The 2024-25 academic year provided plenty of highlights from UMSL student-athletes, including (clockwise from top left) All-American performances by women’s swimmer Justice Beard, the men’s basketball team’s run to the Sweet 16, women’s golfer Wilma Zanderau securing All-American honors for the third straight year and Braedon Stoakes leading the baseball team to the semifinals of the Great Lakes Valley Conference Tournament. (Photos courtesy of UMSL Athletics)

The University of Missouri–St. Louis Department of Athletics continued to build on what is arguably the most successful stretch – both competitively and academically – in school history during the 2024-2025 academic year.

Holly Sheilley stepped into the role of executive director of athletics near the start of the year following the retirement of longtime AD Lori Flanagan, but the Tritons never skipped a beat on the field, court or course or in the pool or classroom.

They sent six teams to NCAA Championships, had six All-American honors in competition and finished No. 68 nationally in the Learfield Directors’ Cup Division II standings. The annual competition tracks each athletic department’s success across all sports based on how it finishes in NCAA Championships, and UMSL’s finish was an improvement of nine places over the previous year. The Tritons have finished no lower than 77th in the standings the past four years.

“As we close out the 2024–25 academic year, I am filled with pride and enthusiasm for all that Triton Athletics has achieved,” Sheilley said. “This year has been nothing short of extraordinary – marked by historic milestones, national recognition and a steadfast commitment to academic and athletic excellence.”

UMSL’s success started in the fall semester when the women’s soccer team, led by first-team All-Great Lakes Valley Conference midfielder Kayley Judy and second-team selections Jada Holloman and Jaycee Cotton, played its way into the conference tournament as the No. 5 seed and went on a run that culminated in the Tritons’ first conference championship.

The women’s soccer team lost to Grand Valley State in the opening round of the NCAA Division II soccer championship but was one of two UMSL teams to qualify for the national tournament in the fall semester. The volleyball team, led by All-GLVC first-team setter Caitlin Bishop and outside hitter Alayna Santel, the GLVC Freshman of the Year, secured an NCAA bid for the fifth consecutive year. After back-to-back appearances in the national semifinals, this year’s Tritons fell to top-ranked Ferris State in the first round. Bishop was named an honorable mention All-American.

UMSL’s soccer team also qualified for the GLVC Tournament, and the men’s cross country team posted its best-ever finish in the NCAA regional meet, placing 14th, as Jacob Warner ran to a seventh-place finish individually in the conference championship.

The Tritons produced more highlights in the winter, including a trio of first-team All-American performances by sophomore Justice Beard at the NCAA Division II Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis. Beard placed fourth in the 1,000-yard freestyle and fifth in the 500-yard freestyle, but she saved her best performance for the final day of the meet when she touched the wall second in the women’s 1,650-yard freestyle. It was the highest-ever finish by an UMSL women’s swimmer, and she set a school record with a time of 16 minutes, 24.86 seconds, breaking her own mark of 16:34.77.

The relay team of Audrey Lantz, Kate Nelson, Madison Bottorff and Romina Itzkovich earned honorable mention by finishing 14th in the 200-yard freestyle relay and helped the Tritons to a 20th-place finish in the team standings. It was UMSL’s best-ever showing in the national meet.

The men’s basketball team, meanwhile, overcame an 0-5 start to the regular season and made it back to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, earning an at-large bid as the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region. The Tritons then extended a stretch of 11 wins in 12 games by knocking off Ferris State and Missouri S&T to advance to the Sweet 16 before bowing out against Lake Superior State. Matt Enright and Emanuel Prospere II were both named to the All-GLVC first team, and Troy Glover II was chosen the league’s defensive player of the year.

The women’s basketball team didn’t close as strong as the men but still finished with its first winning season in three years, going 19-9 and landing the No. 4 seed in the GLVC Tournament.

UMSL’s men’s and women’s golf teams headlined the spring sports season. Both finished first in the stroke play portion of the GLVC Tournament and played their way through the NCAA Regionals to reach the NCAA Division II Golf Championships. Women’s golfer Wilma Zanderau was named the GLVC Player of the Year and led the Tritons to a 14th-place finish in the national tournament with a 10th-place showing individually. That won her All-American recognition for the third consecutive season. The men’s team, meanwhile, placed 17th in its championship and was led by GLVC Freshman of the Year Logan Mayo, who finished tied for 26th in his first national tournament.

