Linfield University

Linfield completed its second straight undefeated regular season in 2022. A perennial powerhouse in Division III football, the nationally-ranked Wildcats earned two major awards and 21 selections to the All-Northwest Conference Football Team, released Monday. After being named an honorable mention a year ago, junior linebacker Blake Rybar was named the NWC Defensive Player of the Year, marking the 17th time that a Linfield player has earned the award. Head coach Joseph Smith was voted on by his peers as the NWC Coach of the Year for the third straight season and the 12th time in his 16 years at the helm. Smith led Linfield to a 9-0 overall record and a 7-0 mark against conference opponents. It was the program's 21st unbeaten regular season. The Wildcats claimed their third straight NWC championship and will head to the NCAA Division III playoffs for the 12th time in the last 13 seasons. The 'Cats now have 38 NWC titles, including 31 won outright. Linfield's 21 all-conference selections are just one shy of the program's record of 22, set in 2021. Nine players repeated as first-teamers.

Linfield University ace Tayah Kelley was named the Northwest Conference Softball Pitcher Student-Athlete of the Week for the second time in as many weeks on Monday after throwing three complete games and striking out a combined 37 batters at the NFCA Leadoff Classic in Columbus, Georgia. With Kelley setting the tone in the circle, the Wildcats went 5-1 in the tournament and moved to 11-2 overall (3-0 NWC). She improved to 7-0 on the season with a NWC-leading 0.93 ERA and 62 strikeouts. She also leads the conference with two shutouts. The junior from Myrtle Creek, Oregon, opened the tournament by striking out a career-high 15 batters in Linfield's 11-1 win over West Region foe Claremont-Mudd-Scripps on Friday, allowing one run on two hits. Her 15 K's surpassed her previous best mark of 12 and is tied for fourth in program history for strikeouts in a single game. Kelley claimed another 14 batters via strikeout while again allowing just one run in the Wildcats' 7-1 win on Saturday over Coe, which was among others receiving votes in the NFCA Preseason Poll. She came back on Sunday and fanned another eight batters in a 9-4 win over No. 8 Salisbury. Kelley was named to the all-tournament team for her efforts.

Two complete-game shutouts and a combined 15 strikeouts later, Tayah Kelley from Linfield University was named the Northwest Conference Softball Pitcher Student-Athlete of the Week on Monday. The junior from Myrtle Creek, Oregon, moved to 4-0 on the season and improved her earned run average to 0.29 as the Wildcats took all three games against Willamette. She didn't walk a single batter in her two outings. Kelley tossed seven innings in a 4-0 win over the Bearcats on Friday, allowing just two hits while striking out eight. She went the distance again in a five-inning 8-0 rout of the Bearcats on Saturday, allowing three hits and claiming seven more victims via strikeout. The 'Cats are 6-1 on the season and 3-0 in NWC play, their only blemish coming in a 12-8 loss at Whittier on Feb. 19. Kelley leads the NWC with two shutouts and has allowed two runs, one earned, in her four starts. She has struck out 25 batters on the season while walking eight.

Linfield's big three of Dempsey Roggenbuck, Max Lommen and Aaron Baune has spearheaded the Wildcats to a share of the Northwest Conference regular-season title for the second straight season. It's no surprise that all three seniors were named to the 2022 All-NWC Men's Basketball Team. Roggenbuck was named to the All-NWC First Team for the second straight season, having also earned the honor in 2020. He earned second-team honors as a sophomore in 2019 and was an honorable mention and the NWC Freshman of the Year in 2018. First-time honorees on the All-Conference Team, Lommen landed on the second team while Baune was picked as an honorable mention. Roggenbuck becomes just the sixth player in program history to earn an All-Conference selection four times. He's the 18th player to earn multiple first-team nods in the program's 110-year history.

Gillyan Landis, a freshman forward from Yakima, Washington, made an immediate impact in her collegiate debut at Linfield University. She represents the Wildcats as an honorable mention on the 2022 All-Northwest Conference Women's Basketball Team. Landis started in all 24 games for the Wildcats. She led the 'Cats with 11.4 points and 5.8 rebounds per game to go with a 44.4 field goal percentage, all of which rank in the NWC's top 20. She led the NWC with 32 blocked shots and finished the season with 19 assists and 17 steals. Landis scored in double figures 12 times in her freshman campaign. Her season high came in a 22-point performance against Trinity (Texas) on Nov. 19. She also scored 20 points against Chapman on Nov. 13 and 21 points against Pacific on Feb. 8. Landis grabbed 10 rebounds against Trinity to complete the first double-double of her career. She pulled down a season-high 14 rebounds against Lewis & Clark on Jan. 28.

For the second time in as many seasons, the Linfield Wildcats men's basketball team is regular season champions of the Northwest Conference. It is the first time Linfield has claimed consecutive NWC championships since 1978, when the Wildcats won three straight league titles under the legendary coach Ted Wilson. Winning 99-85 over the Willamette Bearcats (6-18, 3-13) on Senior Night on Saturday, Linfield clinched a share of the NWC title with an 18-6 overall record and a 13-3 mark in conference play, becoming co-champions with the Whitworth Pirates (20-4, 13-3) and the Pacific Lutheran Lutes (18-7, 13-3). Owning the tiebreakers over the Pirates and Lutes, the Wildcats will be the number one seed in the Northwest Conference tournament, hosting the four-seed Whitman Blues (11-13, 9-7) on Thursday Feb. 24 in the first round of the Northwest Conference tournament.

Linfield University's cheer and stunt team took ninth place in their first year at a national competition. The team traveled to Florida the second week of January to participate in the 2022 UCA & UDA College Cheerleading and Dance Team National Championship. Linfield competed in the small co-ed division and was the only Division III school - and only school from Oregon - to compete in that field. The Wildcats performed the "On With Linfield" fight song, followed by a cheer, then ended with a "timeout" style routine. Linfield's cheer and stunt team started off its competitive season with the virtual UCA College Game Day Kick-Off in November, placing first in the small coed division for sideline and timeout performances and third in the fight song category.

The men's and women's swimming teams wrapped up their 2021-22 season with Northwest Conference championships in three relays and three individual events. The Wildcat men placed third overall and the women's placed fourth at the NWC Championships. The nine-team, four-day event was hosted by Willamette University and staged at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Washington. Aside from bringing a hardware haul back to McMinnville, four Wildcats are now waiting to see if they will receive invitations to the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships, March 16-19, in Indianapolis.