The men’s team started their season off in Oregon but were dealt a major blow when starting point guard Dylan Kilgour ’17, who averaged 32.6 minutes and 12.0 points last year, went down with a season-ending broken arm in the second game of the season. This injury brought Michael Gutierrez ’19 into the starting lineup, paving the way for him and Wyatt Ferm ’19 to become critical cogs of the team.

In the first game of the season, the starting lineup consisted of four seniors, along with center Kareem Ismail ’17. Only two first-years, Gutierrez and Ferm, played in that game. As the season progressed, the team increasingly incorporated first-years and sophomores into the lineup, with 80 out of 200 total minutes being played by first-years in the final game against Concordia. By then, Ferm and Gutierrez were entrenched in the starting lineup, and two other underclassmen, Carl Salvino ’19 and Gunnar Goeden ’18, were seeing consistent minutes on the court.

Ismail viewed the increased prominence of first-years in the latter half of the season as a turning point. “Once our [first years] started finding their groove throughout the middle of the season, we had a chance to win most games; they were all close,” Ismail said. “It can’t just be one junior or one senior, it has to be our new players too. They play an important role in how we will do next year and for Macalester’s future.”

With all five members of the starting lineup, as well as Kilgour, returning next year, and with the performances of the current first-years in the latter half of the season, there is optimism among the team. “With Michael, Dylan, Wyatt, Luke [Poulsen ’17] and myself, it will be good. When Luke was brought into the starting lineup as a 4 and Wyatt was able to move to his natural position, that’s when he started clicking,” Ismail said. Prior to Poulsen’s introduction to the starting lineup on January 27, Ferm averaged 10.9 PPG, while in the remaining eight games he averaged 14.5 PPG, a marked increase and a harbinger of optimism for next season.

The team ended the season on a high note, with a win in their last home game over Augsburg. The team will only lose Kyle Bernhard ’16 and Griffin Glatt ’16 next season, and with the prominence of underclassmen this season, the team is optimistic about next season.

The women’s team, in contrast to the men’s, only had two first-years on their roster. Instead, the team relied on the steady presence of sophomores to double their win total from last year, to the tune of an 8-17 overall record this year.

The women’s team possibly endured even more injuries than the men’s team. One of the steadiest performers from last season, Grace Dickman ’17, missed all but the first game of the season with plantar fasciitis and fellow starter Park Masterson ’17 went down in early January with an ankle injury and missed the remainder of the season. The two accounted for a combined 50 minutes in the first game of the season, creating a large hole to fill. Later in the season, due to the number of injuries, the team was forced to run a seven-person rotation, including in their overtime win against Carleton.

While the absence of the two was significant, “everyone stepped up their game and brought energy; the team really stepped up as a unit, and Grace and Park were still team supporters on the bench,” said Lauren Clamage ’17. Due to the injuries, a class of sophomores led by Regan Fruh ’18 stepped up, and in the last game of the season, played 102 of the 200 available minutes.

In addition to Clamage and Erin Murray ’16, the starting lineup featured three sophomores, with Fruh leading the team in points by a wide margin. The only two members who were in the starting lineup for both the first and last games of the season were Murray and Fruh.

Although the team will graduate two seniors (Murray and Katelyn Kack ’16), Clamage believes that “with [Dickman and Masterson] back next year, the team will be better than ever.” Clamage emphasized team chemistry as the biggest strength of the team, but that they need to work on finishing games strong. “We’re going to do really well next year, as a result of the team chemistry. The biggest thing is learning to finish the game, because all the games have been really close,” she said. The team has several guard recruits for next year that they hope will be able to shoulder some of the load left by the graduation of Murray and Kack.

The team has high hopes for next year, with goals of making it out of the regular season for the first time since the 2009-10 season, when the team went 16-10 before losing to Hamline in the first round of the playoffs. “Due to our team’s improvement from my [first year] to junior year, we have a great chance of going to the conference tournament. I have a good feeling about it,” Clamage said.