8383Points under .500 in the freshman batting average of Becki Toth (2001-05), the softball player of the decade. Toth’s .417 average was the best ever by Mule freshman with more than 35 at-bats and earned her all-region honors. She ended her career with a .366 average on the strength of a school-record 182 hits. Toth earned All-Centennial Conference honors four times, making the first team both as an outfielder and as a shortstop.

Becki’s father, Dick Toth, was an all-conference football player at Muhlenberg. Other second-generation Mules of the decade included Justin Henning (soccer), Samuel Hayden (soccer), Steph Light (lacrosse), John Kalis (baseball), Doug Folger (football), Jenn Risley (basketball), Courtney and Brittany Williams (volleyball), Debra Crockett (track and field) and Mike Brown (lacrosse).

82:582:52, 2, 82:582:544

Time of goal scored by sophomore Cody Antonini in back-to-back 1-0 wins by the men’s soccer team against Gettysburg and Dickinson in 2009. The goals extended Antonini’s scoring streak to eight games, the longest from the start of a season by a Mule since 1971. Antonini led Muhlenberg to the top seed in the Centennial Conference playoffs and was named CC player of the year and a first-team All-American.

81.781.7Stroke average in 2006-07 for Kimberly Snyder, the women’s golf player of the decade. Snyder’s average in her only year at Muhlenberg broke the previous school record by more than 12 strokes. She finished first at four tournaments during the year, including the Centennial Conference Championships, and shot a school-record 75 in the first round of the Nike Collegiate Classic. Snyder’s performance at the CC tournament led Muhlenberg to its second title, by a 30- stroke margin over five-time defending champion McDaniel.

80:2880:28Time of Tom Reilly’s third goal against Neumann on August 30, 2008, giving the Muhlenberg soccer teams two hat tricks on the same day for the first time ever.

Earlier that afternoon, Renee Dessimone scored three goals against St. Joseph’s (N.Y.), becoming the first women’s soccer freshman to record a hat trick in her first game as a Mule. Reilly notched the first hat trick for the men’s team since 2000 in just his second game for Muhlenberg.

7979School-record career assists for men’s lacrosse player Mickey Norton (2005-08). He more than doubled the previous mark of 39 and finished his career as Muhlenberg’s all-time leading scorer with 123 points. Norton also set the school record for assists in a season (26) and tied the marks for points in a season (42) and assists in a game (5).

Mickey’s younger sister, Renee, played on the Muhlenberg field hockey team in 2008-09. Other brother-sister duos in different sports include the Rutts (Lauren in field hockey and Jordan in tennis), the Tranguches (Nick in football and Maria in soccer) and the Lutzers (Marissa in tennis and Bradley in lacrosse).

Also the number of school records set or tied by the track and field teams during the decade. Only 17 records that existed in 1999 survived the decade, none for women’s indoor track.

Rachel Drosdick is responsible for four of the 79, setting school records in the indoor and outdoor long jump, the heptathlon and the pentathlon.

Kurt Kunsch’s pole vault of 14-7 in 2000 is now one of the oldest records on the books. Kunsch won the Centennial Conference gold medal both indoors and outdoors that year.

7979

78-7478-74Combined record of Muhlenberg’s four Centennial Conference championship softball teams (2000, 2001, 2003, 2009) in the decade.

That isn’t such a great winning percentage, of course, but theMules played their best in the games that mattered most, often after struggling against tough competition early in the season. Muhlenberg’s CC record those four years was a much more impressive 48-16.

Only the 2001 team (pictured) finished more than a game above .500, going 25-17, and that was after starting out 7-11. The 2000 team started 4-12 and finished 18-18, and in 2003 the Mules were 1-12 before turning it around. Their final record of 16-21 included two NCAA Tournament wins. The 2009 squad ended up 19-18 after a 6-10 start.

77.977.9Stroke average for Zachary Oyer in 2008-09 — the best by a Mule golfer in the decade. Oyer shot in the 70s in 12 of 16 rounds, with a low of 73, and was Muhlenberg’s top finisher at the Centennial Conference Championships, tying for sixth.

