History of Athletics at Mary Baldwin College

Mary Baldwin College has had a commitment to activity for women since its in-ception in 1842. The physical health of students has been a priority for the college since its founding. Early on there were required “promenades” in the afternoons, but in the 1870’s a structured physical education program began which was called calisthenics. Students bowled, participated in Swedish skills and played tennis and croquet. In 1891 the first swimming pool was added on campus.

In the early 1900’s an athletic association was organized. All students were auto-matically members of the “white” and “yellow” teams which evolved into the Irish and Scots clans. This provided intramural and class contests for field hockey, basketball, track, hiking, swimming, golf, tennis, horseback riding, archery, softball and baseball. These sports each had a student leader and teams were chosen annually, there were also student-faculty games.

In 1948 a Virginia Athletic Federation of Colleges for Women was formed and in 1949 the annual sports day of association was held in Staunton. This allowed for com-petition with combined teams of students from all the women’s colleges. The intramural program continued and the clans were now called the Irish and the Scotch.

The clan system for intramurals had been expanded to English. Welsh, Scotch, and Irish in 1962,but by 1969 ended and intramural competition was organized by class.

By 1967 there was intercollegiate competition in Dance, Gold, Equitation, Swim-ming, Fencing, Basketball, and Tennis.

In 1981, as a NCAA member the college joined the Old Dominion Athletic Confer-ence, where we stayed until 1993. From 1993 the college was an independent member of the NCAA Division III. In 1995 a group of women’s colleges joined to form the Atlan-tic Women’s Colleges Conference. All the member schools felt that competition in the coed conferences had benefited from the changed Title IX started in the late seventies, while athletic programs at women’s colleges had fallen behind. Mary Baldwin had a strong tenure in the AWCC, winning eleven conference championships and appearing at four NCAA post season tournaments. The AWCC dissolved in 2007, and Mary Baldwin joined the USA South Conference.

Since Mary Baldwin entered the USA South Conference, the cross country team has finished 2nd or 3rd during four of those seven years. The team has had 18 runners who have made an All-Conference Team. Mary Baldwin’s Sophia Stone won the USA South Conference meet in 2011 and again, while setting a new course recorded, in 2012.

Information about the early years of athletics at the College was taken from To Live in Time. 1992 by Menk.

Table of Contents

History of Mary Baldwin Athle cs IFC

Table of Contents and Quick Facts 3

Coaches Bio 4

Team Schedule 5

Meet your Figh ng Squirrels 6

Athle c Facili es 8

Athle c Philosophy 9

Mary Baldwin College Quick Facts

General Informa on

Loca on Staunton, Virginia

Founded 1842

Enrollment 1526 (2013-14)

Nickname Figh ng Squirrels

Colors Green, Gold

Affilia on NCAA Division III

Conference USA South

President Dr. Pamela Fox

Athle c Director Sharon Spalding

Athle c Dept. Phone 540-887-7161

Athle cs Website www.mbcathle cs.com

Mailing Address Mary Baldwin College PAC

Staunton, VA 24401

Mary Baldwin Athle cs received the USA South Conference Team Sportsmanship Award for 2008-2009, 2009-2010, 2011-2012, and 2012-2013.

Accep ng the awarded from Rita Wiggs (Right) is Sharon Spalding, Paige Babb, Erica, Gaughan and Kelsey S ll.

The 2014-2015 season marks the eighth year for Head Coach Sharon Spalding. Mary Baldwin has had runners earn All-Conference honors in each of Spalding’s year as head coach. This past fall Mary Baldwin placed a runner on each of the All-Conference teams, in addi on to having the top runner in the meet. Spalding has had runners place on the South/Southeast All Region team three

mes. Senior Sophia Stone won the South/Southeast Regional meet in 2011 and 2012 earning her second All- American standing improving from 31st runner in 2011 to 19th runner in 2012. Spalding’s team do well in the classroom earning the USTFCCCA All Academic Team Awards in 2007, 2011, and 2012. Spalding received a B.S. from James Madison Uni-versity in Physical and Health Educa on. She went on to earn her M.Ed in Sports Medicine and Applied Physiology from the University of Virginia. She holds the Clin-ical Exercise Specialist Cer fica on and the Cer fied Cancer Exercise Trainer cer fica-

ons from the American College of Sports Medicine. She is a Cer fied Strength and Condi oning Specialist. She holds the Level 1 Coaching cer fica on from USA Track and Field and the Track and Field Technical Cer fica on from the USTFCCA Acade-my.

