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 14th series of moments, we take a look at one of the greatest years in the athletic program’s history in 1997, including two of the best softball pitchers in school history, a wrestling national champion, and league titles for both women’s swimming and women’s tennis.  

With no more ado, here are moments 131-140 in our series of 200:

131. Annette Weller, 1991-96 – A two-sport star from the day she entered Lycoming College, Annette Weller saved her best for her final two years at the school, as she set a school-record with 536 points and averaged 20.6 points per game for the women’s basketball team en route to first-team all-conference honors as a junior with the women’s basketball team. She followed that by immediately joining the softball team and hitting .384 with five triples, the third-most in school history, and 28 RBIs, the second-most, while playing first base for the Warriors and helping the team to the Commonwealth Conference championship. Weller spent one more season with the women’s basketball team, earning her second First Team All-Freedom Conference honors and posting 20.5 points per game, as she crossed 1,000 points in her career. Weller, a 5-10 forward from Winfield, Pa., was named to the WBCA Honorable Mention All-American team after the season, as she finished her career with school records for scoring average (16.7) and free throws made (278). She is still listed amongst the top five in school history in no less than 10 categories and amazingly, she scored 1,287 career points even though she played in just five games as a freshman. On the diamond, she was just as successful, hitting .347 in her career and finishing her career in the top 10 in five offensive categories. She was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2001.

132. Ruth Sykes, 1993-97 – As part of a 10-member recruiting class, Ruth Sykes helped permanently change the culture of the Lycoming College women’s swimming program when she came to the campus in 1993 from Millersville, Pa. Having won four dual meets in the previous three seasons and suffered through eight straight losing seasons, the Warriors were buoyed immediately by Sykes, who had a team-high 29 individual wins as a freshman while leading the team to a then-school record 12 dual meet wins and setting school-records in both the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke. As a sophomore, she was even better, posting an NCAA ‘B’ qualifying standard in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:30.54) while winning the first MAC title for the Warriors in 11 years. She followed that by hitting another ‘B’ standard while winning the 100-yard race with a 1:09.75 in the preliminary race. As a junior, she lowered her 200-yard breaststroke time to 2:29.75 while earning first-team all-conference honors and hitting NCAA ‘B’ qualifying standards in both breaststroke events and the 400-yard individual medley. As a senior, she again lowered her 200-yard breaststroke time, earning all-conference honors in both breaststroke events again and reaching the ‘B’ standard for a third time while leading the Warriors to a school-record 13 dual meet wins. In all, Sykes helped the team to a 42-10 dual meet record and three top three finishes at the MAC Championships while reaching the NCAA ‘B’ standard three times in her career. She also left the school with two individual school records and three relay records. Also a two-time MAC Academic Honor Roll selection, Sykes earned the 1997 Pocahontas Award. She is a PH.D. candidate in William & Mary’s computer science department and was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004.

133. Mary Beth Schwindenhammer, 1994-97 – From the time that Mary Beth Schwindenhammer first stepped in the circle for the Lycoming College softball team in 1994, it was clear that she was going to be a game-changing force for the Warriors, and not just because she tossed a five-inning no-hitter in a 28-0 win over Upsala. From that awe-inspiring beginning, the hard-throwing hurler went on to set program benchmarks in wins (50) and complete games (57) that still stand. Schwindenhammer, a product of Whitehall, Pa., and Central Catholic High School, went 14-5 with a 1.15 ERA as a freshman, setting school-records for wins and complete games (18) before going 13-4 with a 1.91 ERA as a sophomore while helping the Warriors to the Middle Atlantic Conference title. As a junior, she was just about unhittable, going 13-2 with a 0.70 ERA in 100.2 innings, starting 15 games and completing all of them as she became the first player in school history to earn First Team All-NFCA All-East Region honors. As a senior, she went 9-4, finishing her career by earning her fourth All-Freedom Conference First Team accolades. She was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2003.

