BEREA, Ohio– The Baldwin Wallace University garnered three more All-Americans this winter and its winter sports teams had an outsanding year.

Highlighting the winter success, were the women's basketball team, women's indoor track and field team and the wrestling teams.   The women's basketball team won its sixth Ohio Athletic Conference Tournament Title and advanced to its 14th and second consecutive NCAA Division III National Tournament.  The women's indoor track and field team placed 25th and had one All-Anmerican at the NCAA Division III Championships.  The wrestling team, who set a school-record for wins, finished 20th and had two All-Americans, including one for the second straight season, at the NCAA Division III Championships.  Plus, numerous Yellow Jackets won individual honors.

The three student-athletes to earn All-American honors were junior pentathlete Melanie Winters (Stow/Stow-Munroe Falls), junior 125-pound wrestler Jesse Gunter (Akron/Coventry) and junior 174-pound wrestler Garrett Chase (Erie, Pa./Cathedral Prep).  Winters won her third career indoor honor after placing second in the pentathlon.   Gunter earned his second consecutive honor after placing fourth and Chase garnered his first career honor with a seventh place finish.

Winters was one of four Yellow Jacket student-athletes to compete at the indoor track and field national meet. She scored 3,581 points, 18 shy of her BW school-record but 50 shy of winning her first national title. She placed first in both the 60-meter hurdles and long jump. Winters also placed 13th individually in the high jump. She also highlighted her indoor season by being honored by the USTFCCA (United States Track &Field/ Cross Country Coaches Association) the Most Valuable Track Athlete AND the Most Valuable Field Event Athlete in the Great Lakes Region of Division III and was the first-ever five-time consecutive OAC Track Athlete of the Week. This winter, Winters set six school indoor records and now owns seven overall.

In addition, junior All-American Kim Gallavan (Auburn Township/Kenston), who was the Most Valuable Field Event Athlete at the 2015 OAC Indoor Championship Meet,  competed in the weight throw and shot put. She placed ninth in the weight throw and missed making All-American honors by one place (the top eight in each event earn Division III All-American honors) and was 12th in the shot. Gallavan set a school indoor record in the weight throw.

For the men, junior All-American sprinter Ben Beidleman (Washington, D.C./St. Anselm's Abbey) was 11th in the 200-meter dash and junior two-sport standout Tyler Burdorff (Painesville/Riverside) competed at the national meet in the men’s weight throw but did not place. Beidleman set a school indoor record in the 200-meter dash.

Veteran women's basketball coach Cheri Harrer became just the second women’s basketball coach in OAC history to surpass 500 career wins when her team defeated Ohio Northern University. It was the beginning of another great season for Harrer and her Yellow Jackets who compiled a 22-7 record. Leading the way was senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC standout Audrey Smolik (Strongsville). She led the team in scoring and was second in rebounding. The three-time team captain was the Most Valuable Player of the OAC Tournament and earned CAPITAL ONE Academic All-District 7 accolades. She ended her career 10th all-time in scoring in school history with 1,090 points. Smolik and fellow senior All-OAC and Academic All-OAC standout Shari Mangas (Leipsic) leave the University after compiling a 77-33 career record.

The wrestling team smashed the record for wins in a serason with 17 and had a 17-6 dual match record (the previous mark was 12)  Gunter will enter his senior season with a 93-11 career record. Chase has 99 career wins. In addition, sophomore 141-pounder Josh Decatur (Akron/Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy) narrowly missed being BW’s third All-American when he lost at the buzzer in his last match.

The men’s basketball team finished 18-9 overall and seventh-year Head Coach Duane Sheldon’s team had its fourth straight winning season. Led by senior two-time All-OAC point guard Jaron Crowe (Mentor) took OAC regular season champion and NCAA tourney “Elite 8” opponent Marietta to overtime in the semifinals of the OAC Tournament. Crowe, who became the 39th player in school history to score 1,000 points, finished with 1,002 points, was third all-time with 481 assists and led a group of five senior standouts to a 67-38 career mark. In addition, freshman guard Cameron Kuhn (Vermilion) was named as the OAC Co-Freshman of the Year.

The swimming and diving teams were led by junior Maddie Fortune (Akron) who won OAC titles in the one and three-meter diving events at the OAC Championship Meet and was named as the OAC Diver of the Year.