A historic year that culminated with a NCAA baseball championship — Denison’s third national title in the span of four months — has placed the Big Red in rarefied territory.
Denison is now the first Division III program in Ohio to win three NCAA team titles in three different sports in the same academic year.
At the national level, Denison’s athletics program is one of only three in the country to win three or more NCAA titles in the 2025-26 academic year. There are 426 Division III colleges.
“The past year embodied the competitive excellence that’s more than an abstract ideal or aspirant value for the Denison athletics program,” said Associate Vice President and Athletic Director Matt Tanney. “It’s a tangible outcome that student-athletes, coaches, and staff commit to every day through their actions.”
“Winning a single national championship, in any sport, is a tall order. Winning three in the same year reflects the exceptional talent and character in the students who don Big Red uniforms and among the coaches and mentors who shape their experiences.”
This year, Denison’s student-athletes lifted trophies in women’s basketball, men’s swimming and diving, and baseball.
In total, 10 Denison teams earned NCAA tournament berths, a display of quality and depth for an athletic department that features 26 varsity teams. Denison will add men’s fencing and women’s water polo in the fall.
Season highlights include:
The men’s swimming and diving team was ranked No. 1 all season on the way to becoming back-to-back national champions for the third time in program history (2011-12, 2018-19, 2025-26).
The women’s basketball team became the first in Division III history to win a national title despite being unranked in the preseason polls. During the tournament, the Big Red upset the second-, third-, and fourth-ranked teams in the final Top-25 poll.
The baseball team tied an NCAA Division III record with a 44-game winning streak. It finished the season with a 51-3 record and the nation’s best winning percentage (.944).
The total success of Denison’s athletic program powered Denison to a 19th-place finish in the annual LEARFIELD Directors’ Cup standings, an all-sports national ranking based strictly on points accumulated in NCAA competitions.
In addition to team championships, the Denison doubles pair of Ethan Green ’26 and Kael Shah ’26 also captured an NCAA title in May.
The Big Red’s breakthrough on the national stage has been building with years of work, planning, and alumni support playing significant roles.
“We’re fortunate to have a unique combination of coaches and staff in the Mitchell Center with a shared commitment to student success,” Tanney said. “It’s rarely articulated as a ‘national championship’ philosophy. Instead, it’s grounded in sincere care for the students, and with that anchor, coaches both push and support them, including through failure, in the pursuit of personal development and growth. Denison students display an impressive aptitude and willingness to be coached that enables such a dynamic culture with meaningful relationships.”
This marks the second consecutive record-breaking year for the Big Red, reflecting Denison’s competitive momentum and rising status as an athletics powerhouse.
Last year, Denison won two NCAA titles — men’s tennis and men’s swimming and diving — in the same academic year for the first time, and also saw 10 teams earn NCAA tournament berths.
The existing record for Division-III titles in a year is five, held by Vermont’s Middlebury College in 2003-04. The NCAA began awarding Division III national championships in 1973.
