GAME ON! Spring 2025
MEN'S BASKETBALL
Men’s basketball became the first NESCAC team to go undefeated in the regular season since the league became a formal playing conference. They then made it all the way to the Sweet 16, Elite 8, and Final Four in the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time in team history. Read more about their storybook season at athletics.wesleyan.edu.
WOMEN’S SQUASH
After completing a 10-win regular season, the women’s squash team went on to repeat as Walker Cup Champions at the Collegiate Squash Association Division Team Championships held in Philadelphia. Coming in as the top-seed in the nine-team tournament, Wesleyan captured a 9–0 win over Connecticut College in the opening round before rolling to 8–1 wins over Denison in the semifinal and Franklin & Marshall in the title match.
Wesleyan made 16 all-time appearances in the Walker Cup (C Division) before taking home the title for the first time in team history last season. Now back-to-back Walker Cup Champions, head coach Shona Kerr’s squad finished the 2024–2025 season with a 13–5 record, which is the second-highest single-season win percentage (.722) in the team’s 52-year history. Mira Bakshi ’26 was recognized with All-NESCAC Second Team honors, becoming just the fifth Cardinal in team history to earn an All-NESCAC selection. With seven members of the team’s regular lineup set to return in 2025–2026, and having amassed 25 wins in the past two seasons combined, the Cardinals are primed for another title run next season.
WRESTLING
The Wesleyan wrestling team booked two qualifying spots at Nationals for the first time in nearly a decade, as CJ Shea ’25 and Hayden Myers ’27 represented the Cardinals at the 2025 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships hosted in Providence, Rhode Island. This was the first time Wesleyan had at least two qualify for Nationals since the 2017–2018 season.
With Wesleyan playing host to an NCAA Regional Championship for the first time since 2014, Shea came in ranked Top 10 nationally and seeded No. 2 in the region in the 165-pound weight class. The senior went on to win four straight matches at the Regional Championships, two of which came by just one point, including a thrilling takedown late in the third period of the title match in a 5–4 win. Shea was voted as the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Northeast Region and makes his first career appearance at the NCAA Championships with a 34–1 record this season.
A year removed from a devastating fourth-place finish at last year’s Regional, Myers exacted some revenge as the sophomore shrugged off a semifinal round defeat in the main draw of the 141-pound bracket and rebounded with back-to-back decision wins that clinched a third-place finish and the last qualifying spot into the NCAA Championships at his weight class. Myers trailed 9–4 heading into the third period of the third-place bout and he roared back with nine unanswered points to win 13–9. This was the sophomore’s first career appearance at Nationals.
HALL OF FAME
Wesleyan Athletics inducted its 2024 Hall of Fame class, the 11th induction class in school history, which featured eight individuals and one team, bringing the total in Wesleyan’s Hall of Fame up to 68 individuals and nine teams. The 2024 class was inducted on November 1, during the University’s Homecoming and Family Weekend.
The 2024 class included: Joe Summa ’71 graduated as the all-time leader in assists and made field goals for men’s basketball. Fran Rivkin ’78 was a founding member of both the women’s track & field and women’s ice hockey teams while she competed on a varsity team in 11-of-12 possible seasons in her four years at Wesleyan. Eric Mangini ’94 is the school record holder for sacks and a Super Bowl–winning coach in the NFL. Matt Perceval ’00 was an All-American at wide receiver and still holds a single-game NCAA record with seven receiving touchdowns in a win over Middlebury in 1998. Becca Vogel Zylber ’05 is the leading scorer in women’s lacrosse history at Wesleyan with 213 career points while Lisa Drennan ’09 still holds three team records for volleyball and was a two-time NESCAC Player of the Year.
Fred “Fritz” Martin remains one of the longest-serving members of the Athletic Department in school history and Phil Calhoun ’62 was the first-ever head men’s crew coach at Wesleyan, guiding the Cardinals to the 1967 New England Championship and four of the first five Little Three Championships. Women’s crew saw their 1978 varsity 8—winners of the Dad Vail Regatta (regarded as the national championship) in what was just their fourth varsity season—inducted as well with the team made up of Kathy Keeler ’78, Joan Chevalier ’78, Sandra Cleveland ’80, Dianne Edgar ’78, Pamela Grant ’80, Cecily Johnston ’79, Linda Iannone ’79, Cindy Markert ’78, and Elisabeth Sikes ’80.
