Four outstanding Kansas Wesleyan athletes, two championship winning teams and one coach have been selected for induction into the Jerry Jones Kansas Wesleyan University Coyote Athletic Hall of Fame.
The 2026 induction will be Saturday, Oct. 17, as part of Homecoming Weekend activities. The induction will be held at 9 a.m. that morning as part of the Hall of Fame and Alumni Awards Ceremony. Tickets for the event are available now at www.kwu.edu/about/events/homecoming-2026.
Bruce Santerre '70, LaCole (Wilkinson) Armstrong '13, Kamie (Rash) Crawford '14, G'16, and Kat Benton '09, G'11 will be inducted for their outstanding individual accomplishments. The 2014 and 2015 softball teams will be inducted as well as coach Daryl Hoelting, who led those softball teams.
Bruce Santerre - Baseball: Bruce Santerre joined the pitching staff in 1969 and 1970 as the Coyotes went 13-1 in league play to emerge as KCAC champions under coach Ken Cochran. Bruce was named All-KCAC in 1969 and 1970. In 1969, he had a 0.45 ERA that ranked fourth-best in the NAIA and had a 6-2 record overall. He posted a 7-0 record in 1970 with 61 strikeouts and a 0.93 ERA in 52-2/3 innings, allowing 24 hits, nine runs, seven earned, and 22 walks. He was named Honorable Mention NAIA All-American in 1969 and 1970.
LaCole (Wilkinson) Armstrong - Women's Basketball: LaCole Wilkinson was one of the greatest women's basketball players to don the purple and gold. She still ranks high in several career categories for the Coyotes. She is No. 6 in all-time scoring at 1,343 points during her career which spanned four seasons from 2007-08 through 2010-11. She ranks No. 11 all-time in scoring average at 10.7 per game, No. 7 in total field goals. No. 12 in field goal percentage, No. 3 in 3-point field goals, No. 7 in 3-point percentage, No. 10 in rebounding, No. 2 in assists, No. 3 in assist average, No. 2 in steals and steals average, No. 4 in games played, and No. 1 all-time in games started. She helped lead the Coyotes to KCAC championships in 2009 and 2011 and three straight NAIA National Tournament appearances in 2009, 2010 and 2011. In her four seasons, KWU went 92-34 overall culminating with a school record 31 wins in 2011. As a freshman, she was named to the All-KCAC Freshman Team and the All-KCAC Defensive Team. In 2009, she was First-Team All-KCAC and an Honorable Mention NAIA All-American, and in 2010, she earned the same honors. In 2011, she was again a First-Team All-KCAC pick and continued to earn Third Team NAIA All-America honors.
Kat Benton - Women's Soccer: Kat Benton made an immediate impact for the Coyotes. In 2007, she was the KCAC Newcomer of the Year ranking fourth in the conference in points, fifth in goals and first in the KCAC in assists. She was also named to the First Team All-KCAC Team, NAIA Region IV All-Region Team and was an Honorable Mention NAIA All-American. That season she helped the Coyotes to the KCAC Championship and first-ever appearance in the NAIA National Championships. In 2008, she was again a First Team All-KCAC pick and had eight goals and six assists during conference play for the Coyotes that season. She finished her career with 26 goals, 18 assists and 70 offensive points. She then began her coaching career, returning to lead the Coyotes for two seasons leading the team to a KCAC championship in 2018 and NAIA Opening Round appearance.
Kamie Rash - Women's Golf: During her career at Kansas Wesleyan University, Kamie Rash distinguished herself as one of the most successful golfers in program history through a combination of individual dominance, historic conference achievements, and consistent competitive excellence. As a senior, she won eight of the 11 tournaments she entered, including the KCAC Women's Golf Championship where she became the first individual medalist in conference history after the introduction of women's golf as a championship sport. In her first year as a graduate student the year after, she defended and repeated that individual conference championship title. Among her many victories was a standout performance at the NCAA Division II Nebraska-Kearney Invitational, where she captured the individual title while competing as the only NAIA golfer in the field. Rash earned multiple tournament wins across her career, posted a scoring average of 79.95, achieved a national individual ranking within the NAIA nationwide, and received repeated KCAC Golfer of the Week recognition. Her consistent top finishes and leadership helped guide the Coyotes to numerous team victories and strong conference placements.
Academically, she was named to the Capital One Academic All-America® First Team, one of the highest academic honors awarded to collegiate student-athletes nationwide, in recognition of her excellence both in competition and in the classroom. She also earned Academic All-District® honors, Daktronics-NAIA Scholar-Athlete recognition, and KCAC Academic All-Conference distinction during her career. She graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Science with an emphasis in Corporate Fitness while maintaining a 3.93 cumulative GPA. In addition, she was a three-time member of the President's Honor Roll and received the Sport and Exercise Science Department Achievement Award at Honors Convocation.
She was selected as the M. Virginia Bevan Female Student-Athlete of the Year in 2015. She was also named the KCAC Champion of Character Female Student-Athlete of the Year for the 2013-2014 academic year, a conference-wide distinction recognizing an individual who best exemplifies excellence in athletics, academics, leadership and service while demonstrating the NAIA's core values.
Daryl Hoelting - Softball Coach: Upon arriving on campus, Hoelting immediately turned around the softball program that had won just 18 games in the previous two seasons to a 31-game winner in his first season.
Hoelting coached the Coyotes for six seasons, ending with a 216-85 overall record and a 73-37 mark in the KCAC during his first tenure. His then-216 career wins tied him with Mike Smith for the KWU all-time wins record. His teams finished in the top three of the KCAC in three seasons under Hoelting, culminating with winning the KCAC regular season championship in 2014. Hoelting's teams also won back-to-back KCAC tournament championships in 2014 and 2015, earning berths in the NAIA Softball National Championship Opening Round both seasons. Each season that Hoelting coached the Coyotes won no less than 31 games and won a school record 41 games in 2015.
Hoelting returned to coach the Coyotes for the 2026 season on an interim basis after a midseason coaching change and led the Coyotes to a 22-21 record overall and a 15-11 KCAC record, the most conference wins for the program since 2022. His 21 wins in 2026 for KWU made him the all-time winningest coach in KWU softball history.
Hoelting's teams were also well known on campus for many things outside of softball. In 2016, his team completed over 97,000 combined hours of community service during the academic year. His teams were also amongst the highest in the Athletic Department in team GPA every year. His final team carried a 3.273 GPA. Hoelting also volunteered on many committees on campus, serving as a leader on the Night with the 'Yotes committee working within the community to secure auction item donations for the event.
2014 and 2015 Softball Teams: The 2014 and 2015 softball teams made back-to-back appearances in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round after winning the KCAC Tournament in both seasons.
The 2014 team also won the KCAC regular season and was the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament and won the tournament earning the program's first-ever berth in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. The 2014 team went 38-9 overall, setting a then-school record for wins in a season. The 2014 team had 12 All-KCAC honorees, including six on the first-team in shortstop Stephanie Patterson, catcher Lauren Szoboscan, outfielder Kimberly Patterson and pitchers Daria Leid, Taylor Heins and Hannah Holt. Heins was named the KCAC Freshman of the Year and Hoelting was named as the KCAC Coach of the Year.