The 20 most memorable and outstanding teams, athletes and moments of the last 20 years (No. 10-6)

As the curtain falls on 2020, Millersville University’s athletic communications staff looked back at the last 20 years and counted 14 PSAC Championships and more than 70 All-Americans for the Marauders. But championships and awards become titles, trophies, and words on a wall. There are real people with fantastic stories and accomplishments that are too frequently overlooked or forgotten--lost to history and later discovered as a faceless name on a list. It’s time to remember 20 of the most memorable and outstanding teams, athletes and moments of the last 20 years. 

Admittedly, this list is arbitrary and likely incomplete. There is no formula or criteria to share. Making the cut at 20, loads of worthy teams and athletes are left off the list. That doesn’t make those accomplishments any less meaningful. It’s impossible to compare a team championship to a record-setting career to a one-game, one-day performance. This list isn’t about an official ranking. It’s about memories. 

This is part three of four.  

10. THE TEAM THAT BROUGHT MILLERSVILLE BACK 

The Redding-led team returned championship basketball to the Ville

Greg Wright, a Millersville University Athletics Hall of Fame member who served as the sports information director at the university, watched nearly every Millersville men’s basketball game for 22 years and sat on press row through the peak of Millersville’s powers. The program won three PSAC Championships and seven division titles from 1985-1995. But Wright calls the oft-overlooked 2002-03 team as talented as any that he saw. 

“The team could ball,” remembered Wright. “They played a streetwise style but were disciplined and unselfish. Fred (Thompson) did a masterful coaching job.”

The 2002-03 Marauders restored Millersville basketball. You see, in the mid-90’s, things got ugly. A golden age of Millersville basketball, one that included nine consecutive seasons with at least 19 wins, came to a screeching halt amidst NCAA violations. The breaking news of the alleged violations was such a big deal to the community that it wasn’t just the top sports story, it was the lead A-1 story in the March 21, 1996 Lancaster New Era. The NCAA didn’t resolve the matter for nearly two years. The program faced no sanctions, but three seasons were wiped from the record books and the fallout had an impact. From 1996-98 Millersville had four different head coaches, and the fourth, Fred Thompson, found himself as the head coach before ever coaching a game in the assistant coach role he’d been hired for. 

But by year four of Thompson’s tenure, it was clear that Millersville was on its way back to the top. He had a star player in Gerald Redding and a Swiss Army knife forward in Toochi Udeinya, a former PSAC East Freshman of the Year who could score, rebound, pass and defend. Redding, a 6-4 shooting guard, could score with the best. He led the team in scoring in all four seasons and is still one of just four Marauders ever to earn All-PSAC East honors four times. Redding finished his career with 1,928 points and left the program as its second-leading scorer all-time. 

Yet for all his accomplishments, entering 2002-03, Redding had never won a playoff game. In his junior season of 2001-02, Millersville won 16 of the final 21 games and shared the PSAC East title but got bounced from the playoffs in the first round. As a program, Millersville had not won a playoff game in 10 years—an unconscionable length of time. 

Help was on the way, and it seemed almost providential. In the offseason, Thompson received two phone calls. One came from Darron Pressley, a sweet-shooting guard from nearby Hempfield High School who had played his freshman season at VMI. He needed a change and Millersville was close to home. Then, Micah Davenport called. The athletic 6-8 center won a PIAA Championship with Hershey High School in 1998 and won a JUCO national title before leaving Dundalk Community College. After two years out of school, Davenport decided to pursue his degree. He asked Thompson for a spot on the roster and promised him one thing: 

“Coach, I’m going to get you a championship,” he said prophetically.  

It took time for the supremely talented Marauders to gel. After a 5-0 start, the team dropped four of five including three in a row in December. Thompson publicly scolded the team for just showing up and expecting to win. The players heard the message loud and clear. Millersville won 19 of the next 20 games including 13 in a row en route to the PSAC Championship and a trip to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The team didn’t just win, it dissected opponents, winning 11 of those 20 games by double-digits. 

Redding played at another level against the PSAC East, scoring 18.4 points per game while shooting .466 from the field and a lights-out .467 from three. Pressley splashed 70-of-172 threes (.407), and Udeinya averaged 12.0 points and 8.5 boards per game. Point guard and one of the true team leaders, Khari McKie averaged 4.5 assists per game and led the team in steals. Davenport provided an anchor in the post. He averaged 13.2 points per game while converting 60.9 percent of his shots and swatting 56. The Marauders truly dominated, going 13-0 at home and 11-1 against the East. 

