9 enjoyable information concerning the spring championships, to this point

The upstart McKendree Bearcats and Saint Leo are nonetheless battling to resolve the 2026 DII softball championship. A number of hundred miles away, 4 groups are nonetheless alive within the DII baseball finals. However, 9 different nationwide champions have been named this spring, they usually typically slip beneath the radar with the brilliant lights of the larger brackets.

Let’s have a look again on the spring that was, to this point.

Florida reigns supreme in DII lacrosse

Florida Southern dominates the sixes. For the primary time in 10 tournaments, Florida Southern is the DII girls’s lacrosse nationwide champions. The Mocs gained their first title in 2016 and in 2026 had been in a position to do it once more. The final time the Mocs gained, they returned to the nationwide championship match in each 2017 and 2018, so maybe that is the beginning of a brand new run in Lakeland. Fun truth: This win, paired with the DII males’s golf championship, offers Florida Southern 32 nationwide championships as a college, breaking a tie and leapfrogging Cal State Northridge (CSUN) for sixth-most in DII historical past. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

Spartans strike once more. Tampa had a spring to recollect final 12 months, successful its second straight DII girls’s lacrosse title, successful its record-setting tenth DII baseball title and ending as runners-up in softball and males’s lacrosse. This 12 months, the Spartans left little question on the lads’s lacrosse subject, capturing its second DII males’s lacrosse nationwide championship in 5 years. Fun truth: Though Tampa rose victorious after an exhilarating comeback topped off by Tommy Ortega’s game-winner in additional time, Adelphi’s Kyle Lewis, the one DII males’s lacrosse participant chosen within the PLL draft, had himself a day, scoring three targets and main all gamers with three assists. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

A brand new golf dynasty is formally fashioned, whereas an outdated one returns

D(ynasty)BU wins the DII girls’s golf championship… once more. It’s been greater than a decade since we had a repeat champion in DII girls’s golf, however the Patriots have the primary back-to-back titles since Lynn did it in 2013-14. DBU has just about owned DII girls’s golf because the COVID-canceled season, successful 4 of the final six nationwide championships. Fun truth: Head coach Kenny Trapp picked up his 98th profession event victory because the winningest coach in DII girls’s golf historical past. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

Mocs again on high of DII males’s golf. A dynasty reborn? No one has extra DII males’s golf titles than Florida Southern, however No. 14 was a very long time coming. The Mocs hadn’t gained in a decade, final taking house the 2017 title. Fun truth: Florida Southern rose to the highest within the Nineteen Nineties, when it gained six of the ten championships that decade, together with 4 of the final 5 heading into the brand new millennium. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP 

A Flagler first in tennis

History in Saint Augustine. The Flagler Saints are your 2026 DII males’s tennis nationwide champions. After falling simply quick of their first nationwide championship match in 2024, the Saints lastly hoisted the trophy. It wasn’t simply the primary tennis title for the Saints; it was the primary nationwide championship in any sport of Flagler’s DII period. Fun truth: After beating the Nos. 1-3 nationally ranked groups en path to the championship, Flagler ended the season ranked No. 1, the primary time in program historical past ever reaching the highest spot. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

Sharks on the assault. It was simply one other 12 months on the workplace for Nova Southeastern. The Sharks, who’ve reached 4 consecutive nationwide championship matches, gained the DII girls’s tennis nationwide championship for the second time in three years. The Sharks totally dominated Catawba 4-1 within the Indians’ first-ever championship match. Fun truth: While Nova Southeastern added to its historical past, Catawba made program historical past with its greatest season ever. The Indians had simply two losses in 2026, one got here within the nationwide championship and the opposite was method again on Feb. 20… each of which got here by the hands of Nova Southeastern. VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

Familiar faces run robust

Grand Valley State males win yet one more nationwide championship. Koby Fraaza helped the Lakers rise to the highest, getting three factors within the 5000m to offer Grand Valley State its second DII males’s monitor and subject nationwide championship. Fun truth: Head coach Jerry Baltes leads the lads’s and girls’s cross nation groups, indoor monitor and subject groups, plus each out of doors squads. This is his 18th nationwide championship in 27 years at Grand Valley State, which is fifth-most all-time amongst all DII coaches in any sport. 

The Buffs maintain off Pittsburg State in a nail-biter. Last 12 months’s DII girls’s monitor and subject championship was the determined by the narrowest margin since 2016 as Grand Valley State held off Adams State by one level. This 12 months, West Texas A&M captured its third title 10 years by one of many narrowest margins in DII historical past, sneaking by Pittsburg State 64-63.2. Fun truth: The championship got here right down to the ultimate occasion of the evening, the 4x400m relay. Not solely did West Texas A&M’s squad win… they set the NCAA DII document as Sandra Appiah, Emiliia Tangara, Abigail Abugire and Blessing Akintoye recorded a time of three:32.18

MEN’S AND WOMEN’s VIDEO AND TOURNAMENT RECAP

Vikings command the waters

Western Washington rows its strategy to one other title. Of course the Vikings gained the 2026 DII rowing championship. What higher mascot is there to commandeer a ship and take house the title? It is Western Washington’s second nationwide championship in three years and the first-ever nationwide championship gained within the state of Georgia. Fun truth: DII rowing turned an official DII championship in 2002. Western Washington has gained 10 of the 25 DII rowing nationwide championships whereas ending as nationwide runner-up one other 5 occasions. That is the definition of dominance and the benchmark of the game. TOURNAMENT AND VIDEO RECAP