134. Susan Leuthner, 1994-97 - A middle infielder from Loyalsock Township, Susan Leuthner left a mark on the Lycoming College softball record book that is still more than evident 18 years later. A four-year starter, the second baseman never hit less than .320 in a season and the cleanup hitter did just that during her career, driving in a school-record 77 runs and scoring a school-record 85. As a junior, she drove in a record 30 runs and hit four home runs. She also became the first player in school history to reach 100 career hits, doing so with a single against Delaware Valley during her senior year. A three-time First Team All-Freedom Conference selection, Leuthner is still in the top 10 in school history in 14 career offensive categories and six single-season categories.

135. Sally Snyder, 1995-98 – While the Warriors had to go all the way to Allentown to find the ace of their pitching staffs in Mary Beth Schwindenhammer, head coach Christen Ditzler had to just take a short trip West to Jersey Shore to find Sally Snyder in 1995. A crafty pitcher with good control, Snyder started her career just like Schwindenhammer, by tossing a no-hitter. The rookie threw a five-inning gem, striking out four against Marywood, spurring her on to a 9-4 record and a 1.60 ERA as a rookie. She also tossed the MAC Championship clinching-game, leading the Warriors to a 9-3 win over Moravian and earned First Team All-MAC honors. As a sophomore, she went 6-3 and as a junior, she was even better, going 12-1 with a 1.99 ERA and three shutouts, tossing her second career no-hitter against Delaware Valley. She earned Second Team All-Freedom Conference each of those years. As a senior, she added an 8-5 record, finishing her career with a 1.98 ERA, a 35-13 record and 127 strikeouts in 321.2 innings pitched.

136. 1997 NCAA Tournament Appearance – After winning Freedom League titles in back-to-back years, Sonny Kirkpatrick set higher goals for the College’s volleyball team in 1997. With the toughest schedule in the program’s history to that point, heading to tournaments in Washington D.C., Virginia and Pittsburgh, the team swept through the Freedom League schedule and entered the MAC Playoffs ranked sixth in the Mid-Atlantic Region, with the top six teams in the region entering the NCAA Tournament. With a 3-0 win over Moravian in the opener of the MAC Championship, the team solidified its standing in the region. Even after a loss to Juniata in the finals, the Warriors still earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, facing the Greyhounds in the first round. Behind the strong play of Amanda Hollenbacher, who posted 23 kills and 27 digs, and Tracey Hracho, who had 19 kills, Lycoming beat Moravian in four sets before Gettysburg beat the Warriors in four sets in the second round. Still, the team left its mark on the record book, winning a school-record 30 matches, while Hracho was named the Freedom League Player of the Year. Hollenbacher, Jill Sheeley and Elizabeth Groft also all earned all-conference honors.

137. 1996-97 NCAA Tournament Team – With three straight appearances in Middle Atlantic Conference playoffs, the women’s basketball team entered 1996-97 with high expectations, but a new plan, as the Warriors lost their top post player and expected to be a guard-oriented team behind juniors Erica Weaver and Jen Holt and sophomore Jennifer Shuler. The emergence of junior Heather Jacobs and freshman Stephanie Smith, though, gave the team a solid corps and with role players such as Nicole Kimble, Kathy Hoffman and Cindy Tritt, the team had a deep bench. When the team beat Division II Lock Haven, 84-73, thanks to an 11-of-18 3-point shooting performance, it became clear that the team was going to become a threat from deep. The win was the third in a run of a school-record nine in a row and when in mid-February, the team knocked off Drew and the Mid-Atlantic Region’s top team in Scranton in back-to-back games, the team solidified its playoff status, rising to sixth in the regional poll by the regular season’s end. With a 63-44 win over Susquehanna in the MAC Playoffs, it buoyed its NCAA Tournament hopes and earned a bid as the fifth seed in the Mid-Atlantic Region on March 2. Even though they lost to Alvernia in the first round, the team still reeled in several postseason awards, as Christen Ditzler was named the Freedom League and Columbus Multimedia Mid-Atlantic Region Coach of the Year and Erica Weaver was a First Team All-Freedom League, Columbus Multimedia All-Region and Kodak Honorable Mention All-American after leading the team with 15.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

