Christina “Tina” Churchill, ’89 • Volleyball
Cristina Churchill left her mark on Carleton volleyball as a player and returned as a coach. An All-Region performer during her senior season, she is the only three-time All-MIAC selection in program history and still holds eight team records 25 years after graduating.
Churchill was an impressive all-around performer everywhere on the court and ranks as the Knights’ all-time leader in career kills, digs, and service aces. One of only three players in program history to accumulate at least 1,000 career kills, Churchill owns the top spot on the all-time list by a wide margin with 1,530 total kills. She accumulated a team-record 631 kills during her senior campaign and owns three of the program’s top-10 single-season totals in the category. She posted three of the top-10 single-match kill totals, including 28 kills against St. Catherine on Oct. 24, 1988.
Not simply an offensive presence, Churchill posted two of the top-three single-season dig totals, including a program-best 740 digs in 1988. While there are 11 players in team annals with more than 1,000 career digs, she easily leads that group after totaling 2,202 career digs.
Additionally, there are only nine players in program history with at least 100 career service aces, and Churchill again owns the top spot by a wide margin with 270 aces. Not surprisingly, she owns three of the program’s top-10 single-season totals in this statistic as well.
During her rookie season in 1985, she was a member of Carleton’s first volleyball squad to qualify for the NCAA Tournament. When her playing career concluded, Churchill was second in team history with 62 career solo blocks and still ranks in the team’s top 10.
Churchill spent two seasons immediately after graduation as an assistant coach for the Knights, then returned as head coach for the 1994 and 1995 campaigns.
Marie Matsen, ’69 • Basketball, Volleyball, Softball
First as a participant and later as a coach, Marie Matsen was a pioneer in women’s athletics at Carleton. She played three seasons of volleyball, basketball, and softball as well as one season of each field hockey and tennis. Her influence on athletics at Carleton included leadership positions in the Women’s Recreation Association first as its secretary and later as president during her senior year.
Matsen’s rookie year on campus was just the second season for Carleton’s competitive 6-on-6 women’s basketball club team. A year later saw the advent of “power volleyball,” as it was called then, and softball to the competitive club-sport scene at the College.
The volleyball team quickly became one of the best in the region. Matsen co-founded the softball team and was responsible for recruiting players and contacting other schools to schedule games. A dominant offensive presence, Matsen’s many highlights include hitting a home run in the first and last at-bats of her career as a Carl.
She joined the tennis team in the spring of 1969 and represented Carleton at the Women’s National Collegiate Tennis Tournament, a gathering of 50 of the country’s top players.
After stints coaching volleyball and softball at the Division I level, Matsen returned to Carleton in the fall of 1974 as a coach and instructor in the Women’s Physical Education Department, guiding the volleyball and women’s basketball programs, both of which had just completed their first year of official intercollegiate competition. In three seasons at the helm of both sports, Matsen raised the programs’ level of play and made them contenders at the newly created state and regional tournaments. Her final year in Northfield included being the first head coach of the women’s track and field program in 1977, guiding Carleton to an 11th-place finish at the state meet.
Matt Hooley, ’04 • Cross Country, Track & Field
Distance runner Matt Hooley qualified for the NCAA Championships five times during his career, competing at the national cross country meet in 2001, 2002, and again in 2003. He added trips to the national indoor meet in 2003—earning All-America distinction after finishing sixth in the 1,500-meter run—and the national outdoor meet in 2004.
He recorded a total of 13 All-MIAC performances, including nine conference titles. During his senior year, the distance star notched six individual conference titles out of a possible seven in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track.
Hooley was a three-time All-MIAC performer in cross country, placing fourth in 2001 then taking third as the Knights won the conference meet in 2002. He followed that up by becoming the third Knight runner to win the MIAC individual title the following year, securing MIAC cross country athlete-of-the-meet recognition.
During the 2003 conference indoor track championships, Hooley captured the title in the 1,500-meter run and went on to garner his All-America status with a sixth-place result at the NCAA Championships. A year later, he defended his conference 1,500-meter crown and added the 3,000-meter title to his list of accomplishments.
Hooley showed his long-distance dominance by sweeping the 5,000- and 10,000-meter runs at the 2003 MIAC Outdoor Championships. He then successfully pulled of an amazing trifecta a year later as he won the 1,500-, 5,000-, and 10,000-meter runs at the conference meet, becoming the first MIAC male track athlete to win those three events at the same conference championship. He was an easy selection for the MIAC’s Outstanding Track Athlete Award.
Hooley received the prestigious NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship and was selected as an Academic All-American.
Gerard Cote, ’94 • Track & Field, Football, Basketball
A three-sport athlete at Carleton, Gerard Cote is best known for his work as a sprinter on the track, where he is a three-time All-American and accumulated 16 All-MIAC citations, including five conference titles.
He took his first trip to nationals in 1991, running as part of the Knights’ 4×100-meter relay that placed third overall at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a program-best time of 41.44. That is one of Cote’s four school records that still stand two decades after his graduation. He picked up his next All-America award at the 1992 NCAA Indoor Championships, running leadoff on the Knights’ 4×400-meter relay as well as competing in the 400-meter dash. His final visit to nationals came that spring. This time Cote competed in the 400-meter dash in addition to the 4×100-meter relay.
All five of Cote’s conference titles came during the 1992 season. At the MIAC Indoor Championships, he captured the top spot in the 400-meter dash, then ran leadoff as the Knights broke the conference record for the 4×400-meter relay with a time of 3:19.93, which was three seconds better than the runners-up. During the MIAC Outdoor Championships, Cote posted the Carleton standard of 48.05 in winning the 400-meter race. He was a part of the Knights’ 4×100-meter relay that established a new MIAC Championships record en route to the top spot on the podium. Cote capped the meet and his historic season with a victory in the 4×400-meter relay.
On the gridiron, Cote used his speed as a wide receiver, finishing third in the MIAC at 20.9 yards per catch in 1992 and helping the Knights claim the MIAC Championship. A year later as a senior, he ranked among the conference’s top receivers in yards per catch and touchdowns per game. Cote also spent two seasons playing guard for the Carleton basketball program.