200 Memories Central

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Welcome back to our celebration of 200 moments, memories, coaches and student-athletes from the history of Lycoming College athletics. In this 10th series of moments, we take a look at both the first teams to make the NCAA Division III Tournament in football and men’s basketball and the school’s only five-time All-American swimmer.

With no more ado, here are moments 91-100 in our series of 200:

91. Robin Wert, 1979-82 – The best goalkeeper in the field hockey team’s history, Robin Wert earned three all-conference nods during her career while playing on teams that finished under .500 in each of her four years. The criminal justice major from Stroudsburg, Pa., started her career by helping the Warriors finish 4-5-1 to earn Honorable Mention All-MAC honors. She had an .860 goals against average, making 80 stops in 12 games. As a junior, she earned her first of two First Team All-MAC honors after leading the league in saves with 123 and an .860 save percentage despite the Warriors finishing 1-9-1. As a senior, she posted 119 saves and posted an .880 save percentage, the second-best percentage in the MAC to help the Warriors to three more wins than her freshman year. Wert’s also competed for the All-Mideast team at the National Field Hockey Association three times and she was a three-time all-region selection. Also a two-year captain, Wert was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988.

92. 1982 Men's Tennis Team – Entering the 1982 men’s tennis season, the Warriors had won just seven matches in the seven previous seasons. Entering his third season as head coach, Phil Christman, who also worked in the admissions office at the school, had won just one match, a 5-4 win over King’s in 1981. It all changed in 1982, though, as freshman Jim Shawver, from Kinnelon, N.J., and junior Mark Gibbon, from South Williamsport, formed a formidable top part of the lineup and Pete Wesley, Drew Falk, Rick Carpenter and Dave Grabau filtered into the bottom half. The lineup turned out the most successful season since 1973 despite a stormy spring that featured two early-April snowfalls, as the Warriors recovered from an 0-2 start by winning their next six matches, including MAC North West matches to Elizabethtown, Juniata and Wilkes leading into a match against Albright, which was also undefeated. The Warriors, fell, 6-3, to the Lions but the team still finished with a 7-4 record, the most wins of any season between 1973 and 2010. The Warriors also posted a 9-0 win over Juniata, its first shutout since 1973. Shawver finished 6-5 at No. 1 singles and Gibbon added an 8-2 mark at No. 2 singles to lead the squad. Christman left the Warriors at the end of the 1982 season, but his affiliation with college tennis did not end, as he coached the women’s tennis team at Division II Malone University from 1990-98, setting the program record for wins.               

93. Kathy Wert, 1980-83 – A year behind her sister, Robin, Kathy Wert was a welcome complement to the goaltending Robin. A wing player, Wert stepped into the starting lineup as a freshman. As a sophomore, much like Robin, Kathy earned her first of three All-MAC honors. She earned honorable mention honors during both her sophomore and senior years and took first team accolades as a junior. Wert’s association with the game has not faded, as she served as an assistant coach at Stroudsburg in 2009, as her daughter, Brooke, helped the team win a conference title.

94. Denise Zimmerman, 1980-84 – When talking about the greatest athletes in school history, it’s hard not to talk about Denise Zimmerman. From Reinholds, Pa., Zimmerman was the first female athlete at the school to compete at a national level. She won a school-record nine MAC swimming titles, a school-record five All-American honors and nearly 30 years after she left the pool, she still holds school records in the 200-yard freestyle (1:58.94), the 200-yard butterfly (2:14.66) and the 200-yard backstroke (2:13.61). As a freshman, Zimmerman became the first female athlete at Lycoming to win a MAC Championship, posting a win in the 200-yard backstroke before also adding wins in the 100-yard backstroke and 200-yard freestyle. In 1982, she added MAC titles in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke and, at the first NCAA Division III swimming championships, she earned three First Team All-American honors, taking fourth in the 50-yard backstroke, sixth in the 100-yard backstroke and seventh in the 200-yard butterfly. As a junior, she added MAC titles in the 100-yard butterfly and the 200-yard backstroke and earned Second Team All-American honors in the 100- and 200-yard backstroke. As a senior, she wrapped up her career with conference titles in the 100-yard freestyle and the 100-yard backstroke. Zimmerman was elected to the College’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1994.

95. Amy Elder, 1979-83 –  A 6-0 center from Huntingdon, Pa., Amy Elder was one of the first stars of the College’s women’s basketball program. She joined the team in its second year of existence and helped the team improve during each of her first three years with the program. As a junior, she averaged 10.6 points and 13.2 rebounds per game, becoming the first women’s player in school history to average a double-double. She was even more dominant as a senior, averaging 18.5 points and a school-record 17.1 rebounds per game en route to earning Second Team American Women’s Sports Federation Division III All-American honors. Elder’s 17.1 rebounds per game were also second in the NCAA Division III. She also grabbed a school-record 29 boards in a game against Misericordia during that season. Elder was recognized with the Pocahontas Award as the school’s top female athlete in 1983 and she graduated magna cum laude with a degree in music. After graduation, she moved to Europe and taught at the American International School of Luxemborg for three years and also played professionally with the Luxemborg Sporting basketball team. Elder was inducted into the College’s Hall of Fame in 1995 and the Huntingdon County Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008.

