Macalester College Athletics has concluded its autumnal rollercoaster ride. This season included some of the highest highs that the Scots have seen in years, along with somewhat-more-familiar lows, and everything in between.
With seven sports done for the year, there’s plenty to recap. Here’s everything you need to know, to be in the know about Macalester’s fall sports, from team outcomes, to star players, to what lies ahead:
Men’s soccer summits MIAC mountain
The highs don’t get much higher than this at Mac. This season marked the greatest success these Scots have seen since 2002. They won the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Playoff Championship for the second time in program history and advanced all the way to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament before No. 8 Wheaton College (Mass.) ended their dance.
The Scots thrived on a “by-committee” identity this season, but that didn’t stop their stars from shining. Defender Nick Kent ’26 and midfielders Ondieki Maina ’26 and Kasdan Blattman ’27 each earned All-Region IX first team honors to accompany their All-MIAC awards. Kent’s All- Region appearance marks his third straight, putting him in territory occupied by just two other Scots.
Next season, Mac will have to replace Kent and Maina’s production, along with a handful of other notable Scot seniors, but with their newfound national tournament experience, don’t be surprised to see another run from this crew. Head Coach Gregg Olson knows how to lead a team: he’s proven it with the turnaround he’s led during his Macalester tenure. It doesn’t matter who’s on the pitch, roll out the ball, and the Scots will make some magic.
Women’s golf forges historic season with second-place MIAC finish
The men’s soccer team isn’t the only Scot success story from the fall. Back in October, the women’s golf team concluded its autumn schedule with a second-place finish at the MIAC Championships — the best placement in program history.
Bailey Lengfelder ’26 has been the engine of the Scots’ success over the past four years. She holds 14 of the Scots’ top 20 18-hole records, including eight of the top 10. She boasts 10 of the Scots’ top 15 36-hole records. Her four 54-hole performances are all in the Scots’ top five in that category, including her school-record 218 performance from this year’s MIAC Championships.
A women’s golf team without Lengfelder will look different, but her leadership has established a culture of success. Her heir apparent could be on the team already: Ava Austria ’28 has already posted performances in the top three of each category. The Scots will need a deep contingent if they want to ascend to the very top of the MIAC, but they have a strong start.
Men’s cross country finds top-three MIAC finish Macalester men’s cross country has proven itself as a perennially potent team. For the past four years, it has placed top-five at the MIAC Championships and repeated as the third-place finisher this season.
Last year’s MIAC Rookie of the Year for indoor track, John Ihrke ’28, cemented himself as the team’s trailblazer with an eighth-place finish at the championship meet in early November. His time of 25:53.1 in the 8-kilometer is the lowest since Wade Eckstrom ’10 — look to see what he can achieve on the track in the spring. Tyler Edwards ’26 also squeaked out an All-MIAC finish in fifteenth place, his second in a row. The Scots will need to replace his pace next year. Check back in the spring to see which runners are going the distance on the track team.
Women’s cross country sends duo to D-III Nationals
Ingrid Norquist ’27 and Kate Fox ’28 headlined Macalester’s fourth-place finish at the MIAC Championships in sixth and 10th, respectively, for All-MIAC honors. They then jaunted along to the NCAA North Region Meet, where their ninth- and 15th-place spots earned them All-Region honors and a shot at the national meet.
On Nov. 22, Norquist and Fox became the first scot duo to compete at the NCAA Division III Women’s Cross Country Championships since 1983, and the first of any Scot to compete since 2016. Norquist finished 81st, and Fox finished 107th. Both will return next year, but Mac must demand more depth if it wants to find more success.
Volleyball’s rebuilding season
It was not a pretty volleyball season at Macalester. 5-20 overall and 2-9 in the MIAC is less than ideal. The Scots failed to win a single set in 10 of their 25 matches. They ranked bottom-three in almost every statistical category. That’s what tends to happen when a team graduates four long-time starters.
Still, there is hope: Adonia Anene ’28 earned All-MIAC honors after she logged 261 kills (3.0 per set) to rank fourth in the conference. She played her best ball in the final eight matches of the season, averaging 3.7 kills per set in that span. The Scots peaked towards the end as a team — their two MIAC wins came in their final two matches, though they triumphed over the other two worst teams in the conference. Mac played some tough opponents close throughout the year. If this squad can build momentum, it could be the start of something new.
Football starts winning again
There was nowhere to go but up for this football team. After a winless season, these Scots needed bright spots, and they got them in their Week 1 victory over Grinnell College. The victories didn’t stop there, either: Mac notched blowout wins over Hamline University and St. Olaf College, and hung around against the College of St. Scholastica, Augsburg University and Concordia College (Minn.).
This season, the Scots found what they’d been lacking: an identity. Mac ranked sixth in the MIAC in rushing offense and fifth in rushing defense, a 50-yard improvement in both categories. The pass game needs to catch up on both sides, but the progress is there.
Offensive lineman Max Clifford ’26 earned All MIAC honors, while cornerback Jay Green ’28 and running back Brennan Litchford ’29 earned All MIAC honorable mentions. Mac will need to replenish its senior-heavy O-line, but the future is bright for the skill positions on both sides of the ball.
Men’s golf on the upswing
The men’s golf Scots followed their women’s team counterpart in making history. Their fifth-place finish at the MIAC Championships may not have the same pop on the page, but a historic finish is a historic finish. The Scots can’t be picky here.
Ray Zhang ’29 is the shining star in Mac’s once-dim constellation. His sixth-place individual finish is the program’s highest since 2010.
Zhang won’t be able to lift Macalester on his own. Like Austria on the women’s side, he’ll need assistance if the Scots want to climb any higher, but the road is set out before him. When golf regroups in the spring, they’ll have a chance to prove themselves once again. Perhaps another leap is in the works.
Women’s soccer returns to the postseason
After narrowly missing the MIAC playoffs in 2024, the Scots bounced back with a 9-6-2 season, 5-4-2 in-conference. Though they couldn’t topple Augsburg in their playoff matchup, they went their last seven regular-season games without a loss.
Midfielder Adi Nhouyvanisvong ’27 notched All-MIAC honors, midfielder Maia Lemov ’26 was All-MIAC honorable mention and defender Ava Arredondo ’28 made the All-Playoff Team. At its core, this soccer team is young. With health and reps, they’ll continue to climb, as they return many of their key players going into next fall.
All in all: High notes for Macalester
Macalester athletics is ever a mixed bag. The bad seasons will always stick out, but the good ones have become more notable.
No Macalester team has reachced the heights that the men’s soccer team saw this season during Athletic Director Donnie Brooks’s tenure. A MIAC Playoff Championship isn’t exactly the same as a MIAC Championship (a ridiculous technicality that the conference should remedy as soon as possible) but it marks progress for the Scots, who hadn’t hosted a national tournament game in any sport since 2015.
Expectations shouldn’t skyrocket overnight, but watch to see if the Scots continue to trend upwards. Slowly but surely, those top-five finishes turn into top-threes, and one of these days, Mac might just win a MIAC Championship outright. It’s only a matter of time.
With the basketball and swim seasons already underway and the track season starting this weekend, there’s plenty to look forward to in the wild world of Scots sports.
