Lauren Rottier ’23 (left, middle) and Sydney Spaeth ’23 (right, left) take their place on the podium at the 2023 Division III National Outdoor Track & Field Championships.

Championships and All-American Honors Highlight the Spring Season

by Eva Westein ’26

The dust has settled on the 2023 Green Knights spring sports season, and it was another banner year. Men’s tennis won its first-ever conference title, two women’s track and field athletes were named to the All-America team, and men’s golf secured its best finish in conference play.

Building success on the diamonds
St. Norbert College baseball had two players earn mentions on the All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference baseball team. Sebastien Dubois ’23 led the Green Knights with a .377 batting average and a team-high .486 on-base percentage. Trevor Reinhardt ’23 hit .361 with 37 runs batted in and 34 runs scored.

SNC softball had two players earn mention on the All-Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference team this spring: infielder Allison Ardito ’26 and outfielder Christina Paleka ’24. Ardito had a notable series this season against Wisconsin Lutheran College where she was a perfect 6-for-6 in Game 1 and a four-hit effort to lead the way in the second game.

Golf tees off on the competition
Men’s golf achieved its best-ever finish at the NACC men’s golf championship this spring, finishing in third place overall. Previously, St. Norbert’s best finish was fifth place in 2021. A NACC honor was awarded to Nathan Thomson ’25 for finishing in a third-place tie. Thomson finished with a fourth-round total of 73 to post an aggregate score of 295, three strokes off third place.

Tennis aces conference play
History was made by men’s tennis when it topped Marian University 9-0 in an NACC dual this spring. The Green Knights won the conference regular-season championship for the first time in the program’s history, which started 86 years ago in 1937. Before this season, the men’s tennis team had never finished higher than third place in conference standing. St. Norbert College had three players earn honors: Brett Daniels ’26, Adam Stacho ’25 and David Vandenberg ’24 were all selected to the All-NACC team as singles players. The Daniels-Stacho pairing was chosen as a doubles team and Daniels was also named NACC Freshman of the Year.

Men’s volleyball takes home an individual honor
Jake Bettag ’23 finished the men’s volleyball season with a team high 187 kills against 84 errors in 431 total attempts, receiving an All-NACC honorable mention. In its third year of the program, the team finished with its best record yet.

Track and field takes a leap forward
Men’s track and field achieved a second-place finish at the NACC Outdoor Track & Field Championship. The Green Knights finished with 212.5 points, placing behind champion Milwaukee School of Engineering’s 248.5 points. Ezra Schermacher ’26 was named NACC Freshman of the Year. James McKnight ’23 won the 110-meter hurdles in 15.41 seconds, and Austin Welsch ’26 claimed the long jump at 22 feet, 5 1/4 inches.

The women’s team also had a very successful season. Three athletes competed the 2023 NCAA Division III Outdoor Championship this spring: Sydney Spaeth ’23 qualified in the triple jump and the long jump, Lauren Rottier ’23 qualified in the heptathlon, and Grace Kowalkowski ’23 qualified in the pole vault. Spaeth and Rottier went on to win All-American honors in their respective events with an eighth-place finish in triple jump for Spaeth and a sixth-place finish in the heptathlon for Rottier. This is the first time since 2010 that St. Norbert has had two female All-Americans in the same year. 

July 13, 2023