Spider Athletics Update: From Interim AD David Walsh

Dear Spider Fans:

I hope you are doing well. I have enjoyed seeing you and talking with some of you at your tailgates at Robins Stadium this Fall. We have had some spectacular weather and great game day atmospheres so far this season.

We are rapidly moving through the Fall semester as we start October. It is a busy time of the year in that all of our sport programs are practicing or competing now on a regular basis. We are off to a fast start for the 2017-2018 academic year and I would like to share with you some of our highlights and other information to keep you updated on the activities of the Athletic Department:

Congratulations to Head Coach Ali Wright and the women's golf team for winning their first two tournaments of the year! The women's golf team has won back-to- back Patriot League Championships and is off to an amazing start this season. This fall is the first time in program history that the team has won back-to-back team tournaments (at the Navy Invite and at the Boston College Intercollegiate) and won back-to-back individual championships. Two different student-athletes won tournaments, junior Sophie DiPetrillo, and senior Elsa Diaz. Sophie shot a program record-low 69 at Navy and Elsa broke the record low at Boston College with a 68.
Although our football team recently lost a tough game vs nationally-ranked Elon, we have plenty of firepower to reach the NCAA FCS Playoffs. Amazingly, prior to our bye week, we had the NCAA FCS national passing leader in yards in Kyle Lauletta and the top two receivers in yards, Cortrelle Simpson and Dejon Brissett! Additionally, our overall offense is leading the country in yards, averaging 557.5 yards per game.
Please check out interesting features on two of our football student-athletes. The CAA produced an "On Campus" segment detailing our football staff's evolving methods for rehabbing and preventing serious injuries. This particular segment displays the details of the process for quarterback Kyle Lauletta coming back from last year's ACL tear. Story: http://caasports.com/news/2017/9/21/football-caafb-going-deep-the-making-of-a-comeback.aspx Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBRNmC6BOqs. Please also see our inspirational Spider Voices segment on Spider football student-athlete Adam Samee http://www.spidervoices.com/this-years-for-you/ .
Women's cross country won the Spider Alumni Open, had a great 4^th place finish at the Adidas XC Challenge at NC State and a strong showing at the Paul Short Invitational in Bethlehem, PA and will be looking for its third straight A10 Conference Championship October 28 in Leesburg, VA. Dayton and Davidson appear to be our strongest competitors for the A10 title. On the men's side, Noah Yuro won A10 Rookie of the Week and Miles Clikeman finished second out of a field of 153 competitors and was one second behind the top finisher at the Paul Short Invitational.
Our Women's Swimming and Diving team's season started with four Spiders competing at the CSCAA Open Water Championship. This was the first time our swimming program had participated in an open water event. Senior Annie Lane led the Spiders as she turned in a top-25 performance among an elite pack on the 5K course. Our swimming and diving team has been voted A10 pre-season favorites to win the conference championship and will be competing for their eighth straight championship and 15th in the past 16 years.
The official basketball seasons began this past weekend and we are excited for the men's and women's teams. Both programs have put together strong schedules---men's basketball will play 8 games against 7 teams that qualified for the NCAA tournament last year, Jacksonville St, Vermont, Wake Forest, Bucknell, Dayton, VCU (x2) and Rhode Island. Not even included in this list is our match up with Georgetown at home on Saturday, November 25. The women's basketball team plays twelve games against teams that played in post season last year including 2017 #23 ranked and Sweet Sixteen participant Quinnipiac, defending A10 Tournament Champion Dayton and the ACC's Wake Forest.
We continue to make progress on Elevate – The Campaign for Spider Athletics. The athletics department is pleased to host a dinner for former baseball student-athletes and "friends" of baseball on Friday, October 20 to continue to raise funds to renovate Pitt Field. The alumni and friends weekend will consist of a golf outing, fundraising dinner, and Pitt Field alumni batting practice session. If you are interested in supporting the efforts to renovate Pitt Field or you are interested in attending any of the events of the weekend please contact Jasmonn Coleman at Jasmonn.coleman@richmond.edu or visit https://uronline.net/Baseball/AlumniWeekend.
I had mentioned in previous correspondence that our new Spider Leadership Initiative was kicking off this year. As part of the Spider Leadership Initiative, we launched a formal leadership development program called the Spider Leadership Institute. The institute is committed to identifying, nurturing, and inspiring student-athletes to "stretch themselves" and be leaders on their teams and within our community. A unique aspect of the program was an immersive experience that involved our student-athletes hiking and camping in Shenandoah National Park, spending a full day at UR Downtown and having lunch on the Capital Grounds. These were transformational experiences for our student-athletes!

Please take a look at our video recapping our student-athletes' trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNBEsQuFS_U&feature=youtu.be

As always, thank you for your support. We look forward to a successful fall season. Please let me know if you ever have any questions or concerns. We are One Richmond, United in Red.

David Walsh
Interim Athletic Director

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