4 minute read

LIGHT UP THE HYPE THANK YOU, COACH

Scott Doffek, the 2013 Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association College Coach of the Year and two-time Horizon League Coach of the Year, has done it all in building the Milwaukee Panthers into the success they are in his nearly three decades with the university.

Doffek just wrapped up his 17th season as the head coach of the Panthers in 2023, following a 12-year stretch as the assistant head coach.

Advertisement

The Milwaukee women’s tennis team enjoyed a strong season, closing out the campaign by making it to the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament before falling to the eventual league-champion Youngstown State.

Overall, the Panthers went 9-14 in the first season under head coach Ryan Kucera, which marked the third-most wins for a first-year head coach in program history.

Kucera achieved all of this success despite a roster that featured four newcomers out of the eight-player roster and had also graduated a firstteam all-league honoree. Despite that, MKE went 8-4 at home, advanced deep into the postseason, and saw Nadiia Konieva earn All-League First Team honors as well as the Horizon League Freshmen of the Year award.

Alice Shields (21 wins) and Konieva

(20) each recorded 20-plus singles victories, the first Panthers to achieve the milestone since 2017. Shields also posted 20 doubles wins, the first to top 20+ victories in doubles since 2019. Konieva was close behind with 18.

Anika Tylek wrapped up her fouryear career, graduating with 42 career singles wins and 31 career doubles victories. Tylek claimed 12 singles wins this season to go along with a 7-4 doubles ledger, with a memorable singles match comeback decision against Northern Kentucky to clinch the win for the Panthers and send them to the semifinals of the Horizon League Tournament.

Tylek and Babette Burgersdijk were named to the Horizon League All-Academic squad, while Tylek, Burgersdijk, Giorgia Cavestro, and Iva Stejskalova were named to the College Sports Communicators Academic AllDistrict Team.

The Milwaukee baseball team capped off another campaign and returned to postseason form with a bid to the Horizon League Championship as the fifth seed following a year in which the team posted 25 wins against 32 losses and finished the year with an 11-18 mark in Horizon League play.

Upon their entry to the postseason, the Panthers made quick work of Youngstown State in a 12-3 victory, sending the fourth-seeded Penguins home. Milwaukee matched up with the top-seeded Wright State Raiders the following morning and fell for its first loss in the double-elimination bracket.

Later that evening, the Panthers played the role of eliminator again as the team upended third-seeded Northern Kentucky to send the Norse back home to Highland Heights in a thrilling 10-8, 10-inning victory. Milwaukee hung with the Raiders again on the following day but were unable to overcome a two-run deficit as the season was ended in a 2-1 loss.

Following the four-game postseason run, the Panthers’ middle infield of Mark Connelly and Marcus Cline earned All-Tournament Team accolades.

Six student-athletes for the Panthers earned honors for their regular seasons spearheaded by first-team honoree

Aaron Chapman. Four more Panthers garnered second-team accolades as Connelly, Riley Frey, Sam Mathews, and Jack Thelen earned recognition. Finally, Carson Hansen put together a rookie campaign and was selected to the All-Freshman Team.

Chapman led Milwaukee with a .335 batting average and amassed 70 hits on the year, while Connelly led the Panthers with 40 RBIs. Earlier in the season during the team’s conference series at Oakland, Connelly became the first Panther to successfully hit for the cycle as he accomplished the feat on March 31.

Luke Seidel and Ty Olejnik joined Chapman and Connelly as the only players with at least 50 hits this season, including Olejnik’s inside-the-park home run against Northwestern on May 9. Jack Thelen wrapped up his career with the Panthers with an impressive showing defensively as he caught 27 baserunners attempting to steal this year.

Frey led the staff with 90 innings pitched and was the team leader with 87 strikeouts, as fellow starter Luke Hansel held the team lead with six wins and recorded 66 strikeouts in 67 innings. Nate DeYoung was one of the top relievers in the nation with nine saves as he recorded a 1.76 ERA, while Mathews ended the season third in the nation with 37 pitching appearances and posted a 2.78 ERA over 35 2/3 innings.

The Milwaukee track & field teams took home a pair of second-place trophies at the Horizon League Championships during the outdoor season in early May. Overall, the team had a successful spring campaign, culminating with a quartet of Panthers earning bids to the NCAA West Preliminaries in Sacramento, California from May 2427.

With four qualifiers for the West Preliminaries the team had its most qualifiers since the spring of 2016, when seven Panthers reached the regional level of the NCAA Championships.

Earning bids in 2023 were Anthony Campbell and Austin Wallace in the long jump, Golden Cotton in the 200-meter dash, and Annie Guerrero in the high jump. For Guerrero, it was her second career bid to the NCAAs, while the trio of males made their debuts.

Milwaukee’s men’s program had six individual champions at the Horizon League Championships, hosted by Youngstown State, including a sweep of the 100- and 200-meter dashes by Cotton, Campbell in the long jump, Wallace in the decathlon, while Caleb Henry secured a win in the 400-meter dash, and Caleb Rogalski took top billing in the hammer throw.

The women’s team also celebrated three individual championships at the Horizon League meet with Lauren Lietzke winning the discus, Tabitha Wechlo taking the top spot in the shot put, while Olivia VanZeeland won the high jump.

Upon the team’s success head coach

Andrew Basler was selected as coCoach of the Year. Cotton earned co-Outstanding Runner honors, and Wallace was tabbed as co-Outstanding Field Performer.

Throughout the spring, numerous records fell for both the men’s and women’s programs including Cotton’s 10.43 in the 100-meter dash, and a 20.82 in the 200-meter dash. Trevor Wenzel placed his name in the record book twice as well, setting the top mark in the 5000-meter run at 14:22.16, and a 10,000-meter run with a 30:10.40.

Campbell shattered the previous mark of the in the high jump setting a new mark in program history, as well as the Horizon League Championship mark at 7.64 meters. Wallace registered 7509 points in the decathlon, in extending his program record while also setting the Horizon League mark at the championship meet.

Guerrero tied her own program record in the high jump at 1.75 meters, matching the mark she had set back during the spring of 2021.

This article is from: