Fresno State: Years of Academic Success
Fresno State: Years of Academic Success
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Football
- WAC-best 22 NFL draft picks in the 1990s (including two first-round choices - J.D. Williams in 1990 and Trent Dilfer in 1994)
- 17 former Bulldogs played in the NFL in 1997
- Jim Sweeney, who retired in 1996 after 19 seasons as Fresno State's head coach, became just the 16th coach to accumulate 200 career wins
- Captured WAC titles in 1992 and 1993
- Seven bowl invitations since 1982
- Defeated USC, 24-7, to win the 1992 Freedom Bowl title
- 16 national TV appearances since 1982
Volleyball
- Postseason play in four of the past six years
- Posted 21 or more victories in six of the past seven seasons
- Former Bulldog Ruth Lawanson won a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympics
- NCAA appearances in 1984 and 1991
- NIVC appearances in 1992, 1994 and 1995
- Head coach Lindy Vivas, the program's winningest coach in school history, earned WAC Coach of the Year honors in 1992 and 1997
Men's Soccer
- 25 winning seasons (including 19 straight since 1979)
- 13 NCAA playoff appearances (including eight consecutive bids from 1984 to 1991 and an i86 Final Four showing)
- School's first No. 1 national ranking (1987) by any Fresno State varsity sport
- 16-time NCAA playoff host
- 11 conference titles
- Eight All-Americans
- Seven former Bulldogs are playing in the newly-formed Major League Soccer (MLS)
Women's Soccer
- With its first season in 1995, Bulldog women's soccer is one of Fresno State's newer varsity sports
- Reached its first winning season in 1997, racking up 12 wins, four All-Conference selections, and second place in the WAC Pacific Division
- Head coach Peter Reynaud, 1990 NCAA Division II Coach of the Year, led Sonoma State to three NCAA Division II Final Four appearances and a national title in 1990
Cross Country
- Head coach Red Estes has the longest tenure of any Fresno State coach (34 years)
- Four conference titles for the men (1973, '81, '84 and '88); one (1988) for the women
- Eight individual conference titles for the men (with the latest being Jamey Harris in 1992)
- Four competitors at NCAA Championships (two men, two women)
Men's Basketball
- Preseason Top 25 rankings in 1996-97 and 1997-98
- Reached NIT Semifinals in 1997-98
- Under the direction of head coach Jerry Tarkanian, the Bulldogs have posted three straight 20-win seasons for the first time since the mid-'80s
- Tarkanian has never suffered a losing season in 34 years at the major college and junior college levels
- In 1996-97, won the WAC Pacific Division championship, Fresno Stateis first since 1982
- 1983 National Invitation Tournament champions
Women's Basketball
- First-year head coach Britt King will lead the Bulldogs in 1998
- Two WNIT appearances (1986, 1990)
- Ranked among the nation's Top 25 (1987)
- Four All-Americans in history of the program
- Three Academic All-Americans
- Six former Bulldogs have gone on to professional playing careers overseas
Wrestling
- Six consecutive WAC team titles (1993-98)
- Finished among the Top 25 at the NCAA Championships in each of the past seven seasons, including four Top 15 finishes in the past five seasons
- Team's best NCAA showing was eighth in 1993
- 26 All-Americans since 1964
- Head coach Dennis DeLiddo, WAC Coach of the Year four of the past seven seasons, was the runner-up for National Coach of the Year honors in 1993
Swimming and Diving
- Top-40 NCAA finishes in 1996, 1997 and 1998 (most recently 29th)
- Won over 75 percent of their dual meets in the last five years
- Head coach Daniella Irle has been named WAC Coach of the Year twice since taking over in 1992
- Named an Academic All-American team for five straight semesters
- 3.29 team GPA (Fall 1997) was the sixth best in the nation
- In its first-year as a recruited team, the diving program qualified 66 percent of its members for Zone E Competition
Softball
- 1998 NCAA Champions - first national title by any sport in Fresno State history
- 11 NCAA Women's College World Series appearances
- Four-time NCAA national runners-up
- Nationally ranked in the Top 20 polls for 17 straight seasons
- Four-time No. 1 national ranking
- 17 consecutive NCAA regional appearances
- 13 conference championship titles
- 39 NCAA All-Americans and nine GTE Academic All-Americans
- Seven Olympians, including six USA gold medalists and USA assistant coach and current head coach Margie Wright
Baseball
- 10 NCAA regional appearances in last 11 years
- Three-time College World Series participants
- 22 consecutive winning seasons
- Three Bulldogs have earned medals in Summer Olympic Games: John Hoover (gold in 1984), Tom Goodwin (gold in 1988) and Jeff Weaver (bronze in 1996)
- 28 All-Americans since 1951
- Eight former Bulldogs have been first-round draft picks since 1972
- Three of those eight were in 1989 (Steve Hosey, Eddie Zosky and Tom Goodwin), marking only the second time in the history of the draft that three players from the same school were taken in the first round of the same draft
- Pitcher Bobby Jones (now with the New York Mets) named National Player of the Year in 1991
- 12 conference championships since 1979
Golf
- 30 All-Americans since 1959
- Five NCAA Championship appearances in the 1990s, including a program-high fifth place showing in 1990
- Qualified for the NCAA Regionals in 19 of the last 21 seasons
- 11 conference titles (including a WAC title in 1994)
- 10 of those championships have come under the direction of current head coach Mike Watney
- Ranked as high as No. 3 in the nation (1987)
Equestrian
- Fresno State's newest varsity sport (introduced in fall of 1996)
- In just two seasons, 15 Bulldogs have traveled to the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association's national competition
- Elissa Lane became the school's first National Western Champion (1998)
- 1997 IHSA Zone 8 English Team Champions
- 1997 and 1998 Region 1 English Team Champions
Women's Tennis
- Advanced to NCAA regional play each of the past two seasons
- Head coach Irene Harris, the 1996 WAC Coach of the Year, is the program's winningest coach ever
- Team has climbed to as high as No. 28 in the national rankings since 1996
- Squad was honored as an Academic All-American team by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association in the summer of 1996
- NCAA singles qualifier each of the past three seasons, and also qualified a doubles team in 1998
Men's Tennis
- Four consecutive NCAA Championship appearances (1994-1997)
- Automatically qualified for the NCAA Championships after winning its first WAC title in 1996
- Won three NCAA Region VII tournaments since 1994
- Ranked as high as No. 5 in the nation (1996)
- Fredrik Bergh, the programis only two-time All-American, advanced to the finals of the NCAA singles tournament in 1996
Track and Field
- Four former Bulldogs participated in the 1996 Summer Olympics (Robert Foster, Nicole Carroll, Lacy Barnes-Mileham and Tod Riech)
- In 1998, Melissa Price became Fresno State's first-ever female national champion, claiming the NCAA pole vault title and setting the national collegiate record, both indoors and outdoors
- Former coach Dutch Warmerdam (1961-80) cleared 15 feet in the pole vault 43 times before any other vaulter could clear it once during the 1940s
- Behind NCAA champions Todd Riech (javelin) and Robert Foster (110 hurdles), Fresno State's men's squad finished fifth at the 1994 NCAA Championships
- That same season, the women's team duplicated its best-ever NCAA appearance, finishing 13th (the team also finished 13th in 1986)
- The men's team has won 32 conference titles in all (the first coming in 1929); the women have won five since becoming an official varsity sport in 1983