138. 1997 MAC Champions – When Rhode Island native Gerry Cournoyer took over the swim program in 1996, he inherited a women’s swim program that went 8-5 overall and finished sixth in the league the year before. With a solid corps of returners, the Warriors dominated during the regular season, falling just once, by 1.5 points at Elizabethtown. However five wins before that and eight after sandwiched the loss, as the team allowed just one more team within 20 points of it during the season en route to the school record for wins. That was just the start of the accomplishments for the team, though, as it racked up 352.5 points at the MAC Championships to edge out Elizabethtown (342.5) for the title. Seven Warriors earned all-conference honors, led by six from senior Jenn Smith, who finished in the top three in the 50- and 100-yard freestyle, the 200- and 400-yard medley relay and the 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay. Ruth Sykes earned a pair of all-conference honors in the 100- and 200-yard breaststroke while Jenna Hoff led the team, winning titles in the 50-yard freestyle and the 100-yard butterfly. Niki Wasson also was key, winning a title in the 200-yard butterfly, and finishing second in the 200-yard individual medley. Cournoyer left Lycoming in 2000 to accept the head coaching job at the University of Vermont after leading the team to a combined 71-42 record in his four years with the program.

139. 1997 Freedom League title – As Deb Holmes moved into her third decade at the helm of the women’s tennis program, the program was developing into one of the best in the conference. After two one-conference loss seasons followed by two two-conference loss seasons, the Warriors entered the 1997 season poised to make the Middle Atlantic Conference playoffs for the third time in four years. With a talent-laden experienced bunch that included four juniors, one senior and just one freshman in the lineup, the Warriors used key wins in every dual from No. 2 singles junior Jenna Hoff and No. 6 singles freshman Heather Straub as well as an 8-1 record from the No. 1 doubles team of juniors Umanga deSilva and Jaime Kaiser. After a tough 5-4 loss to Scranton in their second Freedom League dual meet, the Warriors reeled off four straight wins, including a 6-3 win over Drew in the finale to tie Drew and Scranton at 5-1. However, Lycoming won the league title by virtue of a tiebreaker and  reached the MAC Championships, falling to Moravian in the first round, but the 1997 team set up the most successful period in school history, as the Warriors won the league title in two of the next three years as well. To cap off the season, deSilva and Kaiser earned the top seed at the MAC Individual Tournament, reaching the semifinals at the event.

140. Aaron Fitt, 1997 – It was a long road for Aaron Fitt from a 4-3 freshman year to his senior year, when he became the only wrestler in Lycoming College history to earn the NCAA Division III Most Outstanding Wrestler award. Fitt entered the lineup at 142 pounds as a sophomore, posting a 27-3 record and winning the NCAA East Regional. As a junior, the Danville, Pa., native was just as good, posting a 26-4 record and earning his first MAC title, MAC Wrestler of the Year award and All-American nod after finishing sixth at the national tournament. All of that led up to his senior year, when he moved up to 150 pounds and continued his dominance. He rolled to his second MAC title, earning another MAC Wrestler of the Year award and then won his third NCAA East Regional tournament. At the national tournament, he was dominant in his four wins, allowing more than four points in just one match and winning the national title with a 10-2 major decision against Augsburg’s Jesse Bakalyar, capping the 26-0 season. Fitt was inducted into the Lycoming College Athletics Hall of Fame in 2004 and the District 4 Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2009.

We hope you enjoyed our 14th look at 200 Memories. Stay tuned on Friday, March 2, as moments 141-150 will be released, with moments capturing the period from 1998-99, as we take a look at the building of a sports complex, a wrestling three-peat and a trio of All-Americans, including the first men’s lacrosse one in school 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.