The nature of athletics is composed of seasons and a new one is set to begin in just over a month.  So as the Missouri S&T athletic squads begin to gear up for the start of their new campaigns in the upcoming weeks, this edition of the S&T150 Series will take a look at the best of those previous seasons in Miner history on both a team and individual basis.

BASEBALL (TEAM): The 2016 season saw the Miners go places they have never been before.  They opened the year with eight consecutive wins, then went on to win their final six Great Lakes Valley Conference contests to overtake Quincy for the GLVC West Division title.  After earning the program's third berth to the NCAA Division II Tournament, the Miners made a run through the Midwest Regional as it won four straight elimination games to reach the championship round, where it fell short to Southern Indiana.

BASEBALL (INDIVIDUAL): In 2012, Zack Gronek followed up a tremendous junior season – 10-1, 2.38 earned run average in 87 innings of work with a 7.1-to-1 strikeout to walk ratio in 2011 – with a senior year every bit as solid to lead the Miners to their second straight GLVC West title.  During that campaign, Gronek posted a 12-1 record and went 8-0 against GLVC competition that year, including a complete game win in his final start against Drury in the GLVC Tournament.  In a school record 92 innings of work, he improved on his strikeout-to-walk ratio (7.7-to-1) as he fanned 70 hitters against just nine walks and recorded a 3.23 ERA.

MEN'S BASKETBALL (TEAM): The Miners' 1995-96 team put together one of the most magical seasons in program history, winning the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association regular season and tournament championships and hosted the NCAA Division II South Central Regional.  The Miners fell one game short of a trip to the Elite Eight after a loss to North Alabama in the regional title game, but still recorded a school record 25 victories and went 12-4 in the MIAA as it drew several sellout crowds to home games during that campaign.

MEN'S BASKETBALL (INDIVIDUAL): There are lot of players that have worn a Miner uniform that could fall in this category, but the season Bill Jolly recorded as a senior in 1992-93 arguably topped all of them.  During that year in which he earned third-team All-America honors from the NABC and Division II Bulletin, Jolly won the MIAA scoring title with an average of 22.4 points per game – becoming the first player in school history to average over 20 points per game in consecutive seasons – but also added a team-high 95 assists, had 40 steals and shot 37 percent from three-point range as he connected 88 times from beyond the arc.  During that season, Jolly scored at least 20 points on 16 occasions and cleared the 30-point mark three times, including in a win over Division I Northern Arizona.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (TEAM): The Miners' 2007-08 team was one for the ages, as it set a new program mark with a 24-7 record and advanced all the way to the championship game of the NCAA Midwest Regional.  The Miners' balanced attack featured three double figure scorers, as it rattled off a 10-game winning streak in the middle of the season that included a 24-point victory over eventual national champion Northern Kentucky.  Missouri S&T knocked off Michigan Tech and Quincy during the regional tournament before falling to NKU in the regional title game in Springfield, Mo.

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL (INDIVIDUAL): Only one player in the history of the women's basketball program has averaged 20 points per game for a season and Dallas Kirk did it twice.  Her higher scoring average came in her junior season in 1977-78 of 20.6 points per game, but she was a more dominant all-around player in the low post a year later when he scored 20.3 points and pulled down 14.6 rebounds per contest.  Kirk set the single-game rebounding record that still stands today of 27 and made over 50 percent of her field goal attempts to lead the Miners to a 15-6 record.

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (TEAM): While the Miners have not captured a conference championship in men's cross country since the inaugural meet in 1958, the best overall season for an S&T cross country team may have come in 1986.  The Miners placed third at the MIAA Championships for the second year in a row and had all five of their runners among the top 18 in the individual competition, paced by a fifth place showing from Tim Swinfard and a 10^th-place effort by Kurt Whittet.  Those two runners also finished among the top 15 at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional -- Whittet in 13^th and Swinfard in 15^th – as the Miners took sixth place at that competition.

MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (INDIVIDUAL): During the 2007 season, Joffroi Holcombe became the first Miner to earn All-GLVC honors in a year when he finished among the top 20 runners in six different meets, including a 10^th-place finish at the GLVC Championships and 13^th place showing at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional.  Holcombe won the Miner Invitational that season – and the last Miner to win that meet – while also finishing fifth at the Kansas Invitational and among in meets with large fields at Missouri Southern and Memphis.  A two-time GLVC Runner of the Week that season, Holcombe recorded what was at the time the three fastest marks in eight-kilometer races and second-fastest in a 10-kilometer race in school history.  Also noteworthy was David Huskisson's 2010 season, where he earned three GLVC Runner of the Week awards and finished sixth at the GLVC Championships; he also broke the school records for times over eight and 10 kilometers.

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (TEAM): Thanks to two all-conference performances – a first for the program since becoming a member of the GLVC – the Miners recorded their highest finish ever at a conference meet by taking third at the GLVC Championships in 2017.  Megan Schulte placed fifth overall on an individual basis to become the first S&T competitor to earn All-GLVC honors three times, while Hannah Shearer ended up 15^th to also land all-conference honors.  All five of S&T's runners finished among the top 24 overall to propel to a comfortable third place showing in the team standings behind Southern Indiana and Bellarmine.

WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY (INDIVIDUAL): Kate Hamera was a standout in both track & field and cross country for the Miners, highlighted by her 2003 campaign on the trails where she finished second at the MIAA Championships and followed that up with a second place showing at the NCAA South Central Regional to earn a berth to the NCAA Championships.  Hamera, who earned All-America honors at the national meet after finishing 33^rd overall and among the top 25 American runners, also won the Miner Invitational that season and was among the top six runners overall in every meet that preceded the national meet.

FOOTBALL (TEAM):  The Miners have had two undefeated football teams in their history, first in 1914 and again in 1980.  Based on scores, the 1914 team outscored its opponents by a whopping 540-0 in its eight games, then won an "unsanctioned" state championship game over Christian Brothers 27-6 to close the season.  The season included the program's only victories over the University of Missouri as well as a win over the University of Arkansas.  But in a more modern era, the 1980 Miners went 10-0 and won the MIAA championship with a defense that was one of the best in the nation, allowing just 12.3 points per game and allowing opponents an average of only 34.3 yards per game.

FOOTBALL (INDIVIDUAL): If you are looking for a quarterback to fill this spot, Evan Gray's 2005 campaign of 3,583 yards and 39 touchdown passes to lead the Miners to their first winning season in two decades would rise to the top.  If you're looking at the defense, look at Tershawn Wharton's All-America season in 2017 that consisted of a school record 13.5 sacks, 21 tackles for lost yardage and four forced fumbles.  At running back, you have Deshawn Jones' campaign in that same 2017 season as he ran for a school record 1,579 yards and 16 touchdown, which included nine straight games where he cleared the 100-yard mark and one with a single-game record of 275.  Then there is the all-around showing of Ashton Gronewold in 2007 – a school record 2,250 all-purpose yards, his third season with at least 1,000 receiving yards on 87 receptions and touchdowns scored via rushing, receiving and returns, including two kickoff runbacks in the same game.

MEN'S GOLF (TEAM): The Miners' 1969 team was one of the most decorated in school history, as it went 15-3 in dual meets during the season, won the MIAA and Midwest Regional championships, then closed the year by placing ninth at the NCAA Division II Championships.  That team, headed by first-team All-America selection Fred Parks, had all five of its players average below 80 shots per round for the season, with the team's average score for the season at 77.6 shots per round.

MEN'S GOLF (INDIVIDUAL): Ken Lanning was one of the most dominant golfers in the history of the MIAA during his career that spanned from 1951-54, where he was a three-time conference champion in the sport.  The best of those seasons may have come in his freshman year in 1951, when he earned medalist honors for the first time and would go on to finish second at the National Public Links competition.  Lanning shot a 139 at the conference meet that year; he would better that mark two years later with a 134.

