Six St. Thomas athletic teams competed in their first-ever Division I season, earning winning records, second place finishes and All-Summit League athletes.
The university made history as it became the first Division III school to transition directly to Division I in July. Thus far, the Tommies’ football, cross country, soccer and volleyball teams have a combined record of 17-51-3.
“I think we’ve been more competitive than people thought we might be,” athletics director Phil Esten said. “We were picked last in almost every single (pre-season conference standings) poll, and we didn’t finish last in any of them.”
The football team tied for third place, and the men and women’s cross country teams finished second and fourth, respectively. The men’s soccer team finished sixth while the women’s soccer team finished in ninth; the same ranking volleyball finished with.
“We’ve traveled across the country… and the way that our student-athletes are representing us should make all of us proud,” Esten said.
The Tommies competed in 48 away matches across 19 states during an 88-day span. The Tommies traveled from coast to coast and across four time zones to more than 10 different universities.
Esten and the athletic department learned a lot from the six finished seasons, he said, which he will take as a lesson into the winter, spring and future sports seasons to come.
“We still have a tremendous journey ahead of us to try to get to where we want to be sustainably competitive year in and year out in our conference, in the region and maybe nationally, but from a foundational standpoint, I was really pleased with the way things happened this fall,” Esten said.
Football
The St. Thomas football team finished its first Division I season tied for third with Morehead State in the Pioneer Football League standings, trailing only Davidson and San Diego, who handed the Tommies their only two conference losses. The third loss of the season came at the hands of Northern Iowa, an FCS powerhouse that spent much of the season ranked in the top-25 nationally.
Coach Glenn Caruso’s team began the season with many doubters, who thought his team would not succeed in its first year at the DI level. However, the team ended its season with a remarkable 7-3 record, leading the PFL in multiple defensive categories.
“There may never be another football team… at any level at any school that will have to deal with the amount of uncertainty and newness that these guys had to deal with,” coach Glenn Caruso said. “To be able to watch them grow together through that journey has been a blessing that is one of the highlights of my career.”
Since winning its seventh conference championship of the decade in 2019, Caruso’s team hadn’t played a game in 97 weeks until its first DI game against Michigan Tech on Sept. 11. On top of the two-level division change, the team had two classes who had never played collegiate football before.
Despite this, the Tommies ended the season leading the PFL in total defense, scoring defense (17 points/game), pass defense efficiency, interception returns, interception return yards, fourth-down conversions allowed (eight), third-downs allowed (45) and opponent first-downs per game.
“I know it’s going to turn a lot of heads nationally and I know it’s going to garner a lot of recognition, and our players deserve that, but most importantly, I think it teaches our young men how much work has got to go into those things you’re most passionate about,” Caruso said.
The team began its first home game of the DI era with a 36-0 smashing of Butler. The team also won all four of its games at O’Shaughnessy Stadium, by a point differential of 137-to-35. The Tommies are riding a 31-game home regular-season win streak that spans five years.
For Caruso, his favorite moments were not the big hits, big plays or big wins, they were the subtler things in life.
“I think my favorite moments occurred when no one was really looking,” Caruso said.
Caruso spoke of the opportunity for his team to travel and see the country from coast to coast, locker room conversations, stretching on an airplane 35,000 feet in the air and players huddling around each other during a cold practice as just a few of his favorite moments.
Beyond this, he recognized the students’ endless reinforcement throughout the season.
“The students’ support was crazy,” Caruso said. “To be in our first home game and be beating Butler 36-to-nothing and turning around and seeing Section 7 and Section 6 totally full still… that’s awesome.”
The Tommies had continued dominance during its DIII days and, despite the success of their 2021 season, Caruso still feels his team can grow in Division I.
“We can always learn, but it’s been a long time around here since we had the opportunity to learn as much as we learned this season and that was not only refreshing, but that was a moment I’ll never forget,” Caruso said.
Men’s Cross Country
Coach Pete Wareham’s men’s cross country team lit up the courses at each of its five meets, and finished off its season placing second of eight teams in the Summit League Championships.
