The

Grinnell College Grinnell College is a private liberal arts college in Grinnell, Iowa, United States. It was founded in 1846 when a group of New England Congregationalists established the Trustees of Iowa College. Grinnell has the fifth highest endowment-to-st ...

varsity sports teams are named the Pioneers. They participate in eighteen intercollegiate sports at the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division III level and in the

Midwest Conference The Midwest Conference (MWC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III. Member institutions are located in the Midwestern United States in the states of Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The Midwest Conference was c ...

. Grinnell was previously in the

Missouri Valley Conference The Missouri Valley Conference (also called MVC or simply "The Valley") is the third-oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States. The conference's members are primarily located in the midwest. History The MVC was established ...

. Nearly one-third of recent Grinnell graduates participated in at least one of 20 varsity sports while attending the college and the college has led the Midwest Conference in the total number of Academic All-Conference honorees in 9 of the last 10 years.

Basketball

In February 2005, Grinnell became the first Division III school featured in a regular season basketball game by the ESPN network family in 30 years when it faced off against the Beloit Buccaneers on

ESPN2 ESPN2 is an American multinational pay television network owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the remaining 20%). ESPN2 was initially fo ...

. Grinnell lost 86-85. Grinnell College's basketball team attracted ESPN due to the team's run and gun style of playing basketball, also known as the

Grinnell System The Grinnell System, sometimes referred to as The System, is a fast-tempo style of basketball developed by coach David Arseneault at Grinnell College. It is a variation of the run-and-gun system popularized by coach Paul Westhead at Loyola Marymo ...

. Coach

Dave Arseneault David Michael Arseneault (born August 12, 1953) is a former college basketball head coach. He invented the Grinnell System, a run-and-gun style that he employed with the Grinnell Pioneers. He was also an associate professor of physical educat ...

's "system" incorporates a continual full-court press, a fast-paced offense, an emphasis on offensive rebounding, a barrage of three-point shots and substitutions of five players at a time every 35 to 40 seconds. This allows a higher average playing time for more players than the "starters" and suits the Division III goals of scholar-athletes. "The System" has been criticized for not teaching the principles of defense. However, under "The System," Grinnell has won three conference championships over the past ten years and have regularly placed in the top half of the conference. Arseneault's teams have set numerous NCAA scoring records and several individuals on the Grinnell team have led the nation in scoring or assists. On November 19, 2011 Grinnell player Griffin Lentsch set a Division III individual scoring record in a game against

Principia College Principia College (Principia or Prin) is a private liberal arts college in Elsah, Illinois. It was founded in 1912 by Mary Kimball Morgan with the purpose of "serving the Cause of Christian Science." "Although the College is not affiliated wit ...

. The 6-foot 4-inch guard scored 89 points, besting the old record of 77, also set by Pioneers player Jeff Clement in 1998. Lentsch made 27 of his 55 shots, including 15 three-pointers as Grinnell won the high-scoring game 145 to 97. On November 20, 2012 Grinnell's Jack Taylor broke Lentsch's scoring record—as well as the records for NCAA and collegiate scoring—in a 179–104 victory over Faith Baptist Bible. Taylor scored 138 points, besting the previous NCAA record of 113. Taylor scored 109 points in a November 2013 game against

Crossroads College Crossroads College (originally International Christian Bible College and later Minnesota Bible College) was a four-year, coeducational Christian college in Rochester, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1913 and ceased offering classes in ...

to become the first player in NCAA history to have two 100-point games.

Cross country

The Grinnell men's cross country team has become one of Grinnell's most successful teams. The perennial powerhouse, as of 2013, they have won 25 of the last 27

Cross Country Championships. Grinnell has also had 18 individual Midwest Conference champions in the past 27 years. The women's cross country team is also very successful. They have also won more conference titles than any other team in the

, winning 8 of the last 11 titles.

Football

Grinnell's football program started in 1889, when the Pioneers beat the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

24–0. The match was held on November 16, 1889 in Grinnell and was the first game of intercollegiate football west of the Mississippi River, and therefore, Iowa.Lamb, D and McGrane, B, p. 2. A stone marker still stands in Grinnell Field marking the event.

Track and field

Both the Grinnell men's and women's track and field teams have won several indoor and outdoor championships since 1909.

Club sports

In addition to the varsity sports, Grinnell has several club sports teams that compete in non-varsity sports such as

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water polo Water polo is a competitive team sport played in water between two teams of seven players each. The game consists of four quarters in which the teams attempt to score goals by throwing the ball into the opposing team's goal. The team with the ...

ultimate Ultimate or Ultimates may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums * ''Ultimate'' (Jolin Tsai album) * ''Ultimate'' (Pet Shop Boys album) *''Ultimate!'', an album by The Yardbirds *''The Ultimate (Bryan Adams Album)'', a compilatio ...

, and

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. The Men's Water Polo club team, the Wild Turkeys, were runners-up in the 2007 Division III Collegiate National Club Championships organized by the CWPA in Lindenwood University, St. Louis. The Men's Ultimate team, nicknamed the Grinnellephants, qualified in 2008 for its first Division III National Championship in Versailles, Ohio. The Women's Ultimate team, nicknamed The Sticky Tongue Frogs, tied for third place in the 2010 Division III National Championship in

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. The success was repeated in 2011 when the men's team placed third in 2011 Division III National Championship in Buffalo.

References

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