Reoert Cohen | St. Louis Post-Dispatch | MCT

Fireworks light Busch Stadium following a Cardinals World Series victory celebration on Sunday, Oct. 30, 2011, at Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Mo. The Cardinals defeated the Texas Rangers in a series that went seven games.

8. Football blows out Chicago to end its season – After a tough loss to Case Western Reserve University the previous week, junior quarterback Dan Burkett and the Red and Green offense let off some steam in the annual Founders Cup battle with the University of Chicago. Burkett lit up the Maroon defense for 316 yards and four touchdowns, and the defense suffocated the Chicago offense as the Bears rolled to a 38-20 victory.

7. Women’s golf dominates its fall season – Freshman Olivia Lugar jump-started the women’s golf program as soon as she stepped on campus this fall, winning four of her first five varsity tournaments this season. Junior Hannah Buck won the tournament that Lugar lost when Buck set a school-record score of 69 (-3). All in all, the Bears had a strong start to their 2011-12 season by demolishing the competition en route to four tournament victories and the lowest average round score in Division III golf. Lugar currently ranks as the No. 1 golfer in the nation.

6. Women’s soccer reaches the Elite 8 with comeback win – After overcoming injury after injury, most recently to senior forward Emma Brown, the women’s soccer team’s magical run through the NCAA play-offs looked to be coming to an end against the College of St. Benedict. The Blazers had a 1-0 lead late in the second half before Wash. U. kicked things into gear. Sophomore Lauren Steimle recorded her 11th goal of the season when she drilled in a shot after a deflection found her three yards from goal in the 77th minute. Senior Lee Ann Felder found the back of the net eight minutes later off a corner kick from sophomore Kate Doyle, and the Bears continued onwards.

5. Volleyball comes back to beat Emory in the University Athletic Association Championship – The volleyball team had its back against the wall. Emory University handed the Bears their first loss of the season on Oct. 16, and the Eagles had a 2-0 lead after winning the first two sets 25-22 and 25-16. Not to be denied, the Red and Green mounted a furious comeback, winning the remaining sets 25-17, 25-20 and 15-8. Senior Lauren Budde recorded four kills in the decisive fifth set and Wash. U. triumphed after a service error.

4. Men’s basketball upsets No. 1 Augustana College at home – Sporting eight players taller than 6’7” and the nation’s top ranking, Augustana College came in to the Lopata Classic with a lot of swagger. But it was the Wash. U. men’s basketball team, led by senior guard and Lopata Classic MVP Dylan Richter, that got the last laugh. Richter went four of seven from three-point range and overcame early foul trouble to score 27 points and lead the Bears to a 71-68 victory, prompting the holiday-garbed Bomb Squad to rush the court at the final buzzer.

3. Putterman wins men’s tennis regionals and finishes second nationally – Junior Adam Putterman ran the table to capture the 2011 ITA Central Region Men’s Tennis singles championship in late September, winning seven straight matches over four days. Putterman defeated Kenyon College’s C.J. Williams 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the USTA/ITA Small College Championships, where he defeated two more players before falling to Emory University’s Dillon Pottish in the finals.

2. Women’s cross country wins national championship, men finish third – The women’s cross country team earned the school’s first-ever national championship as all five point-scorers finished in the top 40. Senior Erica Jackey finished fourth individually with a season-best 21:04.21, and freshman Lucy Cheadle finished 20th with a season-best 21:28.59. On the men’s side, senior Michael Burnstein finished 10th overall with a time of 24:25.25, and senior Tucker Hartley came in 30th in 24:41.99, helping the men to a best-ever mark of third place.

1. Cardinals win the World Series – The Cardinals’ improbable run gripped the campus and prompted raucous celebration on multiple occasions. Professors sported their Cardinals gear, students gathered in crowds to watch the games anywhere that had a television and many found their way downtown to celebrate the Cardinals’ Game 7 victory. It was a time for the campus to come together. It was a great time to be a Wash. U. student.

But Davis, who broke his own record set last week, was more excited about the meet’s implications for this season.

“I was ecstatic to hit [the automatic qualifying mark]…I think the whole team, as well as myself, is moving into great position for conference,” Davis said. “All of our indoor training up until this point is directed toward everyone hitting their best marks at conference, and I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

Graduate student Pierre Hoppenot, who has four victories in four appearances this season in the 200-meter dash, also set a new school mark, passing Antone Meaux’s 15-year-old record of 22.54 seconds. He regarded the accomplishment in a forward-thinking manner.

“Breaking the record is obviously a nice reminder that training hard pays off,” Hoppenot said. While Hoppenot acknowledged there isn’t a 200-meter dash event at nationals, he’s excited about the promising prospects of the 4×400 team that he is a part of.

“We have a good team…I am just trying to get faster and help my teammates get faster,” Hoppenot said.

The men’s team also had a strong showing in the 3,000-meter run, where junior Dave Spandorfer (8:32.80), sophomore Michael Burnstein (8:38:40), sophomore Tucker Hartley (8:45.07) and senior Matt Kruger (8:59.38) teamed up to sweep first place through fourth place. While Wash. U. fielded many strong performances, scores were not kept comparing the various competing schools.

The big event on the women’s side was the mile run, in which sophomore Liz Phillips fell 1.40 seconds short of making the provisional qualifying mark for the NCAA national championships in March. Her impressive 5:06.40 was also just 1.48 seconds short of a victory that went to Simpson College’s Catie Ellingson. Fellow sophomore Erica Jackey joined Phillips in the top three with a time of 5:08.05.

