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One of the premier Division II athletic programs in the nation, the Limestone University Athletics Department offers student-athletes more than just the opportunity to be successful on the field. The program's flexibility, combined with Limestone's smaller on-campus enrollment, offers the student-athlete an unparalleled opportunity to participate in intercollegiate athletics, so much so that many students are members of multiple teams.
Much like the University itself, the athletics program has a rich and storied history that is filled with a great deal of success and instances of regional and national leadership. Established in 1973, Limestone athletics competed as a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) until 1998. The Saints experienced great success during that 26-year period, highlighted by the 1984 NAIA Men's Golf National Championship and the 1984 NAIA Men's Golf Individual National Championship by Chip Johnson.
One of those programs, baseball, came into existence at the hand of a future Hall-of-Famer in 1987. Major League Baseball 300-game winner and two-time Cy Young award winner Gaylord Perry started the program and served as the head coach for the first four years of the team's history.
Beginning in 1991, Limestone earned membership in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level and has competed exclusively at this level since 1998. That year it began competing for NCAA Championships with membership in the Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference, currently known as Conference Carolinas. The Saints would remain in the league that gave them their first championship opportunity at the NCAA level for 22 successful years.Â
On July 1, 2020, coinciding with the institution's ascension to university status, Limestone University officially joined its new home as a full member of the South Atlantic Conference, one of the premier NCAA Division II athletic conferences in the country. The Saints previously joined the South Atlantic Conference as an associate member in football in 2017, while the field hockey and men's wrestling programs began competing in the co-brand South Atlantic Conference Carolinas in 2018. Once Limestone became an official full member in 2020, 23 of its 25 teams began competition within the South Atlantic Conference.
One year prior, Limestone became the 21st institution nationwide to add acrobatics and tumbling as a sponsored sport as the Saints began competing in the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association in 2019. Also joining the list of sponsored sports, women's wrestling began competing during the 2019-20 season as well.
Since joining the NCAA, the Saints have claimed a total of 11 national championships with five team titles and six individual national crowns. The men's lacrosse team has captured five NCAA Division II National Championships (2000, 2002, 2014, 2015, and 2017) while men's swimming, men's indoor track & field, and men's wrestling have combined for six individual national champions since 2008.
The men's swim team won three individual national championships in the 2008 and 2009 before the program was discontinued following the 2017-18 season. Men's wrestling boasts two national champions in Dan Scanlan (2008 – 184lb) and DeAndre' Johnson (2017 – 157lb) while Marshawn Scott won the first national title in school history in the 60m hurdles at the 2017 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships.
In addition to its national championship pedigree, Limestone has number of national runner-up finishes in men's lacrosse (2001, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2012, and 2016) and women's lacrosse (2011 and 2013) while the women's basketball team advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite Eight in 2014 and 2015.
Limestone has a history of helping to pave the way for new sports in the South. In 1990, Mike Cerino joined the Saints as head coach of the first men's lacrosse program in the State of South Carolina while the swimming programs were the only Division II programs in the State for a number of years.
In 2009, Limestone once again led the way with a pair of programs not often seen in this part of the country with the addition of field hockey and men's volleyball. The field hockey team, who for a while was southern-most program in the nation, has been a nationally ranked program while the men's volleyball team competed in the only exclusive Division II men's volleyball conference in the country.
The Saints continued to be pioneers in bringing emerging sports to the Upstate of South Carolina by introducing acrobatics and tumbling and women's wrestling. However, Limestone has also been a frontrunner in adding one of the most popular sports when it started a football program in 2013.
One of just four Division II schools in South Carolina to sponsor football, the Blue and Gold competed as an independent member over the first three seasons before joining the South Atlantic Conference as an associate member in 2017. The Saints posted a thrilling 30-24 overtime win over Tusculum in the program's first conference game in front of a national audience on ESPN3.
Throughout the years, many of Limestone's 25 teams have been nationally ranked, including both men's and women's programs in basketball, golf, lacrosse, soccer, and tennis. Baseball, field hockey, men's track & field, and men's wrestling have also enjoyed time in the national spotlight.
More than 233 Limestone student-athletes have earned All-American honors while an impressive number have garnered Academic All-American accolades. The athletics program itself has earned high praise over the year, finishing 23rd out of 268 schools in the Learfield Sports Directors' Cup standings for Division II following the 2016-17 season – the highest ever finish for the program.
In 2018, Limestone clinched a fourth straight Conference Carolinas Joby Hawn Cup Championship – and its fifth Joby Hawn title over the past six years – while the women brought home their fifth consecutive Hawn Cup award. The Joby Hawn Cup is awarded to the Conference Carolinas member that shows the highest rating of excellence in all men's conference-sponsored sports, all women's conference-sponsored sports, and both the men's and women's conference-sponsored sports combined. |
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NAIA National Championships (2)
Men's Golf (1984)
Men's Golf Individual Medalist (1984)
Chip Johnson
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NCAA Division II
National Championships (11)
Men's Lacrosse (2000, 2002, 2014, 2015, 2017)
Wrestling-184 lbs. Individual Title (2008)
157 lbs. Individual Title (2017)
Men's Swimming-
200-yard Freestyle Relay (2008 & 2009)
Men's Swimming-
50-yard freestyle Individual Title (2009)
Indoor Track & Field-
60-meter hurdles Individual Title (2017)
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Regular Season
Conference Championships (97)
Baseball (1993-94, 2005)
Men's Basketball (2013, 2017)
Women's Basketball (2012-18)
Field Hockey (2014-15, 2017-19)
Men's Golf (1983-85, 1994, 2015-17)
Women's Golf (2014-16, 2018-19)
Men's Lacrosse (1998-2019)
Women's Lacrosse (2004-16, 2018-19)
Men's Soccer (1993, 2013-15, 2017-18)
Women's Soccer (2016-18)
Softball (1989, 1991-93, 2009-11, 2014-16, 2018)
Men's Tennis (2012, 2017-19)
Women's Tennis (2015, 2017, 2019)
Men's Track & Field - Indoor (2016)
Men's Track & Field - Outdoor (2013)
Women's Track & Field - Outdoor (2009-10)
Women's Volleyball (1981)
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Conference Tournament Titles (58*)
Men's Basketball (2011, 2014, 2017)
Women's Basketball (2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2020)
Field Hockey (2013, 2014, 2015, 2018-19)
Men's Lacrosse (1994, 1999-2007, 2009-17, 2019)
Women's Lacrosse (2006, 2008-14, 2016-19)
Softball (2015)
Men's Soccer (2006, 2012-13, 2017-19)
Women's Soccer (2015-18)
Men's Tennis (2013, 2019)
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NCAA Appearances (121)
Men's Basketball (2011, 2013-14, 2016-17)
Women's Basketball (2012-18, 2020)
Men's Golf (2008, 2014-19)
Women's Golf (2015-16, 2017-19)
Men's Lacrosse (2000-17, 2019)
Women's Lacrosse (2004, 2006, 2008-14, 2018)
Men's Soccer (2006, 2008, 2013-19)
Women's Soccer (2015-18)
Softball (2015, 2017)
Men's Swimming (2008-12, 2014-18)
Women's Swimming (2008-10, 2012-15)
Men's Tennis (2009-10, 2013, 2019)
Men's Indoor Track & Field (2013-19)
Women's Indoor Track & Field (2019)
Men's Outdoor Track & Field (2013, 2016-20)
Women's Outdoor Track & Field (2018-19)
Wrestling (2005-13, 2015-20) |
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*Since 1994
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