ASHLAND — Ashland University can look back in 2017 as perhaps the greatest sports year in school history.
Of course the highlight was the women’s basketball team bringing home a Division II national championship. Ashland Source covered this team extensively last winter, and it looks like the Eagles are about to demand similar attention in 2018.
Coach Robyn Fralick’s team was ranked No. 1 throughout the 2016-17 campaign and finished a perfect year with a 37-0 record to claim the national championship. The beat goes on with a 12-0 record so far this season, and a 49-game winning streak.
“The winter sports season was tremendous, a national championship in women’s basketball, a runner-up national finish in men’s track and wrestling placing sixth in the nation and bringing home the first individual national championship in over 20 years,” said athletics director Al King last spring. “Wildly different sports yet the excitement that comes with each accomplishment is the same.”
The Eagles blitzed Virginia Union 93-77 at Ohio Dominican College in the NCAA Division II finals.
“I knew our women’s basketball team was exceptional but I was surprised that we would go to the postseason and win by an average margin of 17 points. That’s winning by almost 20 points a night against the best teams in the country,” King said. “We went to the post 37 times from November to March and never once failed to bring our ‘A’ game. That’s impressive and a tribute to our coaches and players.”
The spring turned attention to the track, specifically the AU men. The Eagles finished in a tie for third place at the 2017 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Bradenton, Fla.
AU registered 50 team points, tied with Tiffin for third. St. Augustine’s won the team title with 58 points, followed by Lincoln, Mo., with 52. Ashland’s men finished no worse than third at outdoor nationals for the fourth time in the last five years.
This fall, coach Lee Owens piloted the Eagles’ football squad to a special season, too.
The Madison graduate was at the controls of a team that went 11-2, earned a postseason victory, claimed the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship and finished No. 10 in the final American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Division II Coaches’ Top 25 poll of 2017.
The No. 10 ranking is Ashland’s second-highest at the end of a season, trailing only the No. 9 spot achieved at the end of 2012.
The Eagles, across the board, have set the bar mighty high for 2018.
Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University.
