Covering UMHB Athletics and the stories behind the score
BELTON — Alex Hill says he didn’t know what to expect when he toed the rubber for his first start of 2026. The Claremont-Mudd-Scripps lineup—which featured five hitters who hit above .300 in 2025—was undoubtedly the best he had ever faced, stacked with veteran bats whose Game 1 performance in the season-opening series the day before yielded 11 runs.
BELTON — Brandon McGruder’s arrival to preseason camp earlier this fall came about a week later than most of his new teammates on the Crusader defensive line. He had summer classes to wrap up at Cisco College, delaying his first practice with UMHB to August 18, exactly two weeks before The Cru shifted from camp-mode to the regular season schedule.
BELTON — This past spring, Barry Elkins and the UMHB women’s soccer team stepped back onto the practice field, preparations for another run at the American Southwest Conference title beginning over five months from the date of the 2025 season opener.
After a week spent focused on readiness for its season-opener under the lights, seventh-ranked UMHB finds itself back in a camp mode mindset…temporarily. As is standard on the practice fields in Belton, fundamentals will be worked on, and situational awareness will be a priority over the coming days. But this week, they’ll do it without an opponent awaiting them on Saturday.
Growing up as the son of a UMHB alum in Central Texas, Josh Goings spent more than a few Saturdays on the UMHB campus in his early years as a young athlete. He remembers being in the stands for memorable football games as The Cru continued its rise to national prominence on the gridiron. And inside the Mayborn Campus Center, he watched Ken DeWeese’s men’s basketball teams play with their trademark up-tempo style.
BELTON — At his core, Alejandro Sanchez III is an avid learner. One look at his workload in the classroom says that much.
UMHB shot just 30.7 percent from the field, a season-low. The Crusaders were a mere 5-of-19 from beyond the arc. And they put up only 29 points in the second half of a 70-63 loss to Transylvania in the opener of the Don Lane Classic on Saturday afternoon. Ultimately, head coach Clif Carroll said, it went back to a lack of adjustment to the style of play and amount of physicality being allowed.
BELTON-A year ago, Alexis Carmosino did not know where her final collegiate season would be spent. But she knew who she would be playing for.
BELTON- For longer than anyone else at UMHB, Clif Carroll has seen Katie Novak-Lenoir’s rise as a collegiate head coach firsthand.
As evidenced by a recent no-hitter against Ozarks, UMHB softball’s Grason Long and Blakely Niles, as longtime teammates, have formed an unstoppable duo throughout their college careers.