Varsity Athletics

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Carleton College currently has 19 men's and women's varsity athletic teams. Carleton College is a member of the NCAA Division III and its varsity teams compete in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).

Contents

History

According to the Carleton Archives, the first formal intercollegiate contest was probably in May of 1887 when a Carleton baseball team defeated cross-town rival St. Olaf. However, there seems to have been numerous informal contests before this. Carleton's first baseball team, known as the Boss nine, recorded their first victory in 1878 against Shattuck Academy. The Carleton football team was formed in 1883, making it the 10th oldest Division III football team in the country. The first official year of basketball was 1909, although there are reports of intercollegiate games as early as 1900. Carleton also fielded teams in golf, tennis, swimming, and track and field (which encompassed cross country) by the end of the 1920's.

It is less clear when Carleton's women's teams began competing in intercollegiate contests. The Women's Athletic Association (WAA) was founded in 1918, but it initially only organized more recreational activities and competitions between classes. Consulting the Carletonian indicates that the association began organizing events with St. Olaf in the early 1940's and possibly late 1930's. It also seems that during the 1950's the organization began forming teams and competing against other schools in tennis, golf, swimming, and other sports. In 1958, Carol Pushing '61 became Carleton's first female national champion. After the enactment of Title IX in 1972, Carleton's women's athletic teams began to compete in the AIAW and NCAA.

Carleton was a charter member of both the MIAC in 1920 and the Midwest Conference, formerly the Midwest Collegiate Athletic Conference, in 1921. It was a member of both until it dropped out of the MIAC in 1925. Carleton was very successful in the Midwest Conference until 1983 when it left to rejoin the MIAC. Before becoming a member of either conference, Carleton teams often took on larger schools, such as the University of Minnesota.


National Success

Between 1933 and 2007, Carleton varsity teams have produced 117 All Americans, 13 individual and relay national champions, and one team national championship in 1980 by the Men's Cross Country team. The best finish in a purely team sport came in 2008 with a fifth place finish in the NCAA tournament by the Women's Soccer team. There have also been 12 CoSIDA Academic All Americans since 1992. A list of these and other national awards can be found here.


List of Varsity Teams

Current Teams

Former Teams

External Links

Retrieved from "http://www.carlwiki.org/Varsity_Athletics"
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