Coach Troy Halterman won GLVC Coach of the Year honors for his work with the men’s team. More recently, assistant men’s and women’s golf coach Scott Worley received the 2025 Jan Strickland Outstanding Assistant Coach Award, presented to the NCAA Division I, II, III, NAIA, or NJCAA assistant coach who, among other things, has excelled in working with their student-athletes both on the course and in the classroom.

This spring, the baseball and men’s and women’s tennis teams all qualified for their respective conference tournaments. The baseball team, led by All-GLVC honorees Andrew Buescher, Braedon Stoakes and Bryce Nicolay, played their way to the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Missouri S&T. The men’s tennis team also reached the semis but lost a tightly contested dual meet against Rockhurst. The women fell to Drury in their tournament’s quarterfinals, but Hannah Tse was named to the all-conference team.

In addition to their competitive success, UMSL student-athletes continued to win accolades for their work in the classroom with 13 teams receiving Academic All-GLVC Awards for posting team GPAs of 3.3 or better.

The women’s tennis team once again led the way with a combined GPA of 3.70 and was followed by women’s basketball (3.65), men’s golf (3.64), softball (3.62), volleyball (3.53), women’s soccer (3.51), men’s golf (3.51), women’s swimming (2.48), men’s track and field (3.47), men’s cross country (3.45), men’s swimming (3.45), women’s golf (3.37) and baseball (3.31).

UMSL also saw a school-record-tying 187 student-athletes receive Academic All-GLVC recognition after posting GPAs of 3.3 or higher. All 19 sports were represented on the list. Baseball accounted for the most with 26 student-athletes, but the women’s tennis team stood out for having every member of the team recognized. In all, 69% of UMSL student-athletes were honored – 103 of them for at least the second time in their careers.

The GLVC selected 17 UMSL student-athletes to be recipients of the Brother James Gaffney FSC Distinguished Scholar Award, named in honor of the former president of Lewis University and two-term chair of the GLVC Council of Presidents and presented annually to student-athletes who achieve a 4.0 GPA during the course of an academic year. The honorees were baseball players Cade Grevengoed and Barrett Rose; men’s cross country and track and field runners Willem Hummel, Sean Keys and Clayton Schneider; women’s cross country and track and field runner Ansley Casey; women’s golfer Juliette Lecomte; softball players Ashley Borowitz and Julia Sandles; men’s soccer player Luca Saewe; women’s soccer players Josie Maddox, Mary Kate Neal, Sophie Steinmetz and Aubree Wallace; men’s swimmer Mattia Nardi; women’s swimmer Madison Bottorff; and women’s tennis player Anna Favaron. Borowitz was recognized for the third consecutive year while Maddox was a repeat honoree.

UMSL had 34 UMSL student-athletes who earned the GLVC Council of Presidents’ Academic Excellence Award after exhausting their eligibility while maintaining at least a 3.5 GPA throughout their careers. They included baseball players Andrew Buescher, Zach Haygood, Barrett Rose, Braedon Stoakes and Nate Zyzda; men’s basketball players Brennan Weller and Savon Wykle; women’s basketball players Aalia Carlson, Audrey Martinez-Stewart, Kate Rolfes and Brooke Woodyard; men’s cross country and track and field runners Brett Lynch, Gavin Love, Devin St. Clair, Benjamin VandenBrink and Jacob Warner; women’s cross country and track and field runner Lily Wagemann; men’s golfer Andres Aguire; women’s golfer Juliette Lecomte; men’s soccer players JT Goldstein and Luca Saewe; women’s soccer players Emily Bloomfield, Jada Holloman and Kayley Judy; softball players Gwyn Miller, Megan Russell, Courtney Settles and Lexi Sherrick; men’s swimmers Ethan Boehle and Mason Stimson; women’s swimmers Cheyanne Godleski, Averi Meade and Kate Nelson; and volleyball player Trysta Foster.

“What inspires me most is how these accomplishments reflect the character of our department: resilient, unified, and always striving for more,” Sheilley said. “I am incredibly grateful to our coaches, staff, student-athletes, and the entire UMSL community whose unwavering support fuels our continued success.”