Lenhart Earns Milestone 900th Win

04/03/2018 

SUNY Cortland’s softball team won in dramatic fashion on Monday, April 2, giving head coach Julie Lenhart her 900th career coaching victory.

Hannah Feldman’s walk-off three-run home run in the bottom of the 10th inning capped a six-run frame that lifted Cortland to a 12-9 win over visiting Rochester.

Lenhart is only the sixth coach in Division III history to reach the 900-win plateau, and just the fourth to do so coaching exclusively at Division III schools. Lenhart has a career mark of 900-380-2 in 29 years as a head coach — 780-303-2 in 24 seasons at Cortland and 120-77 in five years at Wisconsin-Platteville from 1990-94.

SUNY Cortland has qualified for the NCAA Division III playoffs 16 times under Lenhart and has made seven World Series appearances. The Red Dragons were national runners-up in 2013, placed fourth in 2011, placed fifth in 2003 and 2008 and were seventh-place finishers in 1998, 2004 and 2009.

Lenhart and her staff have been named National Fastpitch Coaches Association (NFCA) Northeast Region Coaching Staff of the Year seven times (1998, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013) and she was inducted into the NFCA Hall of Fame in December 2014. She was named State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Coach of the Year five times (1997, 2005, 2007, 2010 and 2015) and was named the Wisconsin Women’s Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1990 and 1992.

Cortland teams under Lenhart have won SUNYAC postseason titles 11 times (1998, 2003, 2005, 2007-08, 2010-11, 2013, 2015-17), and she has led Cortland to either first or second place in the SUNYAC tournament every year since 1998.

Lenhart’s teams have won at least 27 games each year since 1997, including four straight years from 2009-12 with 40 or more wins, 39 victories in 2008, and 38 wins in both 2016 and 2007. Since 2000, Cortland is a combined 298-44-2 in SUNYAC regular-season games, including unbeaten seasons in 2007 (20-0), 2010 (18-0) and 2011 (17-0-1), and one-loss seasons in 2009 (19-1), 2012 (17-1) and 2016 (17-1).

A native of McComb, Ohio, Lenhart is a 1980 graduate of Ohio Northern University. A Dean’s List student, she lettered in basketball, softball and volleyball. She is a member of the ONU Athletic Hall of Fame. She also has taught and coached at the North Central Schools in Pioneer, Ohio and at Shawnee High School in Lima, Ohio.