Athletic Hall of Fame
Kathy (VanOoteghem) Benedict BA ’84 earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education with concentrations in history and physical education.
Benedict transferred from Concordia-Ann Arbor in 1982 and competed in softball and field hockey for two years and basketball for one year. She earned an all-conference pitching honor in 1984, ranking in the top ten among NCAA Division III for earned run average, strikeouts and batting average while leading the Cougars to the NCAA regionals and a win in the Chicago Metro Conference. In the latter, Benedict won the final game versus North Central while also tripling home the winning run in extra innings.
Through 2017, Benedict holds three CUC pitching records: wins in a season, 15; earned run average for a season, 0.59; earned run average for a career, 1.20. Her batting average of .435 in the 1984 season is currently seventh best all-time for Cougar hitters.
Upon graduation, Benedict taught and coached at St. John’s Lutheran School in Forest Park, IL for six years, with her girls’ basketball team making it to the Lutheran Schools Association State Tournament in 1989. Currently, she serves Tabor Lutheran Church in Branford, CT as a Sunday school teacher and Christian Education representative on the church council and is employed in office management capacity for a family real estate appraisal business.
