As part of NCAA D-III Week, April 5-12, this is a recap of Johnson & Wales Charlotte's achievements in the first year of Division III membership to this point.

Johnson & Wales Charlotte literally kicked off the 2025-26 Division III year as the volleyball team took part in the first contest played in any DIII sport, a 10am affair with Sweet Briar on the first day of allowable competition. The Wildcats cruised to a 3-0 sweep of Sweet Briar, one of two wins over DIII opponents during the season. Volleyball also knocked off a DII foe in Johnson C. Smith along the way.

Men's Soccer posted its fourth consecutive winning season in 2025. They reached double-digit wins, including four victories over DIII teams. They earned the #5 seed in teh Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference tournament,where their season ended in the quarterfinal round against UC-Santa Cruz. NIklas Seguin became the first Wildcat to earn 1st Team All-C2C honors. Teammate Carter Bonini was voted to the 2nd Team as well. 

Women's Soccer went 8-8-1 on the season, including 7 wins and 7 losses against DIII foes. They earned the #4 seed in the C2C Tournament and lost a 1-0 double overtime heartbreaker to host Salisbury University. Senior midfielder Emily Spies and sophomore defender Isabelle Gonzalez were each selected to the All-C2C 2nd Team.

The Wildcat cross country teams turned over a new leaf under first year head coach Dustin Stewart, and showed immediate success. The Wildcat men posted a runner-up finish at the Blue Bear XC Invitational on September 19th, and followed that up a week later with another podium result at the Winthrop Adidas XC Invitational. Freshman Jorge Garcia emerged as a star, posting two top ten finished, and running the third fastest 8k race in program history.

Winter brought the start of basketball season. The Wildcat men won four games against DIII foes, including a 3-1 mark against C2C opponents. Sophomore Cooper Wiley led the team with 13.7 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Those numbers helped him earn 2nd Team All-C2C accolades.

The women's basketball team had an incredible season under rookie head coach Alexius Hamptoin. The Wildcats went 17-6, and garnered the #2 seed in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference tournament. JWU went 10-3 against DIII competition, and won each of their four contests against conference opponents. They advanced to the semi-finals of the C2C postseason tournament before falling to host Salisbury.

Women's track has quite a few new faces on the team this year and they are gaining experience with each meet. Highlights include Ava Ferraro's third place finish in the triple jump at the Gotta Run Invite, Abby Vandiver's 7th place finish in discus at the Montreat College Open and Aitana Matuty's runner-up finish in the 1500 meters at the JCSU Invitational. The Wildcats finished that meet in 8th place as a team, their best finish to date.

Softball has experienced several firsts in their second year as a program. They secured the team's first ever win in the season opener, a 12-8 triumph at Salem. Perhaps the two most exciting wins of the season came in Florida over Spring Break at The Spring Games. The Wildcats had two walk-off wins on the same day over Neumann University. The first game ended on a home run from Seven Hope and the second game went to extra innings before Kaydence Hassell's double plated Enijah Gary for the win. The team would get their first ever shutout later in the season against Johsnon C. Smith. The team has three wins over DIII foes with a dozen games remaining.

As a first year program, baseball has enjoyed a bevy of firsts, but nothing will be able to top the program's first win. Playing at Big League Camp in Marion, N.C. over Spring Break, JWU defeated Mount St. Mary 26-21 in a game too wild to believe. JWU trailed by as many as six runs, twice gave up the lead, and then scored seven runs in the bottom of the six to take the lead for good. The highlight was a grand slam from Marco Fernandez that accounted for the final four runs of the game. Since then, they've added a second win over DIII competition with 12 games still to play in the season. 

Women's golf was solid throughout the year, posting four top five finishes. Senior Meadow Ciccarella claimed her first individual crown in the season opening Fincastle Intercollegiate on September 16th. She also had three other top five results. The women linksters also got their first ever taste of conference tournament play, as they finished fourth of the six teams that competed.

JWU's men's golf team had their season highlight at their home event in March. The Wildcats overcame an eight shot deficit in the second round to claim the victory by two shots over Bluefield and four shots over Bob Jones. Bowen Kicklighter won the individual portion of the tournament with rounds of 77-74-151. It was his second victory of the year as he also won the Bruins Classic title on September 24th. The Wildcats also posted runner-up finishes in the Bruins Classic and the Golden Oaks Shootout.

Women's tennis achieved a program first this season, as each of their nine players has won at least one singles match during the year. Freshman Anna-Katherine Medlin has been impressive, posting an 8-3 mark against DIII opponents to date. The team has two match wins over DIII foes.

Men's Tennis has four match wins to date, including one each against teams from regional DIII conferences. Sam Cicciarello and Cole Goodman-Gary have winning singles records to this point in the season. Cicciarello recently became the winningest singles player in school history, picking up his twenty-second match win. The men have held their own in doubles in all competitions. John Billinis and Hugo Cossais are 6-6, while Cicciarello and Cayden Danzer are 4-4. The pair of Maxwell Frederick and Nathaniel Lawler have posted a 3-1 record so far this season.