While Illinois Wesleyan students were taking off from campus for Spring Break, many Titans athletes themselves were preparing for their spring break matches.
The ten-day-long recess saw 11 teams compete in 32 matches across 12 states.
Baseball:
The baseball team played in six matches over spring recess, going 2-4 over the stretch. The Titans started with a triple-header in Louisville, Kentucky, against Spalding (Ky).
The Titans lost the first double-header on March 14, 2-7 and 15-2, but took Spalding to the tenth inning on March 15, losing the match 9-8.
The Titans then played UW-Oshkosh thrice over three days at home between March 20 and 22. They lost the first match on March 20 after giving up five runs in the top of the ninth.
On March 21, the Titans took the Titans to extras, winning 8-7, snapping their 15-game losing streak.
The following day, they blew out UW-Oshkosh 7-2.
Softball:
Softball took their talents to the Magnolia State, with stops in Jackson and Columbus, Mississippi.
They started with a double-header against the Mississippi University for Women, splitting matches, 5-3 Owls, and 4-0 Titans.
The Titans then faced No. 20 Belhaven, splitting games, 4-3 Blazers, 5-4 Titans. The next day, the Titans faced Millsaps, once again splitting matches, 6-4 Titans, 5-3 Majors.
Men’s Lacrosse:
Men’s lacrosse’s spring break trip took them to Salem, Virginia, to take on the Roanoke Maroons. The Maroons dominated the Green and White in an 18-8 trouncing.
Three days later in Misenheimer, North Carolina, the Titans played the Pfeiffer Falcons, playing them to two points but ultimately falling 12-10 after relinquishing three uncontested goals in the fourth period.
Tennis:
While Northern and Central Illinois were getting beat with tornados and snow, men’s and women’s tennis were enjoying the sunshine in Orlando, Florida, for matches against Coe College, Edgewood College, Shippensburg, and Bethel University.
Both were outmatched against Coe in a 6-1 loss, the sole win coming from No. 5 singles Will Ehrlich,
and junior Amber Ehrlich at the top singles spot.
The men quickly bounced back the fol-lowing day with a 7-0 sweep against Edgewood, and the top women’s duo of Ehrlich and junior Olivia Bell won 7-5 over Edgewood and 6-3 over Shippensburg.
The men were swept by Bethel, 7-0, but the wins just kept coming for the women, with sophomore duo Gabi Lipske and Katie Van Heuklon and first-year duo Adia Douglas and Elana Religioso each picking up two doubles wins across the two days.
The two match wins brought the Titans’ record up to 10-6, securing their first winning season since the 2010-2011 season.
Men’s Volleyball:
The men’s volleyball spring break started not with a match, but with a program history.
On March 17, the Titans appeared for the first time in program history in the American Volleyball Coaches Association Poll.
Three days later, the No. 20 Titans played St. Norbert College in their non-conference final and their first ever game as a ranked program.
The Green and White went to four sets, winning 3-1 (23-25, 25-16, 25-23, 25-20). The Titans’ win was in part to a dominant 17-5 block ratio against the Green Knights.
Men’s Golf:
The No. 6 men’s golf team traveled to Jekyll Island, Georgia, to compete in the Jekyll Island Intercollegiate.
Sophomore Pablo Castro led the Titans with a top-five finish at the par-72, 6,730-yard Pine Lakes Golf Course. The team finished in a tie for seventh-place with a 54-hole total of 15-under par, 849.
The contest included 15 of the top-25 nationally ranked teams.
Women’s Golf:
The Titans braved the sweltering heat of Litchfield Park, Arizona, to compete in the SMSU Classic.
The two-day event saw the Titans fight through 93-degree heat in a twelve-team battle to win their third team title of the 2025-26 season. Sophomore Gigi Zera earned the first individual victory of her career.
After eagling the third hole of day two, Zera held onto the lead and never relinquished it. She finished the 36-hole event with a career-best total of 145, winning first by one stroke.
Sophomore Grace Fagan recorded her third top-15 finish of the season. Fagan finished with a 36-hole total of 151 to tie for 10th.
First-year Julia Henry recorded a two-day total of 152 for an 11th-place finish. The Titans finished the first day one stroke behind Nebraska Kearney and finished the second day tied with the Lopers.
Since the Titans recorded the lower second-round team score, they won the tiebreaker over Nebraska Kearney, clinching their victory.
Flag Football:
The brand-new flag football team kicked off their spring break matches on the first official day of break, March 13. The Titans faced North Park University, winning in a 27-0 shutout.
First-year Emma Caniglia led the team in passing and rushing yards. She threw for 173 yards and four touchdowns while rushing for 52 yards on seven attempts.
The Titans then left for the birthplace of blues, facing Cumberland and Milligan in Lebanon, Tennessee.
Unfortunately for the Illinois Wesleyan Titans, both Cumberland and Milligan showed up playing like the Tennessee Titans.
In two lopsided defeats (37-0, Cumberland, and 82-6, Milligan), the Titans combined for six interceptions and almost 300 yards in punts.
The Green and White turned things around on the final day of break, March 22, with a shut-out 53-0 victory over UW-Oshkosh in Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin.
In the final match of the break the Titans fell to the Marian Sabres in a tight 12-0 game.
Track and Field:
Individual members of the men’s and women’s track teams travelled to Birmingham, Alabama, to compete in the NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships.
Senior Evan Lowder tied for third in the 400m with a time of 47.52, an indoor personal-best and new College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin record.
Junior Imani Ogunribido posted a third-place finish in the women’s triple jump. Ogunribido leaped 12.26m, earning herself her first First Team All-American status.
Junior Mackenzie Huber placed fourth in the 800m, earning the first All-American distinction of her career.
Huber clocked in with a time of 2:10.85, the highest by a Titan in the indoor 800m since Tara Clemens
won the event in 2013.
Senior Adriana Crabtree rounded out the day with a 14th-place finish in the 3000m race, finishing with a time of 9:49.62.
Crabtree lost a shoe midway through the race, forcing her to run on uneven feet for
the rest of the race.
Still, Crabtree earned a Second Team All-American honor, her third career All-American finish.
Men’s basketball:
Despite being late into Spring, one winter sport was still fighting: the men’s basketball team. The Titans hosted No. 11 Endicott at the Shirk Center for a NCAA Sweet Sixteen match.
The No. 8 Titans came out in dominant fashion, taking a twelve-point lead to end the first half.
Endicott battled back in the second half, but the Titans still pulled away and secured their first Elite Eight berth since 2022.
There was perhaps only one team left in the Elite Eight who could truly match up with the Titans, No. 2 Emory. And Emory was exactly who the Titans would have to beat to continue to the Final Four.
The Titans traveled to Fort Wayne, Indiana, and, on March 19, took on Emory at Allen County War Memorial Coliseum.
The Titans trailed by 4 at the end of the first half, but battled the game back to a tie with only under a
minute left in the second. Emory took possession with 20 seconds remaining on the clock.
Tightly guarded by senior Niego, Emory’s Ben Pearce hit an off-balance, three pointer with 1.6 on the
clock to book the Eagles a trip to the Final Four.
The heartbreaking loss marked the end of an incredibly successful season for the Titans, headlined by junior Mason Funk and sophomore sensation Noah Cleveland, who both rightfully took home D3hoops All-America Honors.
The baseball team in the dugout cheering after success. Photo: Audrey Peterson
