focus on athletics
Women’s Basketball Team Wins National Championship ranked squad in NAIA Division I this Oklahoma City University won the season as well as two of the most proNAIA Division I women’s basketball lific women’s basketball programs in tournament championship March 20 the nation. in convincing fashion, beating Union The Stars suffered their only loss of (Tenn.) 69-48 at Frankfort Convention the season 88-66 to Lubbock ChrisCenter in Kentucky. tian (Texas) on Jan. 12 at Abe Lemons The Stars finished their season 35-1 Arena. OCU responded with two wins and on a 21-game win streak. over Lubbock Christian, 60-51 on Feb. OCU has won national women’s 11 in Lubbock, Texas and 85-55 on basketball championships in 1988, OCU Women’s Basketball Team Monday in the national semifinals. 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 and now, “I’m just happy to see the journey 2012. our kids have gone on this season,” Oklahoma City coach Rob EdIn all sports, OCU has captured 43 national championships. Taylor Booze, a senior, posted a game-high 20 points and came misson said. “We defended so well, especially on their all-American. Defense wins championships, we say that all the time, and it away with the national-tournament most valuable player award. The game matched the top-ranked team versus the second- proved itself tonight.”
OCU Athletic Hall of Fame inducts three OCU celebrated its rich athletic tradition in inducting its 2011-12 Athletic Hall of Fame class in a ceremony Jan. 21 in the Great Hall of the Tom and Brenda McDaniel University Center. OCU’s newest hall of famers were former soccer standout Sally Cole, former softball pitcher Andrea Drake and assistant baseball coach Keith Lytle. Drake still holds career records for strikeouts (874) and innings pitched (707) set during 1988-91. Drake became a fourtime NAIA all-American, making first-team all-American as a junior, as well as fourtime all-District Nine and two-time alltournament in the NAIA Championships. As a senior, Drake went 17-7 with a 1.15 earned run average, 24 complete games,
five no-hitters, 149 strikeouts in 157.1 innings pitched. Cole became four-time first-team NAIA all-American and two-time NAIA scholarathlete award winner for OCU from 19992002. She took third-team CoSIDA academic all-American honors as a junior. Her statistics during her career were 29 goals, 17 assists and 75 points. Cole, who hails from Yukon, Okla., currently coaches soccer at Bishop McGuinness High School in Oklahoma City. Lytle has been recognized as one of the top hitting instructors in the nation during his 23-year tenure with OCU. With Lytle’s aid, OCU posted the most wins in the nation since 1991 (1,070 entering 2012),
12 consecutive 50-win seasons, seven SAC titles and 11 trips to the NAIA World Series. The Stars were national runnerup three years in a row before breaking through to win the national championship in 2005. Freddy Sanchez, the 2006 National League batting champion, blossomed under Lytle’s tutelage and led the San Francisco Giants to the 2010 World Series championship. Sanchez was an all-American for OCU in 2000. Lytle became the first OCU Athletic Hall of Famer who has spent his time at the university as an assistant coach his entire tenure.
From left, former softball pitcher Andrea Drake, former soccer player Sally Cole and assistant baseball coach Keith Lytle were inducted into the OCU Athletic Hall of Fame in January.
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focus s pring 2012