Sports
January 19, 2023
Track teams begin their journey
The men’s and women’s track and field teams traveled to Trine University in Angola, Indiana to compete in the Sean Brady Alumni Invite on Saturday. This was the third meet of the indoor season. The men’s team scored 22 points and placed 10th of 14 teams, and the women placed 14th of 14. On the women’s team, the field events were led by our star thrower, Willow Kenneda, a junior. Kenneda placed 14th in shot put with a throw of 10.54 meters (34 feet 7 inches) and placed 18th in the weight throw with a throw of 12.34 m (40-6)....
January 19, 2023
Men’s volleyball tackles changes
The Goshen College men’s volleyball team will debut their season under new leadership this weekend. After the resignation of previous head coach Lauren Ford in early January, the team is now under the direction of new interim coaches. Jewel Lehman is filling the head coaching position this season, and she is joined by assistant coaches Val Hershberger and Andy Bennett. Lehman is the department chair of the kinesiology department and has experience coaching at the collegiate level. From 2004 to 2008, she led the GC women’s volleyball team to success, with a winning record in three of the five seasons...
December 1, 2022
Cross-country ranks at nationals; Leafs receive honors
The Goshen College men’s cross-country team entered the NAIA National Championship race ranked 26th in the nation. “Having experience at nationals, we know that a lot of people go out way too hard,” head coach Rustin Nyce said. “In order to not get caught up in that … we raced smart and patient. We went out fast enough, but everybody else went out faster.” The race strategy worked well for the Maple Leafs. Between the 1.17 kilometer mark (the first timing checkpoint, where the Leafs sat in 31st position) and the finish line, Goshen’s seven runners combined to pass 581...
December 1, 2022
Leafs look to continue strong start to WBB season
The last time the Goshen College women’s basketball team had a winning record in a season, the team went on a run to the 2016 NAIA national semifinals. This year, the Maple Leafs are striving to end the six-year losing streak — and it’s beginning to look like a real possibility. With the Leafs holding a 5-2 record before Wednesday night’s matchup at the University of St. Francis, Goshen has come out of the gate hot and ready to “turn some heads,” as junior Zion Neat put it. “We have a really good culture going right now,” Neat said, “and everybody...
November 10, 2022
Cross-country takes on Crossroads League Championships
On Friday, the men’s and women’s cross-country teams competed in the Crossroads League Tournament in Shelbyville, IN, in the last race before the NAIA National Championships, which will take place in Tallahassee, Florida, on Nov. 18. The 36-team field for the championships was announced on Tuesday. The men finished 26th in the rankings, good enough for an at-large bid and a spot in the national finals. The top 30 teams are eligible for an at-large bid. The women finished with a ranking of 31st, missing nationals by the slimmest of margins. On Saturday, though, the team finished in fifth place...
November 10, 2022
Leafs fall to Knights in Crossroads League quarterfinals
The Goshen College women’s soccer season came to an end last Saturday, as the Maple Leafs fell, 4-0, to No. 2 Marian in the Crossroads League tournament quarterfinals. After losing to Marian 6-0 just two weeks prior, the Leafs came into the matchup knowing it would be a long road to a win — and the undefeated Knights had no problem breezing past the Maple Leafs once again, as Naomi Walters gathered a hat trick in the opening half-hour. Marian added a penalty kick in the 75th minute, and the Knights now face Taylor in the semifinals. The Leafs ended...
November 10, 2022
Crawford’s GC coaching career comes to a close
On Thursday, Nov. 3, Goshen College parted ways with women’s volleyball head coach, Kourtney Crawford. The decision comes after three consecutive winless years in the Crossroads League for the volleyball team. In that stretch, the Leafs went 0-51 in conference play and 6-78 overall. In total, the team held a record of 14-105 (6-78 in the Crossroads League) under Crawford. With a winning percentage of .117 in her four years at Goshen, the separation is perhaps unsurprising to many. Still, the volleyball team is reeling from Crawford’s departure. Gwyn Bellamy, a junior and captain on the team, described Thursday as...
