Clarke Athletics to Induct Five to Hall of Fame Class of 2025

DUBUQUE, Iowa - Clarke University Athletics is excited to announce the Hall of Fame Class of 2025 that includes five new inductees ranging from four different teams and one key contributor as Mike Haggas '94 (Contributor), Mary Stewart '06 (Women's Tennis), Sarah Crews-Underwood '18, '20 (Softball), Haris Takes '18 (Men's Basketball), and Kea Whittington '18, '19 (Women's Basketball) will all be enshrined at this year's ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 18 as part of Homecoming Festivities.

Haggas attended Clarke in the early 1990s, graduating in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing where he would then go on to work for the university in the admissions office from 1994 to 2000 before transitioning to the Director of Development from 2000 to 2004.

While serving in those roles for the university, Haggas would lend his voice to the Robert and Ruth Kehl Center speakers as the public address announcer for both volleyball matches and basketball games.

Haggas is observed as being responsible for creating an in-arena atmosphere that provided for many fun times, including but not limited to an "If you're happy and you know it" chant that current PA announcer, Andy Schroeder has continued for Pride basketball games.

Producing the sixth-most wins in Clarke women's tennis history, Stewart finished her storied career with a total of 93 wins between singles and doubles play, finishing with a doubles record of 51-17 and a singles record of 40-17 with her 51 career doubles wins placing her sixth in program history.

Competing in the Northern Illinois-Iowa Conference (NIIC) at the time, Stewart made her mark specifically for the Crusaders at the time in conference play, finishing her career with the most conference singles and doubles wins in a career with 20 singles wins and 22 doubles wins in the NIIC over her four seasons, winning three conference singles championships and the doubles championship in all four of her seasons with a combined 22 tournament matches won to top the Clarke ranks of total conference matches won at 64 helping lead the Crusaders to four-straight NIIC team titles during her career, which went back to seven-straight starting in the 1999 season.

Known as just Sarah Crews during her time at CU, Crews-Underwood has a case to be inducted both as a hitter and a pitcher as she boasts career marks in the top-10 statistically in ERA at seventh with a 2.77, batting average against at seventh with a .262, walks per seven innings at third with a 1.12, wins at first with 55, saves tied for third at four, complete games at first with 60, shutouts in third with nine, innings pitch at second with 545.2, and strikeouts at fourth with 224, and that's just on the pitching side.

As a hitter, Crews-Underwood finished her three-year career with the sixth-best batting average in program history at .359, which currently sits in sixth, she holds the single season and career mark for best slugging percentage in program history with a .758 in 2015 and a career slug of .630, holds the program records for on-base percentage in a season and career with a .549 in 2015 and a .497 over her career, scored the third-most runs in school history with 135 career runs, is tied for eighth with 166 career hits, drove in 90 runs over her career to sit in ninth, set the program record for doubles in a career with 44, hit the third-most home runs in a career with 27, set the record at the time with 291 total bases, but now sits in third place, and drew the most walks in program history with 116, 45 more than second place.

Crews-Underwood earned All-Conference honors in all three seasons she played and also received national honors including CoSIDA Academic All-America Second Team in 2017, NFCA All-Central Region Team and NFCA NAIA First Team All-Region in 2016.

Playing for CU from 2014 to 2018, Takes holds the third-highest point-scoring total in a career in program history with his 1,702 total points, one of only three players in Clarke men's basketball history to eclipse 1,700 points in their career, leading to being the male recipient of the Ed Colbert Career Achievement Award in 2017-18.

A two-time All-Conference selection, Takes has his name littered all over the CU men's basketball record book in nearly every major scoring category for a career beyond point scored, including being ninth in scoring average at 15.6 point per game, fourth in made field goals at 580, seventh in field goal percentage at 47.3 percent, seventh in made three-point field goals with 161, third in made free throws, and produced the best free throw percentage in school history with a minimum of 175 made free throws with his 82.5 percent mark from the charity stripe.

Playing in 109 games over his four seasons, tied for eighth-most in school history, Takes improved from one season to the next every single year seeing his 2017-18 senior season result in an NAIA All-America Honorable Mention selection where he produced career-highs in games played at 31, total points at 589, points per game at 19.0, rebounds per game at 4.5, assists per game at 2.1, while shooting 50.4 percent from the field, 47.9 percent from three, and 87.4 percent from the free throw line, nearing a vaunted 50/40/90 season.

Currently ninth on the all-time scoring list for Clarke women's basketball, Whittington's exact 1,400 points scored in her career placed the Beloit, Wis. native in sixth on the CU women's basketball scoring list during her career that spanned from 2014 to 2018 as she earned the Ed Colbert Career Achievement Award following her senior season of 2017-18.

Whittington earned a conference individual honor in three of her four seasons, being named the MCC Newcomer of the Year as a freshman in 2014-15 where she averaged eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and 1.4 steals per game, then earned back-to-back Heart of America Defensive Player of the Year honors as a junior in 2016-17 and as a senior 2017-18 as she produced three of the top four steals seasons in school history with a program-best 125 as a junior in 20216-17 a year after previously setting the season mark of 105 as a sophomore in 2015-16, then her "down year" of 78 as a senior in 2017-18, which would have been the program's second-best total prior to the start of her career as she holds the career record for steals at 355, over 80 more steals than the next-best mark.

Not just a defensive specialist, Whittington finished her career with the sixth-most field goals made in a career with 462, and the four-highest shooting percentage from the field at 42.4 percent as she sits in ninth in both categories currently. 

Also a fantastic passer on the offensive end, Whittington finished her career as the program's all-time leader in assists with 479 total helpers, producing the most assists in a season with 182 in her senior season of 2017-18 and one other top-10 assist season with 137 in 2016-17, which placed third at the time and now sits fifth.

These five individuals will be officially enshrined in the CU Athletics Hall of Fame, as previously mentioned on Saturday, Oct. 18 as part of Homecoming festivities as the group will be honored at the Pride football game both pre-game and at halftime when Clarke takes on Culver-Stockton at 1:00 p.m. CT with the Hall of Fame Cermony slated to begin at 5:00 p.m. CT at the Jansen Music Hall in the Atrium.