MEN'S SOCCER (TEAM): The Miners had two teams win MIAA championships in men's soccer, including the 1998 squad that went 13-4 and contended for an NCAA Division II Tournament berth until the end of the season.  Those teams, however, were trumped by the 2010 Miners, who grabbed a share of the GLVC regular season title that year and narrowly missed winning a regional championship as they fell in the championship game to a Northern Kentucky team on a late goal; that NKU team would win the national title less than a month later.  Defense was the name of the game for this team as it recorded 11 shutouts and allowed only 16 goals in 20 contests.

MEN'S SOCCER (INDIVIDUAL): Speaking of defense, goalkeeper Pat McNamee's season in 2010 landed him not only the GLVC's top defensive award, but also All-America honors from the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. During a year in which he recorded a then-school record 0.67 goals against average and nine shutouts over the course of 1,484 minutes, he and the Miners established a new program record with over 570 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal and five straight shutouts along the way.  His goals against average ranked eighth in NCAA Division II that season and his save percentage of .845 was the 12^th-best in the nation.

WOMEN'S SOCCER (TEAM): After making strides as a program during the middle of the 1990s, the 1997 Miners – a veteran squad – put together its finest season that fall.  They opened the year with five straight shutout wins by a combined score of 20-0 and were right in the mix for a national tournament berth all the way to the end of the year.  A pair of overtime losses prevented the team from continuing its season following a thrilling regular season finale, a 5-4 overtime win over SIU Edwardsville as S&T tied the game just before time expired and scored in the extra period for the win.

WOMEN'S SOCCER (INDIVIDUAL): Natalie Sanders played four seasons for the Miners during the mid-1990s and three were standout years.  The best of them came during the previously mentioned 1997 season, when she scored 24 goals – her third season with at least 20 goals – and added eight assists for 56 points.  Sanders had six multi-goal games during that campaign, including a pair of four-goal outings, and had the game-winning goal in nine of the team's 15 wins, including overtime deciders against Metropolitan State and SIUE.  The last of them gave her a school record 75 goals for her career and only two Miner players have reached the 24-goal for a career since Sanders' 1997 campaign.

SOFTBALL (TEAM): S&T's softball team had a breakout season in 2004, as one of the team's top offensive squads meshed with strong pitching to lead the team to a 41-14 record in Ryan Anderson's first season as head coach.  The Miners hit a school record .309 as a team on the season and averaged 4.7 runs per game, while also recording an on-base percentage of 363.  The pitching was dominant, with a 0.80 team earned run average behind the right arm of …

SOFTBALL (INDIVIDUAL): Christy Deken, whose spectacular 2004 season ended with her selection as the MIAA's Player of the Year.  Deken went 27-2 in the circle with a school record 0.48 ERA and 346 strikeouts in 218 2/3 innings of work.  In a classic contest against Emporia State, Deken tied the NCAA Division II record at the time with 23 strikeouts in a game the Miners would win in 10 innings.  She threw two of her four career no-hitters that season and also had 14 addtional starts in which she allowed two or fewer hits.

SWIMMING (TEAM): Missouri S&T's swimming team had three straight years in which it finished among the top four teams in the nation, with the top season coming in 2008 when the Miners placed second at the NCAA Division II Championships.  Headed by Zlatan Hamzic's second place finish in the 200-yard breaststroke, Miner swimmers had a whopping 19 finishes among the top eight in the finals of various events, which included two third place showings, a fourth and four fifth place efforts in the four-day meet.

SWIMMING (INDIVIDUAL): With all due respect to the two Miners that won individual national titles, Hamzic and Tim Samuelsen, the most dominant performance in a season by a Miner swimmer was posted by Dave Belleville in 2002.  He was the leadoff swimmer for the Miners' 200- and 400-yard freestyle relay teams that won national championships – the 200-free relay was a repeat national champ that season – anchored the Miners' 200-yard medley relay that took third and was part of the other two relays that had fifth place showings.  On an individual basis, Belleville also placed third nationally in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle events, which came after he captured the Central States title in both of those events, was part of three winning relay teams at that meet and did not lose in a 50 or 100-yard freestyle race he was competed in prior to the NCAA Championships.

