While the quantity of accomplishments by Lake Forest College student-athletes in 2019-20 was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, the quality of the Foresters' performance matched the high standards they have set over the years.
With an overall winning percentage of .582 and a conference mark of .686, Forester teams slightly exceeded their impressive results (.573/.650) from the previous 10 years. The department's streak of capturing at least one league title reached nine years when women's swimming and diving finished first at the 2020 Midwest Conference Championships and the men's hockey team's at-large berth in the NCAA Division III Tournament gave Lake Forest representation in the NCAA Championships for the 11th year in a row.
Individual Foresters continued to be recognized for their success, matching the third-highest total in school history with 55 all-conference selections, despite five spring sports having their league competition canceled. There were also two conference players of the year, four all-region honorees, and three All-Americans. The department staff got in on the action as well with a pair of coach of the year awards. Sixty-six program records were set or tied by Lake Forest athletes, coaches, and teams.
As they have been throughout school history, student-athletes at the College were just as successful in the classroom as they were in athletic competition. The average team grade point average was 3.28 and a school record 117 individuals earned A-Team honors with all A's during the spring or fall of 2019. Two Foresters brought home MWC Elite 20 Awards for owning the highest cumulative grade point average of any individual at the MWC Tournament or Championship Meet and three others were named Academic All-District® by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). In addition, 25 players were named to the Northern Collegiate Hockey Association All-Academic Teams, women's golf had an Academic All-St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference honoree, and the Academic All-MWC awards will be announced in July with the Foresters expected to challenge last year's total of 125.
Fall
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A sport-by-sport account of 2019-20 begins with another stellar season from the women's tennis team, which went 13-5 overall and finished second in the MWC standings at 8-1 in league play. The Foresters have now won 58 of 70 matches overall and 25 of 27 in the conference over the last three years. Doubles partners Julie Lord '21 and Leeza Bodnar '20 went 22-2 on the season, earned their third consecutive MWC title at the top spot in the lineup, won their last 15 matches, and were the eighth-ranked tandem in the Central Region at year's end. Bodnar finished her career ranked fourth in team history with 133 victories in singles and doubles combined while Lord, who also successfully defended her conference title at #1 singles, became the program's all-time leader in career wins at that position (53) in just her third year at the College.
Forester men's soccer was also 8-1 in conference play (10-8-1 overall) in 2019, tying for first place in the standings and qualifying for the four-team MWC Tournament for the ninth year in a row. Forward Gaston Aubert '19 scored 11 goals, led the conference with 37 points, and tied for fifth in the nation with 15 assists. His play on the field earned him Second Team All-North Region accolades from the United Soccer Coaches (USC) while his academic success led to Second Team Academic All-Region and Scholar All-America honors from the USC and Third Team Academic All-America® distinction from CoSIDA. Fellow forward Lucas Geib '20 tied for the league lead with a dozen goals and joined Aubert and defender Marcos Hernandez '20 as First Team All-MWC selections. Geib and Aubert rank in the top 10 in school history with 87 and 84 career points, respectively.
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The football team finished 2019 with an overall record of 7-3 and won four of five divisional games — this time in the MWC North — for the third consecutive season. Lake Forest scored nearly 30 points per contest while allowing just 16. The defense was led by Jordan McInerney '20, who tied for second in the nation with 14.5 sacks and ranked fourth in the country with 22 tackles for loss. He earned a spot on D3football.com's Team of the Week three times and, after the season, was named MWC Defensive Line MVP and American Football Coaches Association First Team All-American. Wide receiver A.J. Jackson '23 was also highly decorated, receiving MWC North Division Newcomer of the Year honors and D3football.com First Team All-American accolades after leading the nation with 22.5 yards per punt return and 939 combined kick return yards to go with a team-high 805 receiving yards and 13 total touchdowns. McInerney and Jackson were joined on the MWC's First Team by quarterback Bill Degnan '20, left guard John Colasacco '21, linebacker Johnny Laponte '20, cornerback Jordan Briggs '21, kicker Michael Bounds '20, and special teams player Danny Baker '23.
The Lake Forest golf programs switched leagues this year and the Forester women placed third in their first SLIAC Championship Tournament. The team also won three invitationals and, with a scoring average of 343.92, broke the school record by more than six shots per round. Amanda Lee '21 earned all-conference honors with a fifth-place finish at the conference tournament and her score of 158 at the event matched the second-best two-day total in program history. Her season scoring average of 83.00 also ranks second in team annals and she added Academic All-SLIAC honors to her list of accomplishments on the year.
