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Seahawks basketball solidifies historic season with CBI Championship
UNCW defeats Middle Tennessee State in Double 96-90 Double OT
Capping off a historic season with another record-breaking win, the UNCW Seahawks are officially back, according to Coach Takayo Siddle. In a total team effort at the Ocean Center, the Seahawks outlasted No. 2 seeded Middle Tennessee State, 96-90, in double overtime to win the school’s first postseason title in men’s basketball.The Seahawks, 27-9, won for the fourth time in as many days after knocking off VMI, Drake, Northern Colorado and MTSU in the 16-team tourney. The Blue Raiders closed out the season with a 26-11 scorecard. It marks the second tournament championship for second-year head coach Takayo Siddle after the Seahawks claimed the Mako Medical Asheville Classic one year ago with victories UNC Asheville and Troy at UNCA’s Kimmel Arena.
Sophomore second baseman Taylor Vitola and freshman right-hander Emily Winstead have been named to the NFCA's Mid-Atlantic Region Third-Team on Thursday afternoon.Vitola is a second-time All-Region selection after batting .333 at the top of the Seahawk lineup. The Middletown, Del., product is one of two Seahawks to have started all 45 games. Vitola's 49 hits are a team-high and rank seventh in the Colonial Athletic Association. The regional honor is the latest in a long line of accolades for Winstead, whose 182 strikeouts are the second-highest mark by a Seahawk in a season. The 5-7 hurler went 13-8 and leads the CAA with a 1.66 ERA. The Seahawks make their NCAA Tournament debut Friday against the tenth-seeded Clemson Tigers at Noon. First pitch from McWhorter Stadium can be seen live on the ACC Network or streamed on the ESPN app.
The Colonial Athletic Association Champion UNCW softball team makes its NCAA Championship debut against No. 10 seed Clemson on Friday at McWhorter Stadium. The Seahawks, 32-13, meet the Tigers (39-15) for the first time at Noon on the ACC Network with Jenn Hildreth and Carol Bruggeman on the call. Auburn (39-15) and Louisiana (45-11) will play an afternoon game to complete the field in the three-day, double-elimination regional. UNCW earned the CAA's automatic NCAA bid by winning three games in three days last weekend in the CAA Championship at Elon's Hunt Softball Park. The Seahawks upset the tournament's top two seeds, Delaware and Hofstra, in a pair of rubber matches before downing the host Phoenix, 10-2, in six innings for the program's first conference title.
Three UNCW student-athletes have punched their tickets to the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field East Preliminary Round at Indiana's Haugh Track & Field Complex on May 25-28, 2022, in Bloomington, Ind. Donovan Lara, Courtney Lines and Josh Parks are scheduled to compete in the meet, with an opportunity to advance to the NCAA National Championships in Eugene, Ore., on June 8-11, 2022, at historic Hayward Field. The top-12 in each event at the preliminary round move on to TrackTown USA.
*Lines qualified after the Leland, N.C., product soared 20-3.50 in the Long Jump at High Point's Bob Davidson meet. She is ranked 29th going into the competition.
*"For Courtney to qualify, it's a testament that hard work pays off," added Klaves. "She has been through so much to be at this stage. I'm truly excited that her hard work has paid off. She knows we're not done yet."
*Parks, the Co-Most Outstanding Performer in the recent Colonial Athletic Association Championships, will compete in the 110 and 400 Hurdles in Bloomington. The Kannapolis, N.C., hurdler clocked a 13.95 time at the Raleigh Relays on March 25, 2022, and went 51.55 at the same meet to qualify in both events.
Parham, Thaxton Enjoy Black Student-Athlete Summit
UNCW women's soccer star Makaya Parham and volleyball standout Sydney Thaxton recently spent the first part of their summer break networking and gathering informative feedback at the 9th Annual Black Student-Athlete Summit on May 23-25, 2022, in Houston, Texas. The pair joined Academic Coordinator/Director of Student-Athlete Development Jaime Mangold at the meeting hosted by Rice University Athletics. More than 700 student-athletes, coaches and administrators attended the annual gathering designed to enhance the development of the Black Student-Athlete. The summit brought together leaders and professionals from all levels of the NCAA and featured sessions such as The Mental Health of the Black Student-Athlete, Racial Conflict in College Athletics, More Than An Athlete, Destiny Determined-A Conversation, and Creating Culture and Community for the Black Student-Athlete. It marked the second straight year that Parham, a junior from Raleigh, has taken part in the summit after participating virtually during 2020-21 when Covid-19 struck. Parham serves as president of UNCW's newly-organized Black Student-Athlete Association.
