UT Dallas Magazine

Comets Capture First Conference Crown

Editors’ Note: This feature appears as it was published in the fall 2017 edition of UT Dallas Magazine. Titles or faculty members listed may have changed since that time.
 

The Comets softball team capped a banner year for UT Dallas athletics by claiming its first American Southwest Conference (ASC) title in program history. The championship marked the fifth ASC title won by a UTD team in 2016-17.

The conference tournament brought an array of firsts for the program. Beyond resulting in the first ASC crown and NCAA bid for UTD, a 6-5 walk-off win and a 7-5 conference clincher were the Comets’ first two victories over UT Tyler in 12 seasons.

“I’m so proud of our team. They stayed together all year,” head coach Rich Wieligman said. “We went through some adversity in this last game and stayed together in this last inning and finished it out.”

The Comets’ historic season ended with a loss to East Texas Baptist University in the regionals of the NCAA Division III Softball Championship.