The team turned heads in their first race, placing first of seven in the Twin Cities Twilight on Sept. 3 against Division II and III competition. The Tommies had five runners in the top eight finishers, including a first place finish by sophomore Morey Smith.
“We didn’t know what to expect when we started the season, but once we got going, we felt we could be pretty competitive,” Wareham said. “Just looking back, I’m actually more impressed now thinking about it than I was at the time in terms of the quality of competition up front and how our guys performed right in there with those.”
The team placed ahead of more established DI teams including Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and Drake throughout the season. The Tommies sat in second in the Summit League Championships, where South Dakota State won its sixth consecutive championship.
The Tommies had eight runners in the top 22 in the men’s 8k race at the championships, which took place in Tulsa, Okla. on Oct. 30. Sophomore Zach Haire placed fourth in a field of 62 runners.
“Zach is just rock solid in everything he does,” Wareham said. “He’s a great example, great leader for our team, but everybody picked up their game.”
Wareham’s team showed up and took their hardware at the championships. Haire made the Summit League’s first-team with his finish, while sophomore Colton Halla, first-year Charles Caven and senior Biel Wiel took home second-team all-conference honors.
In terms of Wareham’s favorite moment from his first season coaching a DI men’s cross country team, he doesn’t have one.
“I think each day was getting better and better and better,” Wareham said. “Each meet our guys just seemed to improve, so the whole fall is just so much fun for myself and for the guys on the team.”
The team is set to only lose three seniors going into the 2022-2023 season, giving Wareham’s young team potential to make waves yet again.
“There are just higher quality athletes at the Division I level, and so I think that these guys raised their standards,” Wareham said. “In doing so, I think that they got to a place where they’ve never been before competitively. With high standards you’ll find high high success.”
Women’s Cross Country
The women’s cross country team made headlines when, after 42 years at St. Thomas, coach Joe Sweeney announced he would retire at the end of the 2021 calendar year.
Over the years, Sweeney’s teams had 165 All-Americans, 28 individual national titles, 86 MIAC championships and five national championships. His first, and only, DI season ended with a fourth place finish at the Summit League Championships on Oct. 30.
“Running is running and racing is racing,” Sweeney said. “If the level of competition is raised up a notch, you’re still going to run your hardest. It comes down to running as fast as we can and beating as many people as possible.”
This season, the Tommies placed ahead of multiple larger DI schools, such as Kentucky, Dayton and Ohio State in the Joe Piane Invitational in Notre Dame, Ind. as well as Drake, Creighton and Oklahoma in the Bradley “Pink” Classic in Peoria, Ill.
“(The athletes) take pride in being a part of an elite program at St. Thomas,” Sweeney said, “and I think that just continued in our first DI season.”
The Tommies placed second and third in two traditionally DIII meets this season, the Twin Cities Twilight and the Hamline Invitational.
However, the DIII meets were not the most exciting finish the team had in its first season. Sweeney reveled in the fact that his squad was able to bring home a fourth place finish out of nine total teams during the Summit League Championships.
“Our Summit League performance was a great final highlight,” Sweeney said. “We beat five teams that are established DI programs … and to see everybody race so well was amazing.”
Senior Olivia Moll and first-year Molly Desotell placed fifth and 11th, respectively, in a field of 75 runners as the Tommies put an additional three runners in the top 35.
According to Sweeney, the University of North Dakota and South Dakota cross country teams are particularly good, so when his team edged out the Fighting Hawks by a 98-96 margin, it was a “small victory, but a big one.”
Men’s Soccer
The men’s soccer team finished its season with a 3-11-2 record, winning its final three games of the season against Omaha, Milwaukee and Kansas City. The team took down Kansas City in its final game after a sudden-death goal by junior defender Wes Lorrens secured a 2-1 OT victory.
The Tommies played 10-of-16 games on the road across six states.
“We’re just trying to find comfort in our new reality,” coach Jon Lowery said in a post-game interview on Sept. 28. “At the beginning of the year, we didn’t have a lot of comfort. The level of the games was uncomfortable, maybe the whole idea of it all was somewhat uncomfortable.”
