Texas Lutheran Athletics - A Force in the NCAA Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference
Texas Lutheran University is a proud member of the NCAA Division III and the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
TLU started its transition from the NAIA and the NCAA Division II in 1999 and made the official transition into NCAA Division III for the
2002-03 athletics seasons.
The Bulldogs played as member of the NAIA up to the 2001-02 athletics seasons and had dual membership in the NAIA and NCAA Division II
from 1996 to 2002.
The Bulldogs were full members of the NCAA Division III's American Southwest Conference from 2000-2013. Affiliate membership in the ASC started
in 1998 with the sport of football. TLU returned to the ASC as an affiliate in football for the 2017 season before leaving the ASC to return to SCAC in 2024.
The Bulldogs joined the NCAA Division III's Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference for the start of the 2013-14 athletics seasons. Eighteen
of TLU's 19 intercollegiate sports compete in the SCAC. (Acrobatics and Tumbling competes in the NCATA).
The list of TLU Athletics accomplishments includes:
12 National Championships overall in our history*
(including the 2019 NCAA Division III National Championship in Softball)
63 NCAAÂ DIII Top 10 Finishes
(counting individuals and teams, and including a tenth place finish from Ezra Acero in the pole vault at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, fourth-place finish from Gerrit Twitero in the outdoor high jump in 2023, a 2023 sixth place finish from the TLU 4x100 relay team, a 2019 national championship, 2021 national runner-up, 2022 third-place finish, and 2025 Women's College World Series Appearance from the TLU Softball team, 2019 national runner-up in the outdoor shot put, Garrett Garza, the 2018 national runner-up baseball team, and the 2018 national runner-up men's outdoor 4x100 relay team)
112 NCAA Division III National Championship Appearances
(including playoff appearances by football in 2024 and women's basketball, men's track and field, and softball in 2025)
86 Conference Championships
(TLU Softball added their 11th straight SCAC regular season title in 2025, TLU Women's Basketball won the 2025 SCAC Tournament and were named SCAC Gold Division Co-Champions, TLU Football won their fourth SCAC Championship in 2024)
61 CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-Americans
(including 2025 Softball Academic All-Americans Annie Kay and Serena Gonzalez)
297 Playing All-Americans
(including Annie Kay and Amanda White (Softball), Ezra Acero and Braylen Brown (Men's Track and Field), and Kailee Mulkey (Women's Basketball) in 2025 & Caelee Clark and Ashlyn Strother (Softball), Faith Coldewey (Volleyball), and Cameron Welch (Football) in 2024)
3 NCAA Elite 90 Awards
(Riley Schaefer in 2018, DeAnna Hernandez in 2019, and Chassety Raines in 2021 were given these awards as the most outstanding student-athletes at the DIII Baseball and Softball World Series, respectively.)
* TLU All-Time National Champions:
2019 Softball - NCAA DIII
2017 Men's Indoor Track & Field - Marquis Brown, 400 meters
2010 Women's Outdoor Track & Field - Briana Aiken, long jump
2008 Women's Outdoor Track & Field - 4x100 relay
2007 Women's Indoor Track & Field - 4x400 relay
1999 Women's Golf - Elizabeth Hoffman, NAIA
1991 Men's Golf - Cameron Beckman, NAIA
1976 Women's Volleyball - AIAW-II
1975 Women's Volleyball - AIAW-II
1975 Football - NAIA-II
1974 Football - NAIA-II
1967 Men's Golf - John Bohmann, NAIA
In addition:
- Women's Track & Field has sent 83 student-athletes to the NCAA DIIIÂ Track & Field National Championships (indoor and outdoor championships combined).
- The 2017-18 athletics year produced a pair of NCAA DIII national runner-up finishes - from the TLU Baseball Team and the TLU Men's Track & Field 4x100 Meter Relay Team.
- The 2011 Men's Golf Team recorded a national finish of third.
- TLU student-athletes have claimed 2,359 Academic All-Conference Awards since 2002.
- Seven Olympians (including gold medalist Eun Chul Lee in rifle shooting and gold medalist Jillian Williams in sitting volleyball and silver medalist Laurie Flachmeier Corbelli in women's volleyball) have been enrolled at TLU.
- In 2017, TLU Softball's Amanda Lochte was named the CoSIDAÂ Academic All-American of the Year for NCAA DIII Softball and Kelly Jurden earned the honor in 2022.
With the addition of Acrobatics and Tumbling for the 2022-23 athletics season, TLU now has nine men's sports and ten women's sports at the varsity level for NCAA Division III. The complete list for TLU intercollegiate sports includes:
Women's Sports (10)
Soccer
Volleyball
Cross Country
Basketball
Softball
Indoor Track and Field
Outdoor Track and Field
Golf
Tennis
Acrobatics & Tumbling
Men's Sports (9)
Soccer
Cross Country
Football
Basketball
Indoor Track and Field
Outdoor Track and Field
Baseball
Golf
Tennis
