Good morning! It’s a great day made even greater because the Wichita State softball team just won the AAC regular season Championship. This is what dreams are made of, but to quote the late, great, Kobe Bryant: job’s not finished. We’ll see y’all in the postseason.

What else are we tossing into today’s Brew?

⚾️ Dynamic Duo
🥎 One BIG Thing
​🌾 And much, much more!

📈 STOCK UP

🔼 Chalk It Up To A Dub. Saturday afternoon at the Rock Chalk Classic, the Shockers took to the oval and put up some personal bests, podium placements, and even a couple of top-dog finishes.

Zarrey Sams was the big winner of the day after she secured four top-three finishes, with two personal bests in both the long jump and triple jump. In the long jump, Sams flew over 20 feet for the first time in her career, and recorded a distance of 6.15 meters, good enough for seventh on the Shockers’ all-time list and a win. She then placed second in the triple jump with a jump of 12.07 meters.

Sprinter Joseph Holthusen had himself a day as well, turning in a personal-best 10.66 in the 100 meter race, and placed second in the event. He parlayed his second place finish into another one, but this time in the 110 meter hurdles where he ran it in 14.16 seconds.

Capping of the meet were the distance runners, including Adrian Diaz-Lopez’ return to the track. He placed third in the 5k event, running it in 14:49.30, and placing third overall. Lubna Aldulaimi and Sarah Bertry wrapped things up and finished second and third in the 5000 meters. Next weekend, the Shockers return to their home base at Cessna Stadium for the Shocker Open.

🔼 Dynamic Duo. Third-baseman Sawyre Thornhill was all systems go for the Shockers until an untimely injury. A broken bone in his right hand kept him off the field for a month, which meant turning to true freshman Jack Little. Thornhill could have chosen to sit back and wait things out, instead, he chose to pour into him for the good of the team.

“How knows how to compete. He was not a normal freshman.” Thornhill saw that Little had the potential to be a real asset to the AAC leaders, and gave him a purpose during his time off. Little has been a good fill-in for Thornhill, racking up 10 steals in 12 attempts, and is hitting .275 with six doubles. “He calms me down a lot…he’s a good motivational speaker,” said Little about Thornhill’s effect on him this season.

Check out the full story, courtesy of the WSU’s own publication, The Roundhouse.

🔼 Staying On Top. The Shockers came away with another series victory over Memphis, winning two of three this past weekend.

Friday and Saturday saw a pair of dominant showings, with WSU outscoring the Tigers 20-4 over the two-day span. Payton Tolle and Clark Candiotti were each credited with wins after going seven and six runs, respectively. Sawyre Thornhill accumulated four hits in eight at-bats this weekend, and Garrett Pennington and Payton Tolle had the team’s only home runs of the two games, coming up with four of the team’s twelve runs in Friday’s game.

On Sunday, the Shockers came in looking for a sweep, but the Tigers had other plans. Starter Grant Adler had a solid day, getting five strikeouts and allowing just four runs. Tolle added another home run to his season total, but it was too little too late for the Shockers.

Wichita State still holds first place in the AAC, and with play like this weekend, the boys have just as good of a shot as anybody to finish the regular season on top. Next up is Kansas State, in a rematch from earlier last month.

🤔 SHOCKER TRIVIA

Putting On Miles. The mark of many athletes, especially in their younger years, is how fast one can run a mile. After a dominating showing at the Rock Chalk Classic, it’s safe to say our athletes can put up some more-than-decent times.

The question today—do you know what the fastest mile time ever recorded by a Shocker was?

Think you got it? Scroll on down to the bottom of this email for the answer!

🌾 ONE BIG THING

For the second time in three years, your Wichita State Shockers are AAC Champions. The squad secured the title after a pair of wins on Saturday at Tulsa.

This season was one for the record books. The Shockers have accumulated 43 wins this season, good enough for second best all-time, en route to their title. A big reason for their success was on the mound, as each starting pitcher finished with double-digit wins, including team ace Lauren Howell, who had a team-high 17 wins on 10 complete games.

And who could forget the great Sydney McKinney? The standout is sitting currently at a .534 batting average with a NCAA high 95 hits. The leadoff hitter was a huge part of the success of the team this year, and the senior is racking up the accolades on her way out the door.

This is just the beginning for this squad. Tune in from here on out, because the Shockers are in for something special this postseason!

📬 STICK WITH US

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📅 THE DAY AHEAD

Monday 5/1

No scheduled events

🎉 TRIVIA ANSWER

Answer: 4:01.08!

Adam Moore accomplished this feat last year, and sophomore Adrian Diaz-Lopez missed the record by just .02 seconds earlier this year. For perspective, ADL could run from WSU to Kansas City in just under 11 hours at that pace.

Have a great Monday, y’all.