Ithaca College

The Ithaca College women's basketball team and the wrestling program wrapped up their respective winter seasons in early March. Both teams completed their seasons among the nation's best in Division III.

The Ithaca College women’s basketball team wrapped up its season on March 9 with a loss to Bowdoin in the Elite 8 to finish 25-6 overall. The Bombers earned the program’s second trip to the Elite 8 after a thrilling, 76-75, win over DeSales in the Sweet 16.

Ithaca advanced to the Sweet 16 after beating SUNY Poly, 68-58, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and Saint Joseph’s (Maine), 74-63, in the second round. It was the first time since the 2013-14 season that the Bombers won both their first and second round contests to advance.

The Bombers earned the Liberty League’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with a 75-73 overtime victory over RIT in the conference final. Senior Annie Giannone hit a layup with 3.3 seconds remaining to lift IC to it’s first-ever Liberty League title since joining the conference in 2017.

Giannone, junior Cassidy O’Malley and sophomore Grace Cannon each received all-conference honors following their stellar season. Giannone and O’Malley were both named to the All-Liberty League First Team while Cannon earned an All-Liberty League Honorable Mention.

O’Malley and Giannone both went on to earn all-region accolades as well. O’Malley picked up First Team All-East Region honors while Giannone was named to the Second Team.

In her third season on South Hill, O’Malley netted her 1,000th career point against St. Lawrence on February 9. Giannone also made history as she set a new single-season assists record with 131.

After the historic season, Ithaca ended up No. 15 in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association [WBCA] final Top-25 Coaches’ Poll and No. 17 in the final D3hoops.com poll.

The Ithaca College wrestling program put together another outstanding performance at the 2019 NCAA Championships on March 8-9 in Roanoke, Virginia. The Bombers captured fourth-place as a team out of 74 total institutions present at the event, scoring 59.5 team points.

Ithaca sent six wrestlers to the event, a group that included: senior 125-pounder Ferdinand Mase, junior 141-pounder Ben Brisman, redshirt-junior 165-pounder Austin Whitney, first-year 174-pounder Eze Chukwuezi, senior 184-pounder Jake Ashcraft, and senior heavyweight Jake O’Brien.

For the second straight season, five IC grapplers took home All-America honors at the event. Headlining the group was Ashcraft, who finished as the National Runner-Up in the 184-Pound Division.

Mase, Brisman and O’Brien each finished in fourth-place in their respective divisions, while Whitney placed eighth. For Mase, Brisman and Ashcraft it marked the second consecutive year of earning All-America standing, while O’Brien took home hardware for a third time during his IC career.

Piggy-backing off last year’s third-place team finish, the past two seasons have marked the most successful run for the program dating back to 1993-95, while it was the first time since a three-year run from 1988-90 that the team amassed at least five All-Americans in consecutive seasons.