0.70.766

Goals-against average for Kim Laurino in her junior year of 2001. Laurino was named to the All-Centennial Conference women’s soccer first team and was the hero of the CC championship game against Johns Hopkins, making nine saves and protecting a 1-0 lead despite facing 16 shots in the second half. It was her school-record ninth shutout of the season, and she finished her career holding school records for career shutouts (25) and goals-against average (0.85).

7575Combined seconds for the men’s lacrosse team to win consecutive games in overtime on the road in 2004. The

0.70.755NCAA-leading average triples per game for the baseball team in 2005. Matt Long led the Mules with four three-baggers, and 11 different players had at least one.

Mules beat Centenary, 12-11, on a goal by Justin Hollander 58 seconds into overtime. Seven days later, Hollander assisted on the winning goal 17 seconds into the extra period for an 8-7 victory at Merchant Marine.

All four statistical championships won by the Muhlenberg baseball team have been in the triples-per- game category (one team and three individual).

Score of the men’s basketball win against Ursinus in the last game of the 2005-06 regular season. Needing a win to clinch a playoff berth and without their leading scorer and rebounder, the Mules beat the first-place Bears in front of a large home crowd. Tom Scott scored 27 points.

The next year, Muhlenberg proved it was no fluke. Again in a “win and in” situation, but this time on the road, the Mules defeated the favored Bears 76-68, with Scott again leading the way with 25 points.

74-7074-70

7373Goals in 2003 for Courtney Tapkas, the women’s lacrosse player of the decade. She ranked fifth in Division III in goals per game, setting school records for goals and points (84) in a season and tying marks for hat tricks in a season (12) and goals in a game (9). Tapkas would go on to become the program’s all-time leader in points (262) and goals (218). She is the only player in team history to earn All-Centennial Conference honors all four years.

7272School-record and Centennial Conference-leading number of ground balls for Bradley Lutzer in 2005. The first senior to graduate from the reinstated Muhlenberg men’s lacrosse program, Lutzer earned All-CC second-team honors. He was one of the first two players in program history to receive All-CC recognition.

7171Combined finishes at the NCAA Mideast Regional from 2000 to 2002 for Brendan Gallagher. He came in 32nd in 2000, 15th in 2001 and 24th in 2002. Combined with a 22nd-place finish in 1999, that made Gallagher the first (and to date, only) four-time all-region runner for Muhlenberg cross country. In 2001, Gallagher became the first Mule to qualify for the NCAA Championships in cross country.

7070Lowest round by a Muhlenberg golfer in the decade.

Bill Snow (below) shot a two-under-par 70 at the Gettysburg Fall Invitational in 2008.

Matt Berman (right) carded his 70 in the spring, at the 2001 Susquehanna Tee-Off Tournament on a par-70 course. It was the first of Berman’s three tournament wins that year. The last wasat the Centennial Conference Championships, where he led the Mules to the championship. Berman averaged 79.3 strokes per round in 2000-01 and is the men’s golf player of the decade.

7700

Also the margin of victory for the men’s basketball team in a 107-37 win against Philadelphia Biblical in 2007-08, breaking a 59-year-old school record.

69-69-2828 Career record of Jason McLean

entering the 2001 NCAA Championships. One of four Mule wrestlers to qualify for nationals that year, McLean returned as the first All-American in program history, finishing eighth at 141 pounds. His 34 wins on the season rank second on Muhlenberg’s all-time list.

6868Career touchdowns scored by Matt Bernardo (2000-03) — a school and Centennial Conference record. At the time of his graduation, Bernardo ranked ninth in Division III history with 408 career points. He received All-America honorable mention as a junior and was a three-time first-team All-CC selection. Bernardo still holds school records for rushing yards in a career (4,117), all-purpose yards in a season (2,173), rushing touchdowns in a season (19) and total touchdowns in a season (22).

6767School-record extra-base hits (48 doubles, 7 triples, 12 home runs) for the softball team in 2009. RiRi Ferrigno (right) had 13 of the extra-base hits, including a school-record four in one game vs. Franklin & Marshall.

Samantha Crist (left) had the biggest extra-base hit, a walkoff grand slam to beat Gettysburg, 8-5, in the opening game of the Centennial Conference playoffs. The round-tripper propelled the Mules to the CC championship.