Wheaton College comes to grips with loss

Pete Felske didn’t mince words Monday as he broke down the Wheaton women’s soccer team’s 3-1 loss to Messiah in Saturday’s NCAA Division III championship match in San Antonio, Texas.

“It’s fairly simple,” Wheaton’s 24th-year coach said. “Messiah’s just better than we are.”

Messiah (23-0-1) proved it was the best team in Division III Saturday, winning its third national title in the past four seasons and fourth in the past seven. The Falcons outscored Wheaton 2-0 in the second half, breaking a 1-1 tie with goals in the 60th and 68th minutes.

The Thunder advanced to the championship match with a strong 2-0 victory over Ithaca in Friday’s semifinals. But a combination of nerves and poor play in the final undid the Wheaton’s hopes of winning its first title since 2007.

With a roster full of players experiencing their first final four weekend, Wheaton (23-2-2) started the championship quickly. The Thunder scored in the seventh minute, taking a 1-0 lead when senior Katelyn Kishkunas placed a pass on the head of freshman Anna Seabolt, who poked it past the Messiah goalkeeper.

“I had mixed feelings on that,” Felske said. “It was like, ‘Hey, yeah, I’m excited to jump out to an early lead.’ But I was thinking, ‘Oh, shoot. They’re going to come at us pretty good.’ ”

He was right. Messiah scored the equalizer eight minutes later and outshot the Thunder 11-5 in the second half as Wheaton’s aggressive play on offense yielded scoring opportunities for the Falcons.

Wheaton’s senior class — including star forward Jaime Orewiler (Wheaton North) — posted a four-year record of 82-12-8. That group was playing in its second national title match, first since 2008 when the players were freshmen.

Wheaton lost a lopsided 5-0 decision to Messiah that year, breaking a string of two consecutive titles for the Thunder. The result was the same — albeit much more tightly contested — in 2011, but the feeling was not.

“The team is fairly realistic about how things went,” Felske said. “We knew we weren’t expected to win.

“It was very different than the team three years ago that was kind of upset.”

Basketball: Tim McCrary scored 23 points and Wheaton scored 42 second-half points to continue its strong start to the season with a 71-66 comeback win over Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich., Saturday.

The Thunder — ranked No. 17 in the most recent NCAA.com top 25 poll — improved to 6-1, rallying to overcome a 32-29 halftime deficit. Wheaton actually trailed by 13 with about six minutes left in the game but used an 18-0 run to take control and avoid an upset bid by Calvin (4-4).

McCrary, a senior forward, helped pace the game-breaking run with 6 points. Senior guard Aaron Garriott had 7 points during that stretch.

Wheaton’s lone loss came in Grand Rapids Friday as the Thunder fell 79-78 to Hope College. Wheaton rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit in that game and actually led by three with 17 seconds to play. But four straight Hope free throws snapped Wheaton’s five-game winning streak.

Benedictine: Sophomore guard Michael Woolf went coast-to-coast for a layup with 2.7 seconds to play and the Benedictine men#146;s basketball team stunned preseason Northern Athletics Conference favorite Concordia (Wis.) 66-65 in Lisle on Saturday.The Eagles (3-3, 2-0) stayed undefeated in conference play, overcoming an early 19-7 deficit to hand Concordia its first regular season NAC loss since Feb. 13, 2010. The Falcons had a chance to ice the game in the final minute but missed free throws opened the door for Woolf#146;s driving layup out of a timeout. Concordia missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer to fall to 5-2, 2-1 in the NAC.Junior forward Mark Pace led Benedictine with 20 points, 11 in the second half. Woolf finished with a season-high 10 points. The Eagles have won two in a row and will play Concordia University Chicago in Lisle on Wednesday.North Central: Following a weekend in which he won the 133-pound wrestling title at the New Standard Invitational in York, Pa., North Central#146;s Nathan Fitzenreider was named the College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin#146;s wrestler of the week Tuesday.Fitzenreider (Wheaton North) beat No. 10-ranked Dan Herr of the College of New Jersey in the finals, earning a pin in 3 minutes, 24 seconds. The North Central sophomore also defeated Ithaca#146;s Marvin Amazon and Alex Gomez, and York#146;s Charles Glatz en route to the title.Fitzenreider is 13-1 this season for the Cardinals, who are ranked No. 17 by NCAA.com. D3wrestle.com ranks Fitzenreider the No. 1 wrestler at 133 pounds.