Athletics
Aquinas College teams, nicknamed athletically as the Saints, are part of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Wolverine–Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, tennis and track & field; while women's sports include basketball, bowling, cheerleading, cross country, dance, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, tennis, track & field and volleyball.
Nelson, a St. Bernard, is the mascot of the Aquinas Saints. As Aquinas has never fielded a football team, the men's and women's soccer and basketball teams prove big draws. The men's cross country team holds the nation's longest current active streak of being ranked in the Top 25. The Saints have been a mainstay in the poll for 119 consecutive weeks dating back to September 2000. The Athletic Department is led by long-time men's baseball coach Terry Bocian, who retired from coaching in 2002 to focus solely on his duties as athletic director.
Aquinas College teams have been national runners-up twice. In 1963, the Aquinas men's golf team narrowly lost to host Southwest Missouri State in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II tournament. The '63 squad was inducted into the Aquinas College Athletic Hall of Fame on September 26, 2003. In 2004, the men's cross country team finished second to Virginia Intermont College at the NAIA national meet in Louisville, Kentucky. Five Aquinas athletes have won seven individual national titles in golf and indoor and outdoor track and field.
In 2010, a team of students led by freshman Hugh Ingalls successfully started the Aquinas College hockey program which will begin play in the 2012-13 season. The team is led by Head Coach Mark VanVliet and will compete in the Michigan Collegiate Hockey Conference (MCHC) and the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) Division III.
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