By Joe Vanden Acker, Director of Athletic Media Relations
    The countdown of the greatest moments in Lawrence University athletics history continues as we reveal Nos. 16 through 20. 

No. 20 Jim Miller takes run at history
    Jim Miller was nearly untouchable during the 1978 cross country season and found himself among the nation's elite at the NCAA Division III Championships.
    Running at Credit Island Park in Rock Island, Ill., Miller raced his way to 12th place, the highest-finish ever by a Lawrence runner, at the national championships to earn All-America honors. The junior from Grand Forks, N.D., posted a time of 24:30, just two seconds away from the top 10. It was also just nine seconds short of the fastest time in Lawrence history, 24:21, which Miller had run earlier in the fall of 1978.
    The run at the NCAA Championships completed a dominating season for Miller, who was inducted into the Lawrence Hall of Fame in 2002. Miller recorded individual victories at the Madison Tech Invitational, the Lawrence Triangular, the Viking Invitational, the Beloit Invitational, the St. Norbert Open, the Lawrence vs. St. Norbert dual and the Midwest Conference Championships.
    Miller would go on to earn All-America honors in track and field in the 10,000 meters and compete in the 1980 Olympic Trials in the marathon.    

No. 19 Kenya Earl, Brad Sendell chase scoring titles
    The winter of 2021-22 was spent chasing history for Kenya Earl and Brad Sendell. The respective stars of the Lawrence women's and men's basketball squads were both chasing spots in the Midwest Conference Tournament for their teams with personal goals in the background.
    Over the course of the last six weeks of the season, both players saw records fall and tried to figure out who was going to be the school's career scoring leader when the season was complete.
    Earl, a forward from Iowa City, Iowa, broke the women's scoring record with a 3-pointer as she scored 12 points in Lawrence's 66-48 victory over Grinnell College on Jan. 15 at Alexander Gymnasium. At that point she had 1,489 points, two better than Hall of Famer Claire Getzoff.
    Earl kept right on rolling along and closed in on the overall record held by three-time All-American Chris Braier at 1,565. Earl scored 15 points on Feb. 16 against Ripon College to move to 1,567 points with five games left to play. 
    Sendell was leading the Midwest Conference in scoring, and he surpassed Braier's scoring record with a 22-point performance in a 76-56 win over Illinois College on Feb. 19. That pushed his total to 1,577. With just one game left to play for both players, Earl stood at 1,594 points.
    Sendell came up big in a must-win game for the Vikings in the regular-season finale as he poured in 28 points in an 81-72 victory over Monmouth College to finish his career with 1,605 points. The women's game followed at Alexander Gym, and Earl scored 16 points in Lawrence's 68-54 win over the Scots to finish with 1,610 points.
    Earl would go on to receive the fourth All-Midwest Conference honor of her career to join a very select group of women's players. Sendell was named the Midwest Conference Player of the Year and was chosen for the All-Region 9 teams by both the National Association of Basketball Coaches and D3hoops.com.  

Kenya Earl (34) finished as Lawrence's career scoring leader with 1,610 points.

No. 18 A clean sweep for cross country
    Both Lawrence cross country teams have won multiple Midwest Conference titles since the inception of the women's team in the early 1980s, but they had never taken both championships in the same season. That all changed on Oct. 30, 2021.
    Competing in the Midwest Conference Championships at Tuscumbia Country Club in Green Lake, Wis., Lawrence swept the team titles for the first time in school history. Lawrence is only the second school in league history to pull off the feat.
    "We've been talking all week about how the conference meet every year is the last time this team all runs together," Lawrence coach Jason Fast said afterward. "We wanted to make it special, and the team really embraced that all week. Both of them winning, I keep pinching myself. Today could not have gone better for us."
     The Lawrence women continued a stellar season by taking the title with 42 points, 20 points better than second-place Grinnell College. It was the first conference title for the Lawrence women since 2001. Sophomore Cristyn Oliver won the title for the Vikings as she covered the 6,000-meter course in 22:30.72. She won the title by 48 seconds over Lake Forest College's Madeline Morland.
    Lawrence then put three more runners in the top eight as Edythmae Frodl was fifth in 23:51.61, Riley Winebrenner was sixth in 23:54.93 and Althea Foster was eighth in 24:06.04. Oliver, Frodl, Winebrenner and Foster all earned all-conference honors for the Vikings. Senior Leah Hawksford completed the scoring for Lawrence as she took 22nd in 25:09.63.
    The men's race was tighter as Lawrence took the team title with 46 points, just four points better than Cornell College.
    First-year runner Collin Beyer led the Lawrence contingent by placing third over the 8,000-meter race in 26:15.44. Fellow rookie Sam Brewer was next for the Vikings as he finished fifth in 26:47.92. Adam Bruce followed in ninth place with a time of 27:13.60. Billy Daniels grabbed 14th place in 27:26.85, and rookie Owen West was 15th in 27:28.61. All five runners scoring for Lawrence earned all-conference honors. West ended up being the key for the Vikings as he ran a personal record by roughly 90 seconds, and that helped the Vikings edge Cornell for their first conference title since 2011. 
    Fast and assistant coaches Shelby Baldwin and Max Edwards were named MWC Coaching Staff of the Year in the wake of the titles.