Mark Yurish is entering his second season as the Assistant Coach for Cross Country. Yurish is a Road Run-ners Club of America Running Coach and a USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach. He has a B.S. in Aerospace En-gineering from Boston University and a M.B.A. from the University of New Haven. A er a several year s nt as a “stay-at-home-Dad”, Yurish switched gears and began working in the fit-ness industry in 2008. He currently works with athletes of all levels at both the Staunton-Augusta YMCA and Life me Fitness at Augusta Health.

Yurish ran Cross Country in Freeland, PA during High School. He “rediscovered” running in 2000. Since then he has competed in all distances from 5K to marathon. He ran the Bos-ton Marathon in 2010 and ran a per-sonal best marathon of 3:07:54 in the 2012 Shamrock Marathon. Yurish plans to complete his first ultra-distance race, the Seashore Trail 50K, in December of 2012. He also has raced in triathlon, from sprint to half-Ironman distance, since 2004.

Aug 30, 2014 vs. @ MDCHS

Sep 13, 2014 vs. Washington and Lee Invitational @ Lexington, VA

Sep 20, 2014 at Shenandoah Valley Invitational

Oct 4, 2014 vs. 39th Annual Charles Bowles Willamette Invitational @ Salem, Oregon

Oct 18, 2014 at Gettysburg Invitational

Nov 1, 2014 at USA South Conference Champi-onships

Nov 15, 2014 at NCAA South/Southeast Regionals

Nov 22, 2014 at NCAA National Championship

Home games in bold.

MEET THE FIGHTING SQUIRRELS

Amanda Fadden Senior

2012 3rd Team All-Conference 2013 3rd Team All-Conference

Jennifer Jin Senior

2013-14 Mary Jane Donnalley Scholar Athlete

Kaylyn Lanergan Junior

2013-14 MBC Scholar Athlete

Wendy Deptula Junior

2012 2nd Team All-Conference 2013 2nd Team All-Conference

Sophia Stone Senior

2012 2013 USA South Conference Champion

2012 2013 NCAA South/Southeast Regional Champion

2012 2013 All-American

Katherine Narvaez Junior

2013-14 MBC Scholar Athlete

Monique McGough Freshman

Bailey Willis Freshman

Sara Caldwell Freshman

Sydney Ellis Freshman

Alejandra Cotoc-Cax Freshman

Campbell Scollo Freshman

Jockebed Koomson Sophomore

New to the Figh ng

Squirrels

this season

MARY BALDWIN SPORTS FACULTIES

The cross country trains on various courses around Staunton including the local favorite—Bells Lane. The natural rolling hills of Staunton give our runners excellent preparation for any course they encounter.

Mary Baldwin college now has it’s own cross country course that opened the cross country teams season August 30, 2014. The course is located at the new Mary Baldwin College Building, Murphy Deming, College of Health Sciences.

MARY BALDWIN ATHLETICS PHILSOPHY

Mary Baldwin College is commi ed to the educa on of today’s young women for tomorrow’s world. The athle c program is an integral part of the overall educa-

onal experience. It goes beyond the mere impar ng of knowledge to the integra-on of knowledge and experiences from a variety of disciplines. The pursuit of ex-

cellence and success associated with compe on serves as a model for goals set in academics and other endeavors.

Intercollegiate athle cs offers athletes the opportunity to represent MBC at a high level of compe on. Faculty and staff, as well as the en re student body, benefits from compe on through the strong sense of loyalty and community that is gen-erated.

Top priority for the Department is the student-athlete. The direc on and admin-istra on of the program is focused on genera ng and maintaining a high standard of excellence both athle cally and academically for all athletes. It is the responsi-bility of the en re Department to encourage and assist student-athletes in reach-ing their full poten als in all their endeavors. As such, administrators and coaches must have a strong commitment to provide them with the tools necessary for suc-cess.

The health and physical well-being of MBC athletes is of utmost importance. A full- me cer fied athle c trainer is employed by the college to ensure the safety and health of all our par cipants. All concerns of this nature are held in the strictest of confidence.

As a member of the Na onal Collegiate Athle c Associa on, the Department sub-scribes fully to all guidelines, principles, and regula ons thereof. The le er and spirit of the rules and regula ons as set forth by the NCAA are followed at all

mes.

5K All Time– Top 10 1.Sophia Stone 18:24 CNU Opener, VA 2012

2.Sophia Stone 19:12 Hood College, MD 2011

3.Sophia Stone 19:43 Roanoke, VA 2011

4.Jessica Nevins 20:17 Hagan Stone, NC 2005

5.Wendy Deptula 20:36 Shenandoah Valley 2013

6.Sophia Stone 21:11 Roanoke, VA 2010

7.Melanie Dorian 21:19 Wash & Lee, VA 2005

8.Alyssa Starnes 21:35 Wash & Lee, VA 2009

9.Jessica Nevins 21:35 Salem, VA 2005

10.Melanie Dorian 21:40 Salem, VA 2005