By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Washburn University men's basketball has followed up a 30-4 season and a trip to the NCAA Division II semifinals in 2024-2025 with a 13-0 start and a No. 1 national ranking to open its new season, putting the Ichabods squarely on top of the TopSports.news Top 10 list of Washburn University men's sports stories for 2025.
Brett Ballard's Ichabods rolled to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association regular-season championship with a 17-2 record before capturing the Central Region championship with three double-digit victories and winning its quarterfinal contest before losing to eventual national champion Nova Southeastern in the semifinals.
Despite losing four of five starters off last year's team, junior Jack Bachelor and sophomore Dillon Claussen have led the way as Washburn has reeled off 13 straight victories, 10 by double-digits, to close out 2025.
Here's a look at TopSports.news' Top 10 Washburn men's stories of 2025:
Washburn men's basketball celebrates its NCAA Division II Central Region championship in March in Lee Arena. [File photo/TSN]
Washburn junior Jack Bachelor is the Ichabods' lone returning starter from last season's team that posted a 30-4 record and advanced to the NCAA Division II Final Four. [File photo/TSN]
1. A MAGICAL YEAR -- Washburn men's basketball started off 2025 with a run to the NCAA Division II national semifinals and a season-ending mark of 30-4. And even though the Ichabods graduated seniors Andrew Orr, Jacob Hanna and Michael Keegan off that team and then-sophomore Brayden Shorter transferred to Division I Murray State, WU has continued to pile up wins to close out '25. Junior guard Jack Bachelor, the team's lone returning starter after earning first-team All-MIAA honors a year ago, is averaging 16.2 points with 36 3-pointers and 64 assists, while sophomore Dillon Claussen, a valuable reserve as a freshman, is averaging team-highs of 16.6 points and 6.8 rebounds in his first season as a starter.
2. LEAPING TO GREATNESS -- Justin Forde, who began his college career at Division I Miami, Fla., ended his junior season and first year at Washburn with first-team NCAA Division II All-America honors. Forde, a Norwalk, Conn. native, finished second in the triple jump at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colo. with a school-record jump of 16.19 meters (53 feet, 1.50 inches). Forde also won the MIAA Outdoor and Kansas Relays triple jump championships.
3. LEAPING TO GREATNESS PART II -- A five-time All-American, Hays native Justin Dale finished fifth in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 11.50 inches in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colo. after also earning All-America honors in the indoor championships with a fifth-place finish in that meet while sweeping the MIAA indoor and outdoor titles. Dale owns the school record in the outdoor high jump at 7-01.50 and ranks second indoors at 7-01. Dale's Washburn teammate, Alessandro Di Gregorio, finished 10th in the NCAA outdoor meet at 2.07 meters (6-9.50), earning second-team All-America recognition.
4. LEAPING TO GREATNESS PART III -- Matteo Madrassi, who competed at Washburn as a graduate student in 2025, earned second-team NCAA Division II All-America recognition after posting a ninth-place finish in the pole vault at 5.12 meters (16 feet, 9.50 inches) in the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Pueblo, Colo. Madrassi holds the Washburn outdoor pole vault record at 17-1 and has the top four vaults in Ichabod history.
Washburn shortstop Jett Buck earned All-America honors on three different teams as a senior in 2025. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
5. DIAMOND KING -- Washburn star shortstop Jett Buck closed out his college baseball career by earning spots on three different All-America teams after leading the 28-25 Ichabods with a .365 batting average, 21 home runs and 68 runs batted in. A native of Kansas City, Mo., Buck earned second-team All-America honors from NCBWA and third-team recognition from ABCA/Rawlings and D2CCA while also earning All-MIAA and All-Central Region first-team status.
6. LEADING THE PACK -- Donald Kibet capped his senior cross country season by earning his third NCAA Division II All-America honor with a 16th-place individual finish in the national championships. A native of Eldoret, Kenya, Kibet posted a third-place individual finish in the MIAA meet and finished second in the NCAA Central Region to lead the Ichabods to a second-place team finish and a berth in the NCAA National Championships, where WU finished a program-best 22nd.
7. RULING THE LINKS -- A native of Pretoria, South Africa, Marco Anderson earned PING Golf Coaches Association of America NCAA Division II All-America honorable mention for the Ichabods after transferring from Hutchinson Community College. Anderson won the Midwest/Central Region individual championship in a playoff after carding a 54-hole total of 207 to earn a berth in the national tournament.
Centralia product Kamble Haverkamp earned All-MIAA first-team honors for Washburn in 2025. [Photo courtesy of Washburn Athletics]
8. ENDING THINGS WITH A BANG -- Former Centralia football star Kamble Haverkamp, who began his college career at Kansas State, earned first-team All-MIAA honors and second-team All-Super Region 4 recognition for Washburn. The senior safety finished the 2025 season with 76 tackles (56 solo), 11.5 tackles for loss and 5.5 sacks for the 3-8 Ichabods.
9. NET SUCCESS -- Washburn senior tennis standout Pavlos Parson, a native of Larnaca, Cypress, won the singles championship in the ITA Central Region tournament on the Ichabods' home courts, earning a berth in the ITA Cup national event in Rome, Ga. After winning six straight matches in regionals play, Parson went 1-1 in ITA Cup matches to post an 11-3 fall record in singles.
Zach Watkins made his debut as Washburn's football coach in 2025, posting a 3-8 record in a season marked by several close losses. [File photo/TSN]
10. TAKING THE FIRST STEP -- Former All-America linebacker, Washburn Hall of Famer and longtime Ichabod assistant coach took over as WU's head football coach in 2025. The Ichabods went 3-8 on the year, but four of those losses were between 3 and 7 points, including an overtime defeat, and Washburn ended its season with a 29-24 MIAA win at Missouri Southern.