Cristyn Oliver won the title at the 2021 Midwest Conference Championships as Lawrence swept the team crowns. 

No. 17 The unstoppable Keven Bradley 
    It was still early in the Lawrence men's basketball team's undefeated regular season in 2005-06, and Keven Bradley did everything possible to make sure the Vikings kept that streak alive.
    Bradley, a senior guard from Omro, Wis., scored Lawrence's final 20 points of the game as the Vikings beat Ripon College Jan. 7, 2006, at Alexander Gymnasium. Bradley finished with a career-high 33 points as he went 8-for-8 from the floor, including 5-for-5 on 3-pointers, and 12-for-15 from the foul line. 
    "You've got to like that situation, when the game is on the line," Bradley told the Appleton Post-Crescent. "I've always been the kind of guy who just goes out there and plays."
    Bradley's personal scoring binge started with a layup with 7:52 remaining in the contest for a 65-56 Lawrence lead. After three consecutive missed shots from the floor by other Vikings, Bradley's fastbreak layup and ensuing three-point play with 6:00 left put Lawrence up 68-58.
    Ripon scored the game's next five points, but Bradley buried a 3-pointer with 4:30 left for a 71-63 lead. Ripon then scored the game's next six points, but Bradley hit another 3-pointer with 2:47 remaining to give Lawrence a 74-69 lead. 
    Ripon's Paul Wise was then whistled for a technical foul, and Bradley converted both free throws with 2:35 left. Wise countered with a three-point play, but Bradley hit another 3-pointer with 50 seconds remaining. Ripon's Bo Johnson fouled Bradley on the play, and he made the free throw for a four-point play and an 80-72 edge.  
    Ripon was forced to foul, and Bradley went 3-for-4 from the foul line in the final 29 seconds to close out the win and complete his personal triumph over the Red Hawks.
    Lawrence would go on to post a 24-0 regular season and finished the campaign with a 25-1 record and an appearance in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Division III Tournament.

No. 16 A half-century wait ends for men's basketball
    This one was a long time coming.
    The Lawrence men's basketball team had not won a Midwest Conference title since the United States Marines were in the process of capturing Guadalcanal. For you non-historians, that's the winter of 1943.
    When head coach John Tharp arrived in 1994, Lawrence quickly became contenders and started the 1996-97 season with 11 consecutive victories. After falling to Knox College, Lawrence came back to win seven games in a row and nine of their final 10 in the regular season. Sporting a gaudy 20-2 record, Lawrence hosted the four-team Midwest Conference Tournament at a packed Alexander Gymnasium. 
    In the semifinal game, Lawrence downed Grinnell College 83-82 but needed to rally in the final minute to beat the Pioneers. Lawrence trailed 82-78 when Hall of Famer Joel DePagter made one free throw to cut into the margin. The Vikings got a defensive stop, and Ben Zagorski was fouled. He drained both free throws to cut the margin to 82-81. After turning the Pioneers away again, DePagter was fouled with 21 seconds left and made both free throws to put the Vikings up 83-82. Lawrence got another defensive stop in the final seconds to move on to the championship game.
    Chris Huff led the Vikings with a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds, and DePagter had 21 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
    The Vikings faced Knox, the team that snapped Lawrence's 11-game win streak to start the season, for the title in front of standing-room only crowd. 
    Knox led 37-35 at the half, and the teams traded the lead until the final five minutes. DePagter and Kent Hayes hit back-to-back 3-pointers, and Huff followed with a layup with 5:26 left for a 70-66 lead. Knox tied the game at 70-70, but the Vikings then took command.
    Zagorski made a pair of free throws, and DePagter followed with a 3-pointer and two more free throws for a 77-70 lead. Zagorski completed the 10-0 outburst with another 3-pointer, and Lawrence led 80-70 with 2:00 remaining. Knox was forced to foul, but the Vikings drained 10 free throws in the final 1:31 to seal the 90-79 victory and deliver Lawrence's first Midwest Conference title in 54 years. 
    "When I came to Lawrence, the winning tradition was not the greatest," Zagorski told the Appleton Post-Crescent. "I never expected this."
    Huff poured in 31 points and grabbed five rebounds in the title game, and DePagter was stellar with 26 points, seven assists and five rebounds. 
    Lawrence earned its first NCAA Division III Tournament berth with the victory but fell 69-63 at Wabash College in the opening round. Lawrence finished with a 22-3 record, easily the best mark in school history at the time.

The Top 25 Countdown ...
No. 25 Lawrence football makes ABC-TV debut vs. Cornell in 1980
No. 24 Lawrence football beats Coe 14-10 in 1986 MWC Championship Game
No. 23 Lawrence women's soccer beats Aurora 2-1 for first NCAA Tournament win
No. 22 Aljay Wren and Nick Maxam team up for 99-yard touchdown pass
No. 21 Remarkable turnaround for women's basketball

The countdown continues on Aug. 11 with Nos. 11-15.