<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sam Highfill \u2022 Baseball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NC State reached the College World Series for the first time since 2013, only to get disqualified after players tested positive for COVID-19. But Wolfpack fans won\u2019t forget freshman pitcher Sam Highfill\u2019s memorable two-game performance against Vanderbilt. He pitched a two-hit shutout. Then, after positive tests forced the team to play short-handed, Highfill played first base, going three for four at the plate. He hadn\u2019t taken batting practice in nearly a year. \u201cAs bad as the ending of our season was, that was a pretty cool way to go out,\u201d Highfill says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Before every start this year, he drank half of a Reign Orange Dreamsicle energy drink.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Rogers \u201921 \u2022 Tennis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Rogers \u201921 capped her Wolfpack tennis career with All-America honors again in singles and doubles and the team\u2019s first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance. \u201cThe team we had was the strongest team that I\u2019ve ever been on, and I knew how far we could go,\u201d says Rogers, who will play professionally next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Rogers always gave the team\u2019s athletic trainer a fist bump before each match.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Elly Henes \u201920 \u2022 Track and Field<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning the 5,000-meter NCAA championship is impressive, but graduate student Elly Henes \u201920 added a few more entries to the Wolfpack record books with her 2021 win. NC State won the same event 30 years ago, and the champion then was Henes\u2019 mom, Laurie Henes \u201992, now NC State\u2019s head women\u2019s cross country coach. \u201cThis is the most meaningful way to wrap up a collegiate career,\u201d says Elly Henes, who plans to run professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Henes throws up the wolf sign when competing, including while crossing the finish line of her championship-winning race.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nate McMillan \u201986 \u2022 Basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Atlanta Hawks\u2019 season seemed destined to fizzle \u2014 until March when Nate McMillan \u201986 moved from assistant coach to interim head coach. Next, the team embarked on a winning streak, earned a playoff spot and reached the NBA\u2019s Eastern Conference finals for the second time in its history. \u201c[W]e want to try to take this momentum into next season and continue to improve,\u201d says McMillan, who was named head coach in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: The Raleigh native and former Wolfpack basketball star still has a house in his hometown and returns as often as he can.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sam Highfill \u2022 Baseball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n NC State reached the College World Series for the first time since 2013, only to get disqualified after players tested positive for COVID-19. But Wolfpack fans won\u2019t forget freshman pitcher Sam Highfill\u2019s memorable two-game performance against Vanderbilt. He pitched a two-hit shutout. Then, after positive tests forced the team to play short-handed, Highfill played first base, going three for four at the plate. He hadn\u2019t taken batting practice in nearly a year. \u201cAs bad as the ending of our season was, that was a pretty cool way to go out,\u201d Highfill says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Before every start this year, he drank half of a Reign Orange Dreamsicle energy drink.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Rogers \u201921 \u2022 Tennis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anna Rogers \u201921 capped her Wolfpack tennis career with All-America honors again in singles and doubles and the team\u2019s first-ever NCAA Final Four appearance. \u201cThe team we had was the strongest team that I\u2019ve ever been on, and I knew how far we could go,\u201d says Rogers, who will play professionally next.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Rogers always gave the team\u2019s athletic trainer a fist bump before each match.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Elly Henes \u201920 \u2022 Track and Field<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Winning the 5,000-meter NCAA championship is impressive, but graduate student Elly Henes \u201920 added a few more entries to the Wolfpack record books with her 2021 win. NC State won the same event 30 years ago, and the champion then was Henes\u2019 mom, Laurie Henes \u201992, now NC State\u2019s head women\u2019s cross country coach. \u201cThis is the most meaningful way to wrap up a collegiate career,\u201d says Elly Henes, who plans to run professionally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: Henes throws up the wolf sign when competing, including while crossing the finish line of her championship-winning race.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Nate McMillan \u201986 \u2022 Basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Atlanta Hawks\u2019 season seemed destined to fizzle \u2014 until March when Nate McMillan \u201986 moved from assistant coach to interim head coach. Next, the team embarked on a winning streak, earned a playoff spot and reached the NBA\u2019s Eastern Conference finals for the second time in its history. \u201c[W]e want to try to take this momentum into next season and continue to improve,\u201d says McMillan, who was named head coach in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fun fact: The Raleigh native and former Wolfpack basketball star still has a house in his hometown and returns as often as he can.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The spring was a roller-coaster of a sports season for NC State, but it wasn\u2019t without its heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":false,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"The spring was a roller-coaster of a sports season for NC State, but it wasn\u2019t without its heroes.\",\"caption\":\"Left to right: Sam Highfill, Anna Rogers '21, Elly Henes '20, Nate McMillan '86.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[87,109,399,849,1033,1042],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-4758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-anna-rogers","tag-athletics","tag-elly-henes","tag-nate-mcmillan","tag-sam-highfill","tag-sarah-lindenfeld-hall"],"displayCategory":null,"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4758"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5057,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4758\/revisions\/5057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4758"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=4758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}By Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n