Men’s Basketball
https://www.missouriwestern.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2020/05/TyusMillhollinvsWashburn_MIAAChampionships-scaled.jpgThe men’s basketball team had their most successful campaign in a decade or more. The team went 18-14 overall, 13-6 against MIAA competition and had an impressive 12-1 record in the fieldhouse.

The Griffons finished fourth in the MIAA standings and advanced to the MIAA Championship semifinals (first semifinal in a decade) before falling to MIAA regular season and postseason champion Northwest Missouri State. After a rocky start to the season, the Griffons rebounded with a seven-game win streak, the program’s longest in 18 years, to elevate the team toward the top of the MIAA standings. The season’s accomplishments included the program’s most wins in 10 years; most conference wins in 18 years; highest MIAA finish in 10 years; longest home win streak (11) in 17 years; most home wins in 14 years; highest postseason seed in 10 years and a program-record 305 made 3-point field goals in a season.

https://www.missouriwestern.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2020/05/TyrellCarrollvsNorthwest-scaled.jpgSophomore Tyrell Carroll earned first-team All-MIAA honors and second team NABC All-District honors, firsts for a Griffon in 14 years. Will Eames became the first student athlete in program history to be named MIAA Freshman of the Year in addition to receiving All-MIAA honorable mention. Tyus Millhollin broke the program record for 3-point field goals in a season (99) and in a game (10).

Women’s Basketball
First-year head coach Candi Whitaker wasted no time restoring the women’s basketball program tohttps://www.missouriwestern.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2020/05/CandiWhitaker-scaled.jpg its traditional winning ways. Whitaker became just the second first-year head coach in program history to win 20 games by leading Missouri Western to a 21-8 overall record. The team went 13-6 in MIAA play and 14-2 in the fieldhouse.

Reaching more than 20 wins for the third time in the past five seasons, the Griffons improved by seven wins over the previous season. The team averaged a 19.3-point margin in wins and never lost a game by more than nine points. The Griffons went 4-2 against teams that qualified for the NCAA DII Championships, including two wins over top-25 competition in three attempts. Missouri Western was nearly unstoppable at home, winning 14 of 16 games.

https://www.missouriwestern.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2020/05/CorbynCunninghamvsFortHays-scaled.jpgDespite finishing in a three-way tie for fourth place in the MIAA standings, the Griffons entered the MIAA Championships as the No. 6 seed by way of three-way tiebreaker rules. Missouri Western fell in the quarterfinals of the MIAA’s postseason tournament to No. 3 seed Nebraska-Kearney.

Newcomer Corbyn Cunningham was named first-team All-MIAA as the only student athlete in the conference ranked in the top-five in scoring, rebounding and field goal percentage.

Indoor Track & Field
Hanna Williams continued her promising young career, becoming the program’s highest-ever https://www.missouriwestern.edu/magazine/wp-content/uploads/sites/133/2020/05/HannaWilliams_MIAAChampionships-scaled.jpgfinisher in the MIAA Indoor Track & Field Championships when she took third in the 600-yard. The women’s squad turned in three NCAA DII provisional marks, including Bailey Gilbert’s 5.75-meter long jump at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic; Lynzi Miller’s 3,279-point pentathlon at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic; and the 4×400 relay team of Aniyah Mance-Edwards, Williams, Aniya Kollore and Symonne Holland’s 3:50.89 at the Nebraska Tune-Up.

The men’s and women’s teams combined to break 10 program records with more than 50 personal records in Cody Ingold’s first season as head coach.