UWRF Athletic Director Crystal Lanning gave an overview of the UWRF athletic department, some recent updates and success stories, and then provided some history on the women’s athletics program since this is the 50th anniversary of the Title IX legislation that opened up opportunities for women’s sports in higher education. At the conclusion of her presentation, Crystal introduced senior basketball player Morgan Seitz and junior hockey player Holly Eckers who told their stories and fielded a few questions.
UWRF is an NCAA Division III university which means no athletic scholarships; the school had 425+ student athletes in 17 varsity sports last year. The university will add e-sports this fall. e-sports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. e-sports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams.
Crystal noted that student athletes have a higher GPA than the average student and a retention rate of 87% compared to the average of 73%. She also pointed out that UWRF was ahead of its time in women’s sports. In 1969 athletic opportunities for women were very limited. Title IX legislation was passed in 1972 and 1974 was the first season for 8 women’s varsity sports, one year after the WIAC formed conferences in several sports for women. 2022 was the 50th year of Title IX and during those fifty years UWRF had 83 national champion appearances, 7 individual national champions, 1 team national championship, 123 individual conference championships, 43 team conference championships, 128 all-Americans, 3 National Athletes of the Year, 26 conference Athletes of the Year, 35 WIAC scholar athletes, and 10 Academic All-Americans.
UWRF will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day February 7 with hockey vs St. Bens and February 8 with basketball at Stevens Point.
Crystal Lanning is currently in her 7th year serving as Director of Athletics and 18th overall year at UWRF. Prior to her current role at UWRF, Lanning spent the 2015-16 year as the assistant commissioner for membership services at the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, an NCAA Division II conference located in Minnesota.