UNCW freshman righthander RJ Sales was named Freshman All-America by Collegiate Baseball News following a rookie season that saw him help lead the Seahawks to their 36th consecutive Colonial Athletic Association tournament appearance.Sales, who also was named first-team All-CAA, opened the season in the starting rotation and moved into the Friday night role within a couple of weeks. He finished the season with a 6-1 mark in 15 starts and posted a staff-leading 3.52 earned run average. His 15 starts tied the UNCW program record held by Daniel Cropper (2007), Alex Royalty (2016) and Landen Roupp (2018). Royalty was the last Seahawk rookie to earn freshman All-America honors.
Director of Athletics Jimmy Bass, who has overseen a decade of significant athletic and academic achievement for UNCW Athletics, is stepping down, effective on April 1, 2023. Bass, 65, was named athletics director by then-Chancellor Rosemary DePaolo on Oct. 19, 2010. He is the program's sixth full-time athletics director, following William J. "Bill" Brooks, Paul Miller, Peg Bradley-Doppes, Mike Capaccio and Kelly Mehrtens.The second longest tenured athletic director in the history of the program behind the legendary Brooks, Bass has orchestrated a decade of tremendous athletics success during his tenure in the Port City. Under Bass' energetic leadership, the Seahawks have captured 31 Colonial Athletic Association championships and UNCW teams have advanced to the NCAA postseason 32 times. In addition, 37 individuals have competed in NCAA championships during Bass' 12 years with the program.
Colonial Athletic Association Men's Basketball Coach of the Year Takayo Siddle has capped his 2022-23 UNCW roster with the addition of three more newcomers for the upcoming season. Siddle has bolstered his club further by signing on Victor Enoh (Marist), Maleeck Harden-Hayes (North Dakota State) and Donovan Newby (Wisconsin-Milwaukee). The trio pushes the total of new players to seven for the 2022 College Basketball Invitational champions.
In two seasons at Marist, Enoh appeared in 44 games and made 16 starts. He averaged 3.1 points and 4.8 rebounds in two seasons, shooting 53.4 percent from the floor and 60.0 percent at the free throw line.
Harden-Hayes comes to the North Carolina coast after playing two seasons at NDSU. The 6-7, 185-pounder helped the Bison post a 23-10 record last season, playing in 30 of the team's 33 games. He averaged 5.3 points and 3.1 rebounds, shooting 43.7 percent from the floor and 78.7 percent at the free throw line.
The 6-1, 190-pound Newby is a versatile point guard who has three years of eligibility after transferring from Wisconsin-Milwaukee out of the Horizon League. The Chicago Heights, Ill., product started 23 of 32 games for the Panthers and averaged 8.3 points, 1.8 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Mark Dominick, UNCW's Athletic Trainer for the baseball program, will join Team USA's athletic training staff when the Collegiate National Team opens its training camp on Wednesday in Cary, N.C. Dominick recently completed his fifth season with the Seahawks and will be joining the Collegiate National Team for a second time. He served as the team's athletic trainer last summer as the Stars and Stripes toured the Appalachia League before taking on Team USA's Olympic Team before the Tokyo Games. Dominick joins a staff that is headed up by Mike Bianco, who earlier this month guided Ole Miss to its first College World Series title with a two-game sweep of Oklahoma. Josh Porter of Ole Miss will serve as the Head Athletic Trainer. Team USA will compete in exhibitions from June 30-July 4, in Cary, Durham and Charlotte. The team will pare down the roster from 50 to 26 before competing in the Honkbalweek Haarlem, July 8-15, in Haarlem, Netherlands.