November 3, 2022
Men’s volleyball prepares for upcoming season
With only a few months until their season begins, the Goshen College men’s volleyball team prepares to compete as a relatively new team. This year’s team features a significantly different roster from the one fans saw last season. With only one starter returning, senior Ian Fox, many of the team’s players are new. Despite these new players, however, the team as a whole isn’t necessarily young; the group includes two first-years, one sophomore, four juniors, four seniors and two fifth-year players. To prepare for the season, players have been engaging in fall practice. Fall ball allows players to tune their...
November 3, 2022
Basketball begins season looking for growth
College basketball returned to Goshen last weekend, as the Goshen College women’s basketball team won two games at the Ruth Gunden Memorial Classic while the men fell to the University of Northwestern Ohio. “We sure are energized, and we’ve got a lot of talent,” said Stephanie Miller, the women’s head coach, after the Goshen team’s 75-68 comeback victory over William Jessup University, a private California school. “We’re very young,” Miller said, “and you can see that. We’re making a lot of mistakes…we’re not really 100% sure about anything. I think it’s just gonna take some time for us to really...
October 28, 2022
Volleyball fights through adversity: An interview
With a 3-0 loss last night to Spring Arbor University, the Goshen College women’s volleyball team fell to 2-29 overall. The Leafs remain winless in the Crossroads League, now bearing a 0-16 record. The team has just two games left: a Friday night home matchup against Taylor University, and their final match of the season on Saturday at Bethel University. The team hopes to close the season with a strong showing, as they try to break their 21-game losing streak. Sophomore captain Sadie Brenneman shared her thoughts on the past year and all that came along with it. Brenneman is...
October 28, 2022
Leafs battle for tournament berths
The Goshen College women’s soccer team was hit with a killer one-two punch this past week. Playing two of the top four teams in the nation, the Leafs were trounced by a score of 6-0 twice in one week. Goshen fell first to No. 2 Marian University on Saturday, and then last night to No. 4 Spring Arbor University. “[I’m] never happy with a loss,” said Goshen head coach Justin Crew. “But I’m really happy with the effort and the energy.” Crew had strong praise for his players, calling them “focused” and stating that they played “with a sense of...
October 13, 2022
I love you, Goshen: Squirrel signing off
Goshen College on Friday revealed a new mascot and official cheerleader for athletics: Dash the Squirrel. I’m now out of a job. For the last nine months or so, I’ve been going to all the Goshen home games while wearing a crummy little squirrel suit from Amazon, held together with duct tape and safety pins. And in those nine months, the student section became louder than at any time in recent memory. My life as a squirrel began after the GC administration sent an email out to its student body and alumni last year announcing the formation of a mascot...
October 13, 2022
Tennis season ends on high note
Two weeks ago, the Goshen College tennis teams competed at the four-day Intercollegiate Tennis Association’s Small College Regional Midwest tournament at Indiana Wesleyan University. “You wake up as a team and you go to bed as a team,” said senior Kevin Bollmann. “You spend basically 24 hours together…and that support showed on the court.” In what head coach Evan Atkinson called “some of [their] best tennis,” Goshen College closed its season by winning two tournaments with strong performances in multiple others while competing against over 200 of the best NAIA players in the Midwest. Sude Aytekin won three of her...
October 7, 2022
Leafs set school record as team
Goshen College cross country is fast — but we all know that. The real news? They’re now faster than they’ve ever been. Ezra Kipruto ran a 24:56 8K with Nelson Kemboi hot on his heels at 24:58, and the men set the school record for the best finishing time of all five scoring runners on Saturday at the Live in Lou Classic in Louisville. The team ran a combined time of 127:26, an average of 25:29 for an 8K. Then, less than an hour later, the women nearly did the same. Led by Naomi Ross-Richer (18:44) in 51st and Summer Cooper...
October 7, 2022
Cougars roar, but fall to Leafs
Capping off a strong week for Maple Leaf athletics, both the men’s and women’s soccer teams snatched their first conference win of the year against the University of Saint Francis through last-second heroics — and a touch of drama. In the women’s away fixture, both teams were scoreless through 85 minutes. Goshen was keeping the pressure on against the St. Francis defense all game but couldn’t find a breakthrough. Then the ball fell to Anita Tavares. With just over two minutes left in the game, Tavares sprinted down the left side with the ball. As a Cougar defender tapped it...