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD (TEAM): Missouri S&T's men's track & field teams had not won a conference championship in over six decades entering the 2009 calendar year, but that winter and spring, the Miners walked away with two conference championships.  The title run began with a decisive victory at the GLVC Indoor Championships, where S&T finished 46 points in front of Indianapolis behind five first place finishes in the meet.  The outdoor title came by a much closer margin, as S&T edged the Greyhounds by a single point to complete the season sweep.  The Miners got four more conference titles in the outdoor season, as Jordan Henry and Jarryd Dean took individual championships in both meets.

MEN'S TRACK & FIELD (INDIVIDUAL): A number of individuals could fill this spot, but four really stand out.  In 2006, Tyrone Smith emerged as one of the top long jumpers in the nation, highlighted by winning GLVC titles both indoors and outdoors and going on to be named as the GLVC's Athlete of the Year in the sport as well as the Great Lakes region's Field Athlete of the Year.  He set the school's indoor and outdoor school records that still stand today.  Terry Robinson won the indoor 400-meters, outdoor 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles and anchored three winning relay teams during the GLVC championship meets that season; he would be named as the top track athlete in the GLVC and Midwest region that season and earned All-America honors in both national meets in the hurdle events. Adriel Hawkins was the GLVC's Track Athlete of the Year during the 2014 campaign at both of the conference championship meets, as he won the 200-meter dash and finished in the top three in two additional events at the indoor meet, followed by victories in the 200-meters and triple jump and runner-up finish in the 100-meters outdoors.  The 2021 Miners did not get a chance to compete for an indoor conference title, but at the outdoor meet won by the Miners, Nathan Swadley accumulated 30 points by himself by becoming the second individual to win the hammer, discus and shot put competitions at the same conference meet and earned the GLVC's Field Athlete of the Year.  Hawkins and Swadley each set three school records apiece during the course of their seasons.

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD (TEAM): While S&T's women's track & field team has never captured a conference championship in its history, the Miners have finished among the top half in conference meets several times.  The best overall season came in 2009, when S&T took third place in both meets and established high water marks for points scored in a conference meet in the process.  The Miners tallied 100.5 points at the indoor championships that season with conference championship efforts from Taylor Hahn and its 4x400-meter relay team, then accumulated 129 points and four GLVC titles at the outdoor meet.  Hahn completed a sweep of the pole vault titles, while Aubrey Moore and both of the Miner relay teams were victorious.

WOMEN'S TRACK & FIELD (INDIVIDUAL): Taylor Cipicchio had a season to remember in 2014 as she ranked as the GLVC's top pole vaulter throughout the year.  During the indoor campaign, she became the first in conference history to break the 12-foot mark in the event in her championship performance, then followed that by placing fourth at the NCAA Division II Championships.  She practically duplicated that effort during the outdoor season, first taking the conference title as she again set a conference record with a mark of 12-10¾ and then adding another fourth place finish at the national meet, becoming only the second individual in program history to earn All-America honors both indoors and outdoors in the same year.

VOLLEYBALL (TEAM): After spending four seasons getting the foundation set, the 2011 Miner volleyball team busted through the door to capture its first GLVC West Division championship and earn the first NCAA Division II Tournament berth in program history.  The Miners finished 24-10 overall and went 15-3 in the GLVC, setting single season marks for wins over an entire season and conference campaign and posted the best hitting percentage for a season of .216.  The team also had winning streaks of 11 – still the longest in program history – and eight games during the year.  After having just two All-GLVC selections in those first four years, the Miners had four named all-conference in 2011 which included three first-team choices.

VOLLEYBALL (INDIVIDUAL):  How dominant was Krista Haslag's 2015 season?  That season, she became the first Miner to lead the team in kills, attack percentage, blocks and service aces in the same year…and no player has done that since.  Haslag recorded 373 kills at a clip of .309 – her third season with a hitting percentage over .300 – while converting aces 26 times and being a force along the net with a school record 163 blocks; her 31 solo blocks were the second-most in a season in school history.  She earned All-America honors for the third time in her career and fourth All-GLVC honor in the process, one of a select few in conference history to become a four-time all-league selection.