Women's soccer also posted a top-four conference finish and completed the season 10-6-3 overall and 5-2-2 in the league. Lake Forest earned a spot in the MWC Tournament for the 14th time in the last 17 years, thanks to a 3-0 victory at Lawrence University on the final day of the regular season. Defender Hiwa Brown '22 was named First Team All-MWC while four other Foresters were Second Team selections, including midfielder Sangjun Hornewer '20, who led the team with eight goals and the conference with 11 assists.
The Forester volleyball team won five of its last seven matches and finished the season 11-14 overall and tied for fifth place in the conference with a league mark of 4-5. Second Team All-MWC middle blocker Isabel Donnelly finished with a team-high 213 kills and was one of seven players to lead the squad in that category in at least two matches. Meanwhile libero Izzy Visnjevac '23 was the only player to rank among the top five in the MWC in digs and aces per set during league play.
Women's cross country extended its streak of placing in the top half of the conference to seven years with a fifth-place finish while the Forester men were seventh at the 2019 MWC Championship Meet. The top individual performances were turned in by Yaneli Guajardo '21 and Philip Wilson '20, who finished fifth in their respective races. Guajardo's All-MWC honor was her third in as many seasons while Wilson became just the second male in program history to accomplish the feat four times. Christian Reyes '22 was also named all-conference on the men's side and Ellen Szostak '22 on the women's after finishing 15th and 20th, respectively. Shelley Parat '20 was the MWC Elite 20 Award winner for women's cross country.
Winter
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After several sports at the College contended for league titles in the fall, the Forester women's swimming and diving team captured one in February while the men were the runners-up at the 2020 MWC Championships. Violet Anderson '23 was named Outstanding Swimmer of the Year after finishing first in the 200-IM, 100-butterfly, and 200-butterfly and contributing to two of the team's three relay titles. Susan Guo '21 added a championship in the 500-freestyle, Kerry Mullen '22 in the 50-freestyle, and Fallon Longfield '21 in the 100-backstroke. All three also chipped in on victorious relays, as did Kylie Morgan '22 and Sarah Burchart '22. Graeme Witte '22 led the men's team with titles in the 200- and 100-freestyle and he also took home the MWC Elite 20 Award. Max Rowland '21 won the 500-freestyle and Alec Pittman '22 the 1650-freestyle and they were joined by Witte and Marcus Carter-Buckman '22 on the championship 800-freestyle relay team. Vadim Tashlitsky '00 earned his seventh career MWC Coach of the Year award and fifth on the women's side. In addition to their performances at the conference meet, both teams won four of six dual meets on the year.
In addition to finishing within just two points of claiming a share of the NCHA regular season title, the Forester men's hockey team qualified for the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time since 1991. Lake Forest was 18-6-3 overall and 14-4-2 in league play and were ranked as high as sixth in the nation before finishing at #11. The team was set to host the University of St. Thomas in the opening round of the national playoffs when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the NCAA to cancel its remaining championships. Forwards Josh Giacomin '22 and Peter Taylor Award winner Aaron O'Neill '21 combined for 61 points on 27 goals and 34 assists and defenseman Mark DerManulian '21 recorded 22 assists — the most by a Forester in 14 years. All three players were named All-NCHA and DerManulian added Second Team West All-American accolades from the American Hockey Coaches Association. Giacomin, O'Neill, DerManulian, and Academic All-District® selection Boyd DiClemente, who set a program record with 17 victories in goal on the year, were also among the 14 Foresters to earn spots on the NCHA All-Academic Team and Patrick Kelliher was named NCHA Coach of the Year.
Women's hockey also placed second in the NCHA standings, finishing 16-11-1 overall and 12-3-1 in the league. Forward Sydney Simone '20 led the squad with 17 points on nine goals and eight assists and matched a program record and tied for first in the nation with four shorthanded scores. She finished her career ranked third in program history with 67 assists and sixth with 99 points. Defenseman Jordan Trapp '21 was next on the team with a dozen points and she joined Simone as All-NCHA selections. Fellow defenseman Karya Dean '23 (11 points) was named to the NCHA All-Freshman Team. Goaltender Jacque Rogers '20 received the Ry McCarthy Award for the third straight season and completed her four years at the College with a team record 51 career victories, .939 save percentage, 1.49 goals against average, and 22 shutouts. Simone, Trapp, and Rogers were among the program record 11 players named to the NCHA All-Academic Team.
A 104-96 victory over Grinnell College in the regular season finale earned a spot for the Foresters in the four-team MWC Men's Basketball Tournament for the fifth year in a row. Lake Forest, which finished 13-13 overall and 10-8 in the league, was led by point guard Sean Espinosa '21, who led the league with 5.0 assists per game and ranked second with 1.9 steals and eighth with 16.5 points per contest. Espinosa, who was named First Team All-MWC for the second straight season, became just the eighth player in school history to surpass 1,000 career points as a junior and he is already the program's all-time leader in assists with 378 in three seasons. Guard Sam Husting knocked down a team-high 71 three-pointers and finished his three years at the College with 198, the fourth-highest total in team annals.