96. Eileen Mackson, 1983 – After Denise Zimmerman won three All-American honors at the first NCAA Championships in 1982, the Warriors found her a partner in 1983 when freshman Eileen Mackson became the second swimming All-American in school history. After winning MAC titles in the 200-yard freestyle and the 200-yard individual medley, Mackson finished eighth in the IM to earn First Team All-American honors. The Wappingers Falls, N.Y., native went on to finish second in the 400-yard IM as a sophomore and fourth in a pair of events as a sophomore. She went on to earn the Sol “Woody” Wolf Award as a junior, as she posted five school records during her first three years with the program. She also competed on the track and field team.

97. Deanna Cappo, 1980-84 – From Waplinger Falls, N.Y., a walk-on to the tennis team in 1980, Deanna Cappo spent the next four years writing the Lycoming College women’s tennis team record book. The top player on the team from the time she stepped foot on campus, Cappo became the first player in school history to win 25 career singles matches, posting a 25-9 overall singles record and she became the first player to win 20 doubles matches, posting a 23-9 career record. It took 10 years for another player to match those accomplishments. She also helped usher in one of the most successful periods in the program’s history, as the team finished .500 or better during each of her four years and as a sophomore, Cappo led the Warriors to the MAC Northern Division title, posting a 7-3 record in the top position in the lineup and adding a 5-3 mark in doubles. As a junior, she teamed with Kim Paul to win the consolation bracket at the MAC Championships in doubles play. A two-time captain, Cappo earned the Pocahontas Award in 1984 as the school’s top female athlete. On campus, the mathematics and computer science major was just as involved, serving as the president of the Student Association. She was a member of Gamma Delta Sigma, the Campus Activities Board and the student advisory committee for the mathematical sciences department. All of that helped her earn the College’s Chieftain Award in 1984.   

98. Gone Dancin’, 1985 – Just three years after setting a school record with 16 straight losses, the Lycoming men’s basketball team enjoyed one of the most remarkable years in the program’s history. Led by First Team All-MAC North selection junior Ed Langer, who scored 489 points during the 19-7 campaign, and Second Team All-MAC North pick senior Tom Doyle, who was a member of the 1982-83 squad, the Warriors started an eight-game winning streak after an overtime loss to Wilkes. By the end of January, the team was 14-2 and ranked 12^th in the nation. The team wrapped up the MAC Northwest section title for the second straight year and hosted the MAC Northern Division playoffs. In the first round of the tournament, the Warriors beat Wilkes, 60-58, in front of the second-largest crowd in Lamade Gym history, 2,100. However, the Warriors fell to Scranton in the championship, 56-50. Still, the Warriors were rewarded for the strong season with the school’s first NCAA Division III Tournament bid for a team sport. The Warriors made their first appearance a memorable one, losing to eventual Final Four team Widener, 54-52, in the first round before beating Washington & Jefferson, 102-92, in double overtime in the consolation game of the regional.

99. 1985 MAC Champions – When fans of Lycoming College football talk about the greatest teams in school history, the discussion usually starts with the 1985 squad. Coming off an 8-2 season, the Warriors were loaded with talent, as six First Team All-MAC players returned. The Warriors were as advertised, winning the opener 29-8 over Division II Lock Haven and then grinding out a 20-14 win over rival Susquehanna. As the year went on, the team continued to roll, getting past Widener, 18-10 and Moravian, 17-15, in tough road games and adding shutouts against Albright, Upsala, Delaware Valley and Lebanon Valley, nearly half the team’s nine-game schedule. The 59-0  win over the Dutchmen helped the team clinch the College’s first perfect regular season, the MAC title and earned its first bid to the NCAA Division III Tournament. Despite a 14-10 loss to Gettysburg in the first round, the Warriors still had nine First Team All-MAC selections, the Coach of the Year in Frank Girardi and the Player of the Year in quarterback Larry Berretta. In addition, Barretta, Michael Boures and Walt Zatevski earned Associated Press Little All-American honors.

100. Diane Arpert, 1981-85 – After averaging just 5.8 points per game as a freshman, Diane Arpert became the Lycoming College women’s basketball team’s go-to player for the next three years, helping her leave the school with nearly every scoring record. As a sophomore, her scoring average leaped eight points and then as a junior, her average jumped eight points again as she set a school-record that still stands with a 22.9 season scoring average. On Valentine’s Day of 1984, she added a school-record 44 points against Misericordia, helping her earn Second Team American Women’s Sports Federation All-American honors. She duplicated the honor as a senior after averaging 20.7 points per game and she became the first women’s player in school history to reach 1,000 career points. At the end of the season, the sociology major won the school’s Pocahontas Award as the most outstanding female athlete. She was inducted into the College’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 1990.

We hope you enjoyed our 10th look at 200 Memories. Stay tuned on Friday, Jan. 6, as moments 101-110 will be released, with moments capturing the period from 1986-1990, including one of the best 3-point shooters in Division III history, the emergence of the women’s basketball program onto the national scene and both the greatest and most heartbreaking season in the football program’s history.

As always, if you feel we missed an event or two that can be deemed a memorable moment or a memorable student-athlete, please share them. Tell us why they are special and any information you may have about that moment or person by contacting Sports Information Director Joe Guistina at guistina@lycoming.edu. Special addendums with your feedback will be released following the conclusion of the list in 2012.