COLCHESTER, Vt. - A case can be made for the 2025-26 school year standing as the most successful on record for Saint Michael's College Athletics, which saw a school-record five programs represented at NCAA Championships, the department claim its best Learfield Directors' Cup finish, and four teams set school marks for victories. All-America student-athletes, record breakers, and outstanding achievements were plentiful during this historic past school year.
 
Saint Michael's Athletics on the National Stage
A school-record five programs were represented at an NCAA Championship, with women's basketball and men's lacrosse breaking through for their initial berths. Men's basketball, the Northeast 10 Conference Championship runner-up, qualified for NCAAs for the second time in three years, a run of success last matched a quarter century ago. In the spring, men's lacrosse upset the nation's third-ranked team, NE10 foe Saint Anselm College, 9-8, in its NCAA debut to advance to the national quarterfinals. For the second time in three seasons, head coach Alex Smith was named NE10 Coach of the Year and New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (NEILA) Coach of the Year.
 
Nordic skiing had NCAA National Collegiate Championship competitors for a school-record third consecutive season, with rising senior Oliver Miatke (Duluth, Minn./Duluth East) the program's first two-time qualifier while joining rising junior Sam Friday (Carbondale, Colo./Roaring Fork). Rising junior Isabella Knutsen (Bergen, Vestland, Norway/Norges Toppidrettsgymnas Geilo) provided Saint Michael's Alpine skiing representation at the NCAA Championship for the 15th time in 18 winters.
 
Three additional programs narrowly missed capping their seasons with NCAA Championship appearances, headlined by a record-breaking women's soccer squad. The 16-3-1 (6-2-1 NE10) Purple Knights shattered a year-old program mark for wins, bested a 36-year-old standard for consecutive wins (8), and set additional records for points (146), assists (60) and shutouts (13). After defeating Bentley University, 1-0, in an NE10 Championship quarterfinal during their first postseason home game since 1989, they advanced as far as an NE10 semifinal, losing to eventual NCAA runner-up Franklin Pierce University, 2-1. The Purple and Gold barely missed qualifying for the NCAA field at the end of its historic campaign.
 
Both cross country teams faced similar fates at the tail end of their seasons. The men placed a school-record fourth at the NCAA East Regional Championship, which sends its top three teams to the NCAA Championship. May graduate Braden Butler (South Berwick, Maine/Marshfield), rising seniors Fran Peterson (Barron, Wis./Barron) and Andrew Scanio (Lake Placid, N.Y./Lake Placid), and rising junior Jersey Miller (Minneapolis, Minn./Saint Louis Park) were all within range of qualifying on an individual basis for the NCAA Championship. Peterson was NE10 Championship runner-up.
 
Saint Michael's Athletics tied for 108th among 251 Division II schools in the final 2025-26 Learfield Directors' Cup standings, setting a school record with the placement and with its point total (202). Both were good for fifth place in the 10-school NE10. The Learfield Directors' Cup was developed as a joint effort between the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) and USA Today in 2008. Points are awarded based on each institution's finish in NCAA Championships each academic season.
 
The Purple Knights continued to achieve at a high level in the classroom, as well, posting an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of at least 95% for the 19th straight cycle, well above the NCAA Division II national average for graduation rate. Overall, the College tied for sixth among more than 300 schools nationwide, its 19th straight top-10 showing.
 
Records Abound
Women's soccer was among four programs that set school records for wins in 2025-26, joining baseball, men's swimming & diving, and men's tennis. Men's swimming & diving (8-3) joined women's soccer in felling a year-old mark, baseball captured 20 wins and its first NE10 Championship qualification while trimming the 1999 team's mark, and men's tennis finished 11-6 to surpass a 45-year-old standard. Baseball broke nearly a dozen team records, while another two dozen individual marks fell.
 
Bolstered by her men breaking their wins mark, men's and women's swimming & diving head coach Eileen Hall established that program's record for coaching victories. Having just finished her 16th season, she already held the women's record. Jack Fitzgerald also helped men's ice hockey set a record in his first season at the helm, when the Purple Knights took Saint Anselm to triple overtime in an NE10 Championship semifinal - the longest game ever played in the league's history. Women's volleyball head coach Lauren Brough has led the Purple Knights to the postseason in each of her three years, the program's longest such run since the mid-1990s, as her team posted its best NE10 winning percentage in 31 years.
 
May graduate Joelle Cameron (West Bridgewater, Mass./West Bridgewater) felled long-standing NCAA Division II field hockey goalkeeping records during a historic 2025 season. Her 429 saves broke a 22-year-old Division II record - and bettered long-standing NE10 (2003) and program (1988) marks - and were the most by any netminder across the NCAA's three divisions since 1997. On Sept. 7, she tied a 33-year-old Division II record with 45 saves. Just 10 days later, she claimed the record for herself with 48 more stops. Cameron, who led Division II in not just saves and saves per game (25.2) but save percentage (.835), landed on the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) All-America second team. Women's ice hockey classmate Annika Lavender (Plymouth, Minn./Wayzata) etched her name in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance (NEWHA) record book, making more saves (3,392) than any other player in league history.
 
All-Americans
Cameron headlined a group of four Purple Knights who earned All-America honors during the 2025-26 school year. Rising junior Scarlett Brookes (Rockaway, N.J./Morris Knolls) keyed women's soccer's historic season while herself accomplishing an unprecedented feat, becoming the first member of her program to land All-America honors - a recognition she earned twice last fall, landing on the United Soccer Coaches' third team and Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association's (D2 CCA) third team. Despite missing four games, she led the NE10 in goals (13), points (31) and game-winners (6), turning in the most prolific offensive season by a Purple Knight since 1996.
 
Rising seniors Paul Mannke (Stoneham, Mass./Stoneham) and Taylor Wiercinski (Groton, Mass./Lawrence Academy) were instrumental in men's lacrosse's first NCAA Championship appearance, contributing to a nationally top-10 defense. A close defender, Mannke caused 30 turnovers, the most by a Purple Knight in seven years, en route to landing a USA Lacrosse All-America honorable mention. Wiercinski was one of the nation's most versatile long-stick midfielders, not just scooping 61 ground balls and causing 23 turnovers but scoring 10 goals to key the transition game. He earned a United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) All-America honorable mention.
 
Adding to the Lineup
Men's and women's outdoor track debuted in the spring, becoming the 21st and 22nd varsity sports at Saint Michael's College. Two rising sophomores provided highlights at the programs' NE10 Championship debuts: Maggie Crawford (Granby, Mass./Granby) qualified for the 400-meter hurdles finals, ultimately placing seventh in the event, while Demunga Alfani (Colchester, Vt./Colchester) missed advancing to the 100-meter dash finals by only 0.006 seconds, finishing ninth during trials. The teams, whose rosters will nearly double for the 2027 season, utilize the Tarrant Recreation Center and local facilities for indoor and outdoor training,
 
Additional Milestones

• Men's soccer had its best NE10 finish in 18 seasons and posted its highest winning percentage in 16 years.
• Women's swimming & diving went 8-3 to record its highest winning percentage in 30 years.
• Women's tennis, which lost no seniors to graduation, registered its highest win total in 12 years.
• Women's lacrosse saw three players reach the 100-point plateau for their careers: May graduate Sophia Lynch (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) and rising seniors Audrey Conover (West Newbury, Mass./Pentucket Regional) and Ginnie Hamilton (Middletown, R.I./Middletown).
• Softball May graduates CJ Davidson (Canyon Lake, Calif./Vista Murrieta) and Brooke Edgerly (Morley, Mich./Morley Stanwood) picked up their 100th career hits just four innings apart on April 3.