In the opening round of the PSAC Tournament, Redding poured in 26 poured to go with 11 rebounds and Millersville blasted a 17-win Mansfield team by 20 points. 

“This is fun. This is what basketball is supposed to be,” said Redding after the winning his first playoff game. “You’re supposed to enjoy it, to love it.”

In the semifinals, the good times continued. Redding went for 21 points and six assists as Millersville ran a 19-win Clarion team off the floor, 79-57. Awaiting Millersville in the championship was California, playing on its home floor. Cal U entered the game 25-7 and 15-2 at home. 

Millersville led by as many as 16 in the first half and appeared to be on its way to another rout. But Cal U slowly closed the gap and tied the game with just under four minutes left. One minute later, Michael Johnson slammed home a dunk to give the Vulcans a 74-72 lead. Shockingly, Redding missed both free throws on Millersville’s next possession, and the Marauders looked to be in serious trouble. The defense, however, answered the call and held Cal U scoreless the rest of the way. With 1:21 left, Pressley gave the Marauders back the lead with a 3-pointer. Davenport scored inside for a three point lead, and McKie iced the game with free throws. 

All five Marauders scored in double figures, and they shot 50 percent from the field and 50 percent from three in a 79-74 championship win. 

Thompson credited the competitive spirit of his lead guards in the win--one a dynamic and ultra-productive scorer (Redding) and the other a heady, steady facilitator (Khari). 

“With Gerald and Khari on the court, their will to win is unmatched by anybody I’ve seen play basketball in the PSAC,” said Thompson after the championship. 

That’s what it takes--a lot of talent, and considering those summertime phone calls to Thompson, a little luck helps too. Millersville basketball was back where it belonged.

9. AN RUN OF DOMINANCE REACHES ITS PINNACLE

The Millersville women’s tennis team produces remarkable season (2000-01)

From 1997 through 2002, the Millersville women’s tennis program won or shared six consecutive PSAC Championships. The run of competitive dominance is unmatched in the annals of Millersville sports, and the pinnacle of it all came in the 2000-01 season when the Marauders posted a school record 29 wins—a total that may never again be matched. 

The team, coached by hall of famer DeWitt Boyd, was led by a senior class that incredibly won at least 20 matches in all four years. Not only did all four of those teams win PSAC titles, all four reached the NCAA Tournament AND won the regional each year. The 2000-01 team’s only losses came to Division I Villanova (5-4), Presbyterian (twice) and Rollins (NCAA Championship).

Lauren Witmer, the No. 1 for four seasons and now a the hall of famer, headlined the class. A two-time PSAC Athlete of the Year and the 2001 tournament MVP, Witmer won her PSAC singles flight all four years and won 90 singles matches. As a senior, she ranked fourth in an expanded region that included teams from tennis hotbeds North Carolina and South Carolina and won the Arthur Ashe Award, presented to the region’s top senior player. She and her classmate and doubles partner, Abbey Neff, ranked No. 20 in the nation that season and teamed for a record 107 doubles wins over four years. Neff played in the No. 2 and No. 3 singles slots as a senior and finished her career with 92 singles wins. Junior Heather Miller (1998-02) won 78 singles matches in her career. Abbie Sweitzer, a 2020 hall of fame inductee, won 26 matches that season and finished with an astounding .871 winning percentage in 116 career matches. Hilary Cornelius won 25 matches that season, and Kristina Eger Dippner won 24. 

Incredibly, the season win totals for each of the six 2000-01 starters are among the 18 best all-time. 

The Marauders posted win streaks of 11 and nine matches during the season, and 23 of the 33 opponents were limited to one point or fewer. Millersville finished the season in impressive fashion. It outscored its three PSAC Tournament opponents by a combined 18-4, beat Division I Bucknell 7-2 as a tune-up for the NCAA Tournament and advanced through the regional by blanking Slippery Rock (5-0) and trouncing Longwood (8-1). 

The 2001-02 women’s tennis team stands as one that will likely never be statistically duplicated or matched. 

8. YOU HAD TO SEE IT TO BELIEVE IT

Clara Forney’s epic 4x400 anchor clinches second for Millersville track and field (2019)

It’s seemingly a tall tale, like grandpa’s fish story that grows in absurdity with each telling. But this story needs no exaggeration. Whatever you’ve heard, believe it. It’s all true. 

