In an eventful kickoff to 2022, Chapman Athletics has seen new school records set, incredible comeback seasons and a plethora of wins in their spring season. 

To celebrate some of the best moments this season, The Panther compiled highlights from some of Chapman’s sports teams, including the baseball team for their best scoring celebrations, the softball team for their highest winning streak and the track and field team for setting a record amount of new records. 

The track and field team has set the most records of any Chapman Athletics team this year and made two new school records to top at their last meet of the season — the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) Championships at Whittier College May 1.

One of the school records broken involved sophomore business administration major Alec Desuasido achieving the longest men's triple jump in school history. Desuasido earned second place in the tournament with a 13.04 meter jump.

“This season was a stand-out season for me, because I broke my lifetime personal record in triple jump multiple times, while also breaking the Chapman school record each time,” Desuasido said.

However, Desausido wasn’t the only athlete rewriting records. Throughout the track and field season, new personal and school records were set by students in various events.

“We set a new standard for future Chapman track and field athletes to follow and strengthen (the program’s) reputation by creating a stronger and more competitive environment and team,” Desausido said.

Some teammates that stood out to Desausido this year were Jesse McMillan, Zoe Zurasky and Allie Kremer. 

“I look up to (McMillan) and admire his hard work ethic,” Desausido said. “Zurasky came straight from basketball season and surprised us all. She started breaking multiple school records in short sprints, earning the title ‘fastest women in Chapman history,’ and I can’t wait to run with her next year.”

The track and field team looks to build an even stronger team next year and follow in the footsteps of a routinely successful program at Chapman like the baseball team.

Senior political science and advertising double major Cooper Foard led the baseball team in homeruns this season. After rapidly proving to be one of the team’s best hitters, the starting catcher has been able to bat in 39 runs for his teammates and score 37 runs of his own.

After he scores, Foard has a unique celebration once he reaches home plate.

“When I hit home runs, I have a thing that I do when I reach home plate where I tap my chest twice and do a little shuffle into the plate,” Foard said.

Even more exciting than acknowledging his own success is the reaction from his teammates, which he reciprocates when one of them scores. Foard said the members of the men’s baseball team love to acknowledge each other’s triumphs as they run to home plate.

“Celebrating my teammates' home runs is so much fun,” Foard said. “One of my teammates, Josh Phillips, hit a walk off home run earlier in the season, and it was a ‘no-doubter,’ so he flipped his bat, and we all mobbed him at home plate.” 

The catcher reflected on a personal favorite moment of his college baseball career: hitting a grand slam at the beginning of the season. 

“I had worked hard in the offseason to earn myself a starting role, and in my second at-bat of the season I got to come up to the plate with the bases loaded,” Foard said. “A couple pitches into the at-bat, I smoked a ball over the fence, but it was just barely foul. The very next pitch, I hit a grand slam. That moment was the moment I proved to myself that I could play and play well at this level.”

The Panthers continued their SCIAC Postseason Tournament run against the Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens May 14 after coming out on top of the conference standings. The team was eliminated from the tournament after losing the game 11-6.

Across the diamond, Chapman’s softball team also scored big this spring, bringing home the SCIAC Championship title May 8. 

Senior outfielder and psychology major Peyton Mattson believes beginning the season with a winning streak for the first third of their season gave them the momentum for more success among their conference competitors. 

“Starting off the season with 14 wins in preseason showed us early on our potential as a team and gave us confidence going into the season,'' Mattson said. “We made a team goal early on to win and work hard, so doing that as a team allowed us to start off with a bang.”

For her last, and best, season, Mattson said she put her all into making sure the team went into the postseason with no regrets. 

“This season has been the most memorable, because as a senior, we are really leaving everything out on the field and not taking any game for granted,” Mattson said. 

Chapman’s softball team is currently at Texas Lutheran University over the weekend to compete in a NCAA tournament with the hope of securing more wins.