maggie Franke
Over the past couple of weeks, there has been a lot of sports action for the Wheaton Thunder. Many athletes are just starting their competition season, but it can be confusing as to which sports seasons began and ended in the spring.
According to the NCAA, the sports that have championships in the fall season are cross country, field hockey, football, soccer and women’s volleyball. The winter sports are basketball, wrestling, ice hockey, swimming and diving, and indoor track and field. That means that baseball, golf, lacrosse, rowing, softball, outdoor track and field, tennis and men’s volleyball are spring sports.
Wheaton College does not have varsity men’s volleyball, rowing, field hockey, ice hockey or lacrosse teams. Wheaton does offer rowing, ice hockey, lacrosse and men’s soccer as club sports.
According to the CCIW, the fall sports that have championships in the fall season are cross country, soccer, women’s golf, women’s tennis and women’s volleyball. The winter championships are swimming and diving, basketball, indoor track and field and wrestling. The spring championships in the conference are for men’s golf, outdoor track and field, men’s tennis, softball, lacrosse and baseball.
That means that Wheaton College’s varsity baseball, softball, outdoor track and field and men’s golf teams all compete in the spring season. Spring sports can be hard to follow to completion because many of their seasons extend beyond the end of the school year.
However, there is plenty of action to be seen in each of these sports, all of which have already started competition.
The Wheaton Women’s Softball team split a doubleheader against Hope College Tuesday afternoon; they lost the first game 7-2 and won the second game 14-8. Their next game is this Saturday at Ruth Leedy Field at 1 p.m. against Millikin University. At the end of the 2018 spring season, Wheaton was 7-31 overall, but so far this season, the Thunder Softball team has lost 10 games and won six games already.
The Wheaton Men’s Baseball team hosted Illinois Wesleyan University Wednesday afternoon and won the game 8-5. Their next home game is a double-header on Tuesday, April 2 at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. The men’s baseball team was 15-24 on the season last year. They are 11-3 on the season this year so far. Senior Evan Ogden was named CCIW Hitter of the Week on Tuesday.
The track and field teams wrapped up their indoor season, and now the outdoor season is underway. The Thunder competed in the WashU Mini Meet last weekend. The women’s team placed third overall, while the men’s team placed sixth. On March 30, the track and field teams will be competing in the Augustana College Viking Olympics, which will provide a preview of how the outdoor season will pan out for teams in the CCIW.
The Wheaton Men’s Golf team will be hosting the Wheaton Invitational at Cantigny Golf Course this weekend. It might be Wheaton golf fans’ only opportunity to attend a golf tournament so close to campus.
The Wheaton Men’s Tennis team has already competed in 11 matches this season of which they have won three. Their first match was on Feb. 8, and their next match will be in Wheaton against Illinois Wesleyan University on April 9 at a to-be-announced time.
The NCAA championships for women’s tennis and women’s golf are both in the spring, but their CCIW championship season is in the fall. Both of these teams have spring seasons which give them the opportunity to qualify for the national competition.