One year before Clara Forney ran the most mind-boggling 400 meters the PSAC had ever seen, Millersville women’s track and field scored a runner-up finish at the PSAC Outdoor Championships—its best placement in 22 years—because of the 4x400-meter relay's record-setting performance in the final race. Millersville needed a win for a trophy and got it. 

Forney ran the third leg of that 3:49.19 record time, but for three years, she hadn’t seen the individual success to validate the blood, sweat and tears that come from three years of dedicated training. She’d ran with three, All-PSAC relay teams, and she’d qualified for indoor and outdoor league championships eight times, but her only top-three finish came in the indoor 400 during her junior season. 

"I would wonder, 'do I actually belong here? Can I actually compete?'" said Forney in a 2019 article discussing her career and the upcoming PSAC Outdoor Championships. "I would look around at the other girls in my heat and think, 'there is no way I can run against them.' I had to overcome myself. I was in my own way."

To compound matters, at the 2019 indoor championships, Forney ripped off a season-best 57.91 in the 400 and crossed the finish line a hundredth of a second behind her teammate. The race results were immediately reversed, however, and because of a disqualification, Forney was declared the 400 champ—the first in Millersville’s history. 

For Forney, what should have been a moment of true validation became truly bittersweet. She felt as if she couldn’t rightfully celebrate the win. So, as she prepared for her final PSAC Outdoor Championships in May of 2019, Forney focused on winning that 400 “fair and square.” The meet that followed turned Forney into a legend.

On May 11, day two of the championships, Forney became the first Marauder to win the PSAC’s outdoor 400 by torching the field with a 56.17. As the day wore on, it felt like 2018 all over again. The team race for PSAC runner-up status once again came down to the 4x400. Millersville and Shippensburg both held 99 team points, and Millersville’s 4x400 team was hardly a full strength at the time. 

Forney stood next to the track awaiting her run, and with each leg, the gap between Millersville and the leaders widened. When Forney finally stepped onto the track to take the baton from Gabriela Karch, Bloomsburg, Shippensburg and West Chester had pulled well in front. Forney’s hand touched the baton more than three seconds after Bloomsburg’s exchange. Forney took over with Millersville in fifth place. 

In a 400-meter race, especially in a relay with a running start, three seconds is an eternity. Count it to yourself…one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand. Now, think about how far a top-level collegiate athlete can run away from you in that amount of time. 

But when Forney took the baton, she hit full speed almost immediately. It looked as if she had suddenly been bestowed with the power of super speed. She almost immediately overtook one runner. A group of three runners from Bloomsburg, Shippensburg and West Chester sprinted a stride apart near the second turn, and amazingly, before the one-lap leg reached its half-way point, Forney reached that pack and blew by it as if the other three runners were running in place on a treadmill. 

“Absolutely incredible! Millersville in the lead!” shouted the play-by-play broadcaster as Forney ran to the front, his voice coated in amazement and disbelief at once.

Forney bolted into the long final 100 and with just enough in the tank to hold off a hard-charging Bloomsburg runner. Forney’s final split: 55.2—the fastest in program history. The run was as clutch as it was amazing. Rightfully, she was named the athlete of the meet. 

Track and field coach Andy Young later called the anchor leg the most amazing on-the-track moment of his coaching career.  "Forney took things to another level today," said Young after the championships. "She was unstoppable and dominant in her events."

He saw. I saw it. There were witnesses. It really did happen.

7. WIN ONE FOR PRO

Conor Gilbert and the Marauders win the PSAC Championship with Vandegrift recovering (2013)

Is there any sports moment more inspirational than an emotional championship won in the honor of an ailing teammate? It goes all the way back to the famous “win one for the Gipper."

The Millersville men’s golf team did just that in the fall of 2013, winning the program’s first PSAC Championship in decade just as longtime head coach Scott Vandegrift, then in his 30th season, recovered from a myriad of life-threatening health scares. 

Vandegrift had already won three bouts against Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma when in the summer of 2012, he suffered a stroke. A routine checkup later revealed a bacterial infection that forced him to be hooked up to IV’s for two weeks followed by a six-week stay in a nursing home and continued daily treatments. The infection dissipated but it caused significant damage to his aortic valve, and in January of 2013, he endured open heart surgery. A man devoted to his golfers and to his work, Vandegrift pushed quickly to return to the course. He finally did return late in the spring of 2013, but he had missed nearly the entire season. 

