Kristi Bredbenner could avoid it only for so long.
After a failed attempt to shower Wichita State’s head softball coach in ice water, they finally got her. It’s a long-standing custom held for those who win it all — and the Shockers did.
Drenched in it, Bredbenner hit the “scuba” dance to the delight of those who stuck around to witness.
“I’m ecstatic,” she said later.
Not 10 minutes earlier, senior pitcher Jade Sanders threw the final strike that prompted the icy shower. Wichita State was then crowned the American Conference’s regular season champion for the first time since 2023 with a 10-5 win to complete a series sweep against Memphis Saturday afternoon at Wilkins Stadium in front of 911 fans.
The Shockers (35-16, 21-6 American) will have to share the honors with South Florida, however, which also finished atop the league standings.
During the final inning, most — if not everyone — in attendance was on their feet anticipating what was to come.
“They were so loud, I could hardly hear my own self talk,” freshman third baseman Kinzey Woody said of the crowd while smiling.
But this year hardly started with a smile for the Shockers. After the first 21 games of the season, they sat at 11-10 and just began conference play with a series loss at East Carolina.
Now, they’ll get a shot at winning the program’s first conference tournament championship in five seasons on the same field in Greenville, N.C., which proved to be where this one turned around.
Many of Wichita State’s players credit that series loss to the Pirates as this year’s rallying point. A 2-1 result showed them just how tough this conference is each weekend and that they couldn’t go into each series already thinking it was theirs to take.
“That wasn’t a good series for us,” Woody said. “Left us not with a good taste in our mouth.
“Knowing that we were better than that is really what helped us turn around. Knowing that we could have beat them. We did not show them what we are capable of.”
Since then, the Shockers have done just that. They’ve shown the conference, and the rest of Division I softball, what they can do when a team of 14 newcomers turns to the same page.
Wichita State has now won 24 of its last 30 games, including one against then No. 15 Oklahoma State that went through rain delays and scheduling conflicts to get there, and a stretch of 12 straight victories from April 3-26.
A lot of that had to do with an internal change.
“They’re here for each other, the culture,” Bredbenner said. “When you talk about teams that have a high level of success, it’s because they want it for each other.
“They’re going to celebrate each other’s success as much as they’re going to celebrate each other’s own. They’re putting in the work — that’s the difference.”
The work put in has done more than just show at this point of the season. If anything, it’s shining.
Wichita State leads the conference in every major statistical hitting category: batting average (.317), slugging percentage (.557), on base percentage (.417), RBIs (306), walks (216), hits (446) and runs (323).
Its pitching has also given up five runs or fewer in every conference game since April 3, and the team’s fielding percentage (.974) ranks fifth all-time in program history.
“Having all the pieces fall in one big direction is huge,” senior shortstop Chloe Rhine, who anchors the defense, said. “Especially going into the conference tournament. Whoever we play needs to be ready for us.”
The series against Memphis (18-38, 6-21) was a prime example of why teams need to watch out for the Shockers.
That’s because in three games, they gave up just nine runs and scored 33, including double-digit runs put up in Friday’s senior day win (15) and Saturday’s title-winning performance (10). As a team, they went 33-for-78 at the plate and suffocated the Tigers for just 18 hits.
Woody capped off an 8-2 win Thursday with a grand slam — the Westphalia, Mo. native’s 14th home run of the season. Sophomore ace Ryley Nihart started that game in the circle and allowed just two runs on four hits in 5 1/3 efficient innings.
Wichita State scored five runs in the first and fourth innings of Friday’s 15-2 run-rule drubbing, as junior first baseman Trinity Allen highlighted the game by driving in four runs and hitting 3-for-3 at the plate.
The Tigers finally made a game interesting when, in Saturday’s series finale, they scored three runs during their turn in the fifth inning to tie the game at five apiece on a sacrifice bunt and single up the middle.
Sanders came in, mitigated the damage and got Wichita State out of the frame. Then freshman Mackenzie Rooney drove in her fourth run of the game with a two-RBI single that gave the Shockers the lead for good.
Rooney finished the game hitting 2-for-4 with her go-ahead single in the fifth and a two-run home run in the second inning.
“For her to be able to have such a big at-bat and such a big game, she should feel on top of the world right now,” sophomore designated player Ausha Moore said.
Moore also continued her season-long dominance in the batter’s box. Against Memphis, she collected five hits in nine at-bats and raised her home run total to 22 this year, sliding into a tie for third place on the program’s single-season leaderboard.
She said it’s safe to say that the Shockers are playing their best softball right now when it matters most.
It matters not just for morale but also heading into next week’s American Conference Championship.
Just because Wichita State earned the right for a bye to the semifinals of the postseason tournament doesn’t mean the work ends with the series sweep against Memphis.
“We have to put our heads down and go to work,” Woody said.
The preparation begins Monday. But a little celebration in the meantime won’t hurt.
