Celebrating Early Year Success

We are off to a great start in 2025-26!

Excitement and anticipation are high. Our CMU football team, under first-year coach Matt Drinkall, is an unbeaten 3-0 on Kramer/Deromedi Field at Kelly/Shorts Stadium this season and is 5-3 overall. We lead the MAC in attendance as we have averaged nearly 23,000 fans at our first three home game games and we go into our showdown at Western Michigan on Saturday, Nov. 1 with a 3-1 record in MAC games and tied for second place (with WMU, Ohio and Buffalo). We had the ninth largest crowd in school history (28,605 fans) in town to watch us defeat Eastern Michigan 24-13 on Sept. 27.

We can't wait to see what the rest of the season brings as we have two home games remaining – Nov. 12 vs. Buffalo, Nov. 29 vs. Toledo.

We celebrated homecoming last weekend, an exciting day with all the pageantry and emotion that comes with it as we reunite with old friends and make new ones. It was a gorgeous fall day, perfect football weather in Mount Pleasant, and our Chippewas delivered a victory over UMass. It was also great to recognize our 1896 Society donors. Our 1896 Society's loyalty, leadership, and support elevate the experiences of our student-athletes, provides necessary resources for our sport programs to remain competitive on the conference and national level, and creates memorable experiences for our fans.

Not only have coach Drinkall and his coaching staff delivered highly memorable experiences, both on homecoming and throughout the season, but fans have enjoyed improved concessions and amenities around our beautiful stadium.

The fall has also brought our Class of 2025 to the Marcy Weston CMU Athletics Hall of Fame. We honored a number of legendary Chippewas during a wonderful ceremony inside McGuirk Arena as the 1977 MAC championship baseball team, basketball great Crystal Bradford, soccer standout Stephanie (Martin) Peters, track & field great Greg Pilling, wrestler Scotti Sentes and the late Titus Davis took their rightful places among the Chippewa greats of the past. It was a wonderful evening filled with reunion and reminiscence. I know that you join me in congratulating each of the inductees and their families.

On the field, the fall has been filled with successes

•Our field hockey team got off to its best start in recent memory, winning six of its seven games in the month of September and has earned a berth into the 2025 MAC Tournament.

•Our men's cross country team captured its first invitational title in eight years a little more than a week ago at Bowling Green. Our men's and women's cross country teams are headed to Buffalo to compete in the MAC Championship this weekend.

•Our volleyball team has hit its stride and has won six of its last eight matches to move into a tie for fourth place in the MAC under another coach who has made a major impact in her first year, Arielle Wilson.

Individually, Chippewa Mallory Camryn, was honored as the National Offensive Player of the Week Award from the National Field Hockey Coaches Association as she scored a combined four goals in MAC wins over Ball State and Ohio; volleyball players Natalia Rejment and Keelyn Muell earned the MAC player of the week and setter of the week awards, respectively; and football player Jordan Kwiatkowski earned the MAC Defensive Player of the Week award.

Our men's golf team under coach Kevin Jennings also got off to a positive start with solid team finishes in its first two tournaments of the season, the first in West Virginia and the second in Muncie, Ind. In addition, we hosted an outstanding field for the inaugural Jim DeLapa Collegiate at historic Point O' Woods Golf & Country Club in Benton Harbor, where coach Jennings worked as a caddy and as a bag room attendant in the 1980s.

Individually, Philippe Yturralde and Keith Hunter have set or tied several program scoring records and have combined for a pair of top-10 finishes through the first three events of the season.

On the women's side, two Chippewas, Ella Zanatta and Rachel Niskanen, posted top-10 finishes in a 54-player field at Notre Dame and the Chippewas again hosted their annual season-opening event at beautiful A-Ga-Ming Golf Resort just off the shores of Lake Michigan north of Traverse City.

Our men's and women's teams again combined to host a unique event in October at Birmingham Country Club, the Motor City Matchup, and we continue our fundraising drive for the program's new year-round facility as we move to the design phase. The state-of-the-art facility is planned for a site west of Theunissen Stadium and will provide a driving range, multiple reversible holes, putting and short-game practice area, multiple hitting bays, golf simulators, locker rooms and a fitness area.

We also handed out two very special individual awards to two of our student-athletes. Track and field standout Emily McLean earned the Dick Enberg Scholar-Athlete Award and Michael Heldman was honored with the Bill Boyden Leadership Award.

On the student-athlete leadership front, we held our annual Career Development Week with four events to help educate our student-athletes: BrandYou, Dressed for Success, Professional Etiquette, and Mock Interviews. Our Trunk or Treat community service event was also highly successful as the majority of our teams participated.

Congratulations to both as they are shining examples of what it means to be a Chippewa student-athlete.

Winter sports begin next week as men's basketball, women's basketball, and wrestling begin their seasons.

I hope you'll join me as we look ahead and support our programs as they strive for success in MAC competition and beyond!

Central Michigan University Athletics

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