![Spring 2023 Athletics Update]()
Women's Basketball
Carroll's women's basketball team is in the midst of a historic season, with them ranked as high as #20 in the D3hoops.com Top 25 Poll. That is just one spot shy of the highest ranking in program history. As of Feb. 6, the Pioneers are 17-4 overall, which puts them within reach of the program record of 22 wins in a season. They are also currently 10-2 in the CCIW, tied atop the conference standings. During this season, they have experienced a nine-game winning streak, their longest streak since the 2007-08 season.
Junior guard Olivia Rangel has been a force this season. An Honorable Mention All-American selection last season, Rangel became just the 17th player in program history to score 1,000 career points, reaching that milestone earlier this season. She ranks second in the CCIW in scoring (19 PPG) and has been named CCIW Women's Basketball Student-Athlete of the Week a league-leading three times this season. She has also been named to the D3hoops.com National Team of the Week on two occasions and is one of just five players in Division III to record a triple-double this season. Carroll won both games they played against Millikin this season, as Millikin was ranked in the top 15 in the country each time the Pioneers earned the win. That includes a 101-98 overtime thriller against the Big Blue in front of frenzied fans at Van Male in Waukesha.
Carroll currently ranks second in Division III for 3-point shooting (.380) while also ranking third in assists per game (18.7), fifth in field goal percentage (.477), ninth in scoring offense (80.3 PPG), and 23rd in scoring margin (+18.4 PPG). Individually, sophomore Emilie Wizner ranks second in all of D-III for 3-point percentage (.483), while Rangel ranks 21st in assists per game (4.7 APG), 36th in scoring (19.0 PPG), and 29th in Field Goals Made (149).
Carroll has already clinched a spot in the conference tournament for the fourth consecutive season, which marks the program's longest streak since 2015. The top two teams in the CCIW will receive a first-round bye, while the CCIW Quarterfinals will take place on Feb. 20. The remainder of the tournament will be completed on Feb. 23-24 at the CCIW regular season champion's home.
Men's Basketball
Carroll's men's basketball team has progressed well throughout this season, compiling a 13-8 overall record and a 6-6 mark in the CCIW, which includes winning three straight and five of their last seven conference contests to vault themselves into fourth place in the conference standings. They have already beaten the second and third-best teams in the conference.
The Pioneers are currently ranked fourth in all of Division III in 3-point percentage defense (.269). They also rank 43rd in the nation with a conference-best 15.6 free throws made per game.
The Pioneers are still battling for a spot in the six-team CCIW Tournament. The quarterfinals of that event will be played on Feb. 20, with the top two teams receiving a bye. The tournament will then conclude with the semifinals on Feb. 23, before the Championship Game on Feb. 24.
Men's and Women's Track & Field
Rick Bellford was hired as Carroll's track & field head coach in August. He fills the void left by
Shawn Thielitz, who will remain at Carroll as the head coach for men's and women's cross country while also serving as an assistant Track & Field coach specializing in long-distance running. Bellford joins Carroll after a one-year stint as the assistant track & field coach at UW-Parkside. Before that, he served as an assistant track & field coach at Marquette University from 2013 to 2021. During his time with the Golden Eagles, he helped lead the program to six Big East Track & Field Championships, with the men's program winning the outdoor championships in 2016 and 2018 and the women taking home the indoor and outdoor championships in 2016 and 2017. Bellford has coached 18 school record holders, 18 freshman record holders, 68 Big East individual champions and six NCAA All-Americans while coaching at Marquette.
Vanessa Uitenbroek received the CCIW's first Women's Field Student-Athlete of the Week award this season for her performance at Ripon.
Carroll will compete at the CCIW Indoor Championships in Naperville, Ill., on Feb. 23-24 before hoping to have some student-athletes compete at Nationals, which will be held on Mar. 8-9 in Virginia Beach, Va.
Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving
The College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) proudly announced the selection of the Scholar All-American Team for the Fall 2023 semester on Monday, with both Carroll's men's and women's swim teams earning a spot on the list. In all, there were 783 teams from 461 institutions on the list, representing 18,716 student-athletes from all three NCAA divisions, NAIA and NJCAA. Both of Carroll's swim teams are coached by
Guy Gniotczynski. The Pioneer men's team, consisting of nine members, finished the Fall semester with a Grade Point Average (GPA) of 3.20, while the 17-person Carroll women's swim team boasted a GPA of 3.18.
The swim team will take part in the CCIW Championships from Feb. 21-24 in Kenosha and Pleasant Prairie, Wis., hosted by Carthage.
Josie Peterson set a new school record this season in both the 100 freestyle with a time of 53.08 and in the 200 freestyle with a time of 1:58.17.