Despite a fourth-place finish with Vandegrift on medical leave the prior year, the Marauders entered the 2013 PSAC Championship as serious contenders. Senior Rob Coyne qualified for and played in the NCAA Championships at the very same Hershey East Country Club course just months before. Transfer Robby Rowe rolled into the championships with top-10 finishes in four of his previous five tournaments, and Conor Gilbert was playing the best golf of his career. Despite a back injury that held him out of two tournaments, Gilbert had tied for third twice in September and won Gannon’s Bud Elwell Classic the week before. It was also Vandegrift’s first PSAC Championship since his recovery. 

Rowe opened with the only under-par round of the first day, and Gilbert sat two strokes behind in second place after shooting a 1-over-par 72. With 18 holes to play, Millersville held a narrow three shot lead over West Chester and stood just five clear of lurking IUP and Mercyhurst. 

With Vandegrift riding in a cart alongside him, Gilbert played beautifully steady in the second round. He stood at 1-under through seven holes and played even par over the final 11. He withstood a charge from reigning tournament champ Zack Kempa of IUP and became Millersville’s first PSAC medalist since 2014. Rowe placed third, Jon Heile took 11th and Millersville bested California by just two shots. 

After the championship trophy presentation, Gilbert draped his arm around his coach and pulled him in close. Vandegrift couldn’t stop smiling. After Vandegrift remarked that it was a great win for Millersville, Gilbert playfully mussed Vandegrift’s silver hair and shouted, “it’s a great win for you!” 

It was in so many ways. Not only because Vandegrift had won his third conference championship; not only because he hoisted the trophy for the first time in 10 years; but because he had fought off death and returned because he loved to coach. And in that moment, you couldn’t help but see how much Vandegrift’s presence meant to that team. 

“Talk about a warrior whenever you talk about that man. He’s taught us a lot about not giving up,” said Gilbert to the Lancaster Sunday News later. “I don’t know if I would have the strength to do what been able to do his life, and to overcome what he’s been able to overcome. He just always seems to be in the boxing ring and just takes punches like nobody else.”

For a full year, the team witnessed Vandegrift’s refusal to quit. And on that crisp October day in Hershey, they followed their coach’s example and became champions. 

6. WHAT A FINISH

Priscilla Jennings’ hall of fame career exemplified in one race (2009)

Priscilla Jennings is the only Millersville athlete to be an All-American in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. She earned election to the Millersville Athletics Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. She won 10 PSAC championships, placed in the top-three in a staggering 16 events, set 10 school records and two PSAC records. 

She owned the 800-meter and 1,500-meter runs, but Jennings also willed her way to three top-four finishes (including a runner-up in 2009) at the PSAC Cross Country Championships. Jennings never took a break. Adjusting from the 6K cross country course to the middle distances on the indoor and outdoor track without losing a step was simply remarkable. In 2008, Jennings swept the 800, 1,500 and 3,000 at the PSAC Outdoor Championships, and then went to the NCAA Championships two weeks later and placed fifth in an entirely different event—the 5,000-meter run. Jennings exemplified work ethic and competitiveness and it truly showed in her final two races at Biemesderfer Stadium.  

As a senior at the 2009 PSAC Indoor Championships, Jennings had been somewhat dethroned. Shippensburg’s Mary Dell bested Jennings in the 800, and the Raiders’ freshman phenom, Neely Spence, who would go on to win eight national championships, upset Jennings in the 3,000. Three months later, Millersville University hosted the outdoor championships. The setting was just so perfect: the senior legend running for redemption, revenge even. She would walk off her home track as a champion. 

First up, the 800. This time, Jennings out-ran Dell for the PSAC Championship, posting a 2:10.58 to Dell’s 2:11.27. 

But the 1,500 was the real main event--Jennings vs. Spence II. Millersville head coach Andy Young still calls it the best race he’s ever seen. 

After 1,400 meters the two runners had put nearly 50 meters between themselves and the third-place finisher. Down the final 100 meters, Jennings ran in lane two with Spence in lane one, side by side, step for step. Jennings gritted her teeth and steeled her eyes on the finish line. It wasn’t exhaustion. No, it was sheer determination--an unwillingness to fall even a half-step behind. She possessed such a desire to win that she forced herself to run faster than she ever had before. 

The two runners crossed the finish line almost simultaneously—a photo finish. Some thought Jennings pulled it out, others thought it went to Spence. Seemingly an eternity passed before the times posted. Then finally: Jennings, 4:24.57—Spence, 4:24.59. 

The two runners finished an incredible six seconds in front of third. Jennings had obliterated the previous PSAC record, and it still stands a decade later. 

She ran with heart. She ran with desire. She ran to win. And she did—more than any other track athlete in Millersville history.