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The women's basketball team was also 10-8 in MWC play (13-12 overall) but missed out on a third straight trip to the conference tournament by just one place in the standings. The Foresters made a program record 164 three-pointers and ranked second in the league with 70.2 points per game. Guard Kelsey Burton '21 was named First Team All-MWC for the third year in a row after finishing among the top 15 in the conference with 13.7 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 2.0 steals per contest and she became just the third player in program history to reach 1,000 career points during her junior season. Point guard Zaria Sydnor '20 led the squad with 2.8 assists per game and was second in scoring at 10.0.
After being named All-MWC in cross country in the fall, Yaneli Guajardo '21 and Philip Wilson '20 earned the honor again at the MWC Indoor Track and Field Championships in February. Guajardo repeated as the league champion in the 3000m and runner-up in the 1500m and 800m while Wilson was third in the 5000m. All-conference accolades also went to the third-place women's distance medley relay team of Madeline Morland '23, Lauren Giurini '20, Audrey Paglia '21, and Anna Mollnhuber '21. Lake Forest, despite competing in only running events, placed seventh at the MWC Championships in the women's team standings and ninth on the men's side. New head coach James Akita joined the staff in February and was set to lead the program during the outdoor season before COVID-19 forced that part of the year to be canceled.
Lake Forest traveled to the University of Texas for the 2020 United States Handball Association National Collegiate Championships and came home with a third-place finish in the men's and combined team standings and in fourth on the women's side. It was the Foresters' 25th consecutive year among the top four in the combined team category. Anthony Sullivan '21 led the men with a ninth place finish in the Open Singles Division while the women were paced by Riley Frisbie '20, who also earned a spot in the Open Singles field.
Spring
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The cancelation of spring sports around the country prevented the Forester softball team from pursuing a third consecutive MWC championship and sixth in the last seven years. Lake Forest was able to win four of six games indoors at The Dome in Rosemont, Illinois, and split 10 contests in Florida over Spring Break. Catcher Sydney Wyatt '20 led the squad with a .481 batting average, 17 runs scored, and 20 driven in during those 16 contests while Missy Dieckman-Meyer '20 was 4-2 with a 3.71 earned run average in the circle. Dieckman-Meyer finished her career ranked among the top five in program history with 38 victories, 44 complete games, eight shutouts, and 295 strikeouts. Second baseman/pitcher Shaye Gauthier '21, who hit .353 and posted a 1.59 earned run average this spring, was named Academic All-District® by CoSIDA in May.
The men's golf team played just once in the spring, finishing in the top half of the field at the Shenandoah Spring Fling in Kissimmee, Florida. The team, which features a lineup of primarily freshmen, also played five times in the fall and finished the year with a scoring average of 315.82. James Johnson '23 and Jack Dwyer '23 were the team's top two players and each earned an SLIAC Player of the Week award, Dwyer in the fall and Johnson after what turned out to be the final tournament of the year. The team's first SLIAC Championship Tournament was scheduled for April 27-28.
The MWC Men's Tennis Team Tournament was supposed to be played on April 24 and the MWC Individual Tournaments the following two days. While no conference matches took place, the Foresters were able to get in a dozen non-conference contests and finished 5-7. Oleksyi Vyshyvanyuk '23 was the most successful player on the team in those matches, posting a 10-2 record at #1 singles and the same mark with Chase Garber '20 at the top of the doubles lineup.
Extra Awards
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Each year the College presents the Nicholas J. Wasylik Senior Athletic Award to an individual, selected by the Athletic Department, who best emulates the positive, outgoing attitude, as well as the drive and determination, of the College's Athletic Director from 1959 to 1973. The 2020 recipient of the award was Jacque Rogers '20, who was named to the NCHA All-Academic Team each of the last three seasons and selected as women's hockey's All-Sportsmanship Team honoree as a freshman, the squad's Forester Commitment Award recipient twice, the Ry McCarthy Award winner each of the last three years, and a team captain as a senior. She also served for a year as the president of Lake Forest's Athletic Council.
The Lake Forest College Senior Scholar-Athlete Award is given to the individual with the highest grade point average over the previous three semesters and this year's honoree is men's hockey player Tyler O'Neill '20. O'Neill, an economics major, completed his education in December with a perfect 4.0 cumulative grade point average, is a three-time member of the NCHA All-Academic Team, and has served as President of the Lake Forest College Investment Club and Vice-President of the Financial Management Association for four years.