As his team became more comfortable, they began putting the ball in the back of the net. The Tommies scored 10 goals in 16 games, four of them coming in the final three matches.
Lorrens and first-year defender Charlie Holton led the Tommies in scoring with three goals apiece, helping the team end its season on a three-game win streak.
The Tommies signed senior forward and midfielder Charlie Hoelscher from Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Lowery believes Hoelsher will be a perfect fit for his team.
“Physically he sticks out, but also is very technical, and as a coach’s son reads the game very well,” Lowery said in an interview with TommieSports.
Women’s Soccer
Senior defender Gaba Palazzo kicks the ball for a corner kick. (Casey Eakins/TommieMedia)
The women’s soccer team made history this season, becoming the first St. Thomas team to officially compete at the DI level, ending in a 0-0 double overtime tie against Northern Iowa on August 24.
The team finished its season with a 4-12-1 record, with eight players across all grades scoring 13 goals. For coach Sheila McGill, she believed her players could have won more games, but was proud of the way they stayed positive during the season.
“The way our team came together was phenomenal,” McGill said. “It was so much fun to watch our seniors lead in such a great way and to welcome our new players and to help them learn how to be a Tommie women’s soccer player.”
The team also made history by gaining the first DI victory in school history on August 29 against Chicago State University. The Tommies took down the Cougars 2-0 with goals by first-year forward Lexi Huber and senior midfielder Lexi Serreyn.
However, McGill’s favorite moment of the season was not her team’s first victory, but its second. The win came in a dominant 3-0 home match against University of Wyoming,
“Beating Wyoming 3-0; that was huge,” McGill said. “Beating a team 3-0 was almost shocking to us… we just did not expect it and they’re a very good team.”
McGill praised her team for its ability to get great shots on goal during the match, which consisted of three goals by returning players. Senior forwards Kristen Epperly and Maddie Bomsta scored in the match alongside junior midfielder Jasmine Gates.
Next season, the women’s soccer team will be young, adding 10 new players to its roster and returning 12 of its current first-year players.
McGill believes the end of her team’s season demonstrated a bright future for the program at the DI level. Eight of the Tommies’ 12 losses were decided by just one goal.
“If I look back at winning four games and being in every game and being competitive, I’m incredibly happy with the way that the first season went,” McGill said.
Volleyball
The St. Thomas volleyball team may have ended its season 3-25, but coach Thanh Pham believes the experience his team gained in its first year at the DI level will carry over for seasons to come.
“We were missing some experience, but by the end of the season, we were competing well against our conference teams and that was the goal going into the year,” Pham said.
The Tommies defeated conference opponent North Dakota twice in the season to gain their conference wins, placing them above the Fighting Hawks in the final Summit League standings. The team’s first home game, and first home win, came against the Fighting Hawks, which was “hands down” Pham’s favorite moment from the season.
“Our gym was rocking, the fans were incredible—I don’t think I’ll ever forget that moment,” Pham said.
The Tommies defeated North Dakota in five sets and racked up 592 spectators at Schoenecker Arena. Junior middle blocker Selena Levendoski and first-year outside hitter Lauren Galvin had a combined 42 kills in the match.
Galvin was a tough competitor for the Tommies all year, starting all 28 matches and playing in all but three of the 92 total sets played this season. Galvin surpassed 300 total kills on the season, and her 3.42 average kills per set ranks 17th among all DI first-years, earning her a spot on the Summit League Volleyball’s All-Freshman Team.
Instead of focusing on the past season, Pham has his sights set on 2022.
“We’re very excited for our incoming class and with the combination of athletic freshmen and smart returners,” Pham said. “I think that we’ll be able to improve on our season that we had this year.”
Pham will be adding seven first-year athletes to his roster, five from Minnesota and one from North Dakota and Iowa.
“It’s been extremely fun watching the success of other programs and following other teams,” Pham said. “I think that moving to Division I, as a group of coaches, we’ve done a better job of following our other peers’ teams so that we can enjoy their success … and that camaraderie is going to be huge moving forward.”
Cam Kauffman can be reached at kauf8536@stthomas.edu.