Other medalists for the women were graduate student co-captain Caitlin Hartsell, who grabbed third place in the 200-meter dash at 27.66 seconds, and sophomore Katie Hered, whose 3.05-meter pole vault was good for third place. Hartsell’s time was her season best, and Hered’s placed for the fourth time in the 2010 campaign.

For the men, senior Zach Griffen nabbed second in the 5,000-meter run (16:07.04), sophomore Tyler Jackson rounded out the top three in the 55-meter hurdles (7.90), and junior Scott Pettit pole vaulted 4.35 meters for a third-place finish. Davis also had a third-place finish in the 200-meter dash with a time of 22.75 seconds.

The Bears will wrap up the regular season next weekend at the North Central College Meet in Naperville, Ill., before heading to Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., for the UAA indoor championship. “Everybody’s a little more focused now and pretty excited for the UAAs,” Hered said. “Individually, we have a lot of strong athletes. Hopefully, we can tie it all together.”

With additional reporting by Johann Qua Hiansen

With its third-place finish, the women received an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships on Nov. 22.

The women came into the meet with high expectations after placing first in the past three regional meets. However, the Lady Bears fell short by only nine points to the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and runner-up University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Placing for the Lady Bears were sophomore Taryn Surtees, freshman Elizabeth Phillips and junior Molly Schlamb, who placed fifth, 12th and 20th respectively. All three runners received NCAA All-Midwest Region recognition Saturday.

Schlamb described this season as “incredible…because having graduated those awesome seniors, we’ve been given a challenge. We’ve gotten the chance to show that while we are young, we are tough, and that our expectations for success haven’t changed.”

Junior Hope Rathnam and graduate student Angela Hartman placed 32nd and 48th respectively.

“We have been through a lot of health issues, but we will be standing at the start line next Saturday with a healthy and prepared team. I really think we can finish anywhere from 2-12,” Head Coach Jeff Stiles said.

The men fell short to No. 2 ranked North Central College, who won the meet with 51 points. Sophomore Dave Spandorfer anchored the team, placing 41st with a time of 25:49.6.

“While we weren’t thrilled with our results, I think we can use this as a motivation to get better for indoor, outdoor and ultimately next cross country season,” Spandorfer said.

Also scoring for the bears were senior Nick Silverman, junior Alex Bearden, freshman Tucker Hartley and junior Matt Kruger, who placed 54th, 58th, 62nd and 77th, respectively.

“The season for the men was one of maturation. We return six of the seven guys who competed at Regionals. We have had some key members injured, but the ingredients are on campus to be a great team. I couldn’t have been more proud of our effort at regionals,” Stiles said.

“We ran hard. Some guys ran better than they expected, and some guys weren’t as far up as they had hoped, but we competed…we went out there and gave it our all,” Silverman said after racing in his final cross country race at Wash. U.

The women will continue their season next weekend after receiving an at-large berth to the Division III Cross Country Championship meet. The race will begin at noon on Saturday in Hanover, Ind.

The Washington University women’s cross country team continues to sit atop the UAA, placing second this weekend at the 2008 University Athletic Association Championships while the men placed seventh. Emory University hosted the meet Saturday at the Georgia International Horse Park in Conyers, Ga.

In a season full of injuries and adversity, the No. 18 women’s team captured second place with the help of sophomore Taryn Surtees, who took the 2008 individual title. Surtees, who ran in second for most of the race, finished strongly with a time of 21:37.22, winning by over 15 seconds.

The women placed second only behind No. 6 Case Western University. Emory, the University of Chicago and the University of Rochester rounded out the top five. Other top runners and impressive performances for the Bears came from Elizabeth Phillips, Erica Jackey, Angela Hartman, Hope Rathnam and Molly Schlamb, placing ninth, 10^th, 12^th 20^th and 24^th respectively.

“The biggest excitement was finishing four points behind Case Western. They’re ranked sixth, and we’re ranked 18^th. So to be that close in point total is really exciting,” Surtees said.

There was only a slim margin of 38 seconds between Phillips and Schlamb.

The men captured the seventh spot, outscoring only the University of Rochester. New York University won the UAA title.

Despite a disappointing finish, the men’s team had five runners who all finished within 12 spots of each other. Senior Nick Silverman, freshman Tucker Hartley, junior Alex Bearden, sophomore Dave Spandorfer and junior Matt Kruger placed 33^rd, 36^th, 27^th, 39^th and 45^th place respectively.

“The men’s meet wasn’t a disaster, but it was nowhere near where we want to or need to be right now. We finished seventh out of eight, in perhaps the best conference in DIII, so [it was] not as bad as it looks, but our hope was to finish fourth,” freshman Tucker Hartley said. “Right now, we are doing everything we can to be prepared for the Midwest Regionals. Our recent increase in training intensity is only just beginning to take effect, and the next week will be vitally important. To qualify will not take a drastic change in training; we just have to work as hard as we are able, trust in our fitness and run to our maximum capability on November 15.”

The cross country teams will compete again in two weeks, with the women looking to defend their three straight NCAA Midwest regional titles at the 2008 NCAA Midwest Region Championships on Saturday November, 15 in Rock Island Ill.

“[The women’s team] had a really good performance, and it’s really encouraging [that] we’re in a lot better place now than before. We had a freshman place in the top ten and ran a personal record, and that’s all a step in the right direction,” Surtees added.

“We’re not thinking about what injured people could’ve helped us,” senior Nick Silverman said. “We’re racing with the team we have.”