Blue Jays Make Conference Season History Following a Year of COVID-19 Restrictions

by · April 30, 2021

This week most Blue Jays sports teams wrapped up the most successful conference season in Westminster College history following more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions.

Watch for a complete story this summer on the unorthodox spring athletics season, where conference games — including fall sports such as football — took place despite seasonal darkness, spring mud, and packed schedules.

With the season winding down and only baseball, softball, and golf continuing to compete, Matthew Mitchell, Director of Athletics, reflected briefly on the season.

“At first, the kids just wanted to be able to play,” he said about last spring’s nationwide stay-at-home COVID-19 orders and restrictions placed on the Saint Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SLIAC) last fall. “But once they started playing, they were on fire and just wanted to win.”

The highlights below speak for themselves. Be sure to read a complete story on women’s basketball coach Talisha Washington, ’13.

Highlights from the Spring 2021 Conference Season

  • Fulton native and Westminster graduate Talisha Washington, ’13, was named the SLIAC Women’s Basketball Coach of the Year. She is the first Black woman to receive the title in the conference’s 32-year history.
  • The Blue Jays women’s basketball team finished the abbreviated season in second place and were victorious in the SLIAC tournament championship game.
  • Westminster volleyball coach Natalia Korynza was named the SLIAC Volleyball Coach of the Year.
  • The volleyball team tied for the conference championship and made it to the conference tournament championship.
  • The volleyball team received a national ranking of No. 10, the highest national ranking of any SLIAC volleyball team.
  • Men’s wrestling members Sean Sax, ’22, and Broc Davis, ’23, qualified for the national tournament and advanced in the winner’s bracket.
  • Female wrestler Taylor Reed, ’23 ΑΓΔ, qualified for the national tournament.
  • Montgomery Mills, ’24, received All American honors at the national wrestling invitational meet by placing third.
  • The women’s soccer team was victorious in the SLIAC tournament championship match, defeating Fontbonne University 2-1.
  • The men’s soccer team made the SLIAC tournament championship and went up against Webster University.

 

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Sarah Rummel Backer

Sarah Rummel Backer is the Director of Media Relations and Senior Writer at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. A proud Westminster graduate, Sarah has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and strategic communications in the areas of higher education, medicine, agriculture, and the private business sector.