Choosing the greatest Northwestern athlete of all time: The Championship

The Moon Landing, The Shot — Jordan’s or Pardon’s — and now, the championship matchup of Inside NU’s 64-person tournament in which you decided the winner.

Before getting to the voting, I’d like to thank all of our readers and commenters for contributing to the rich discussion and voting. This tournament led to an incredible voter turnout, especially for lesser-known athletes, and resulted in some of the most exhilarating and dramatic upsets possible. Thank you for making it what it was.

That being said, let’s get into the final.

Final Four

Gretchen Scheuermann’s army of fans turned out big time, as she blew out Pat Fitzgerald, arguably the most recognizable name remaining in the tournament, winning with 2780 votes to 522 for Fitz. On the other side of the bracket, a whopping 5197 ballots were cast, 3390 in favor of Katrina Adams, who handily defeated Lisa Ishikawa Sliwa.

The final matches up two perhaps unexpected but strong competitors with impressive resumes and large voter turnout numbers through the first five rounds.

Both competitors went through the gauntlet to get to this point. Adams took down seven-seed Clayton Thorson, two-seed Hannah Nielsen and six-seed Ndidi Opia Massay before her victory over Ishikawa. She is the Central Region champion.

Scheuermann defeated 12-seed Ralph T. Baker, 13-seed Frank Ehmann, one-seed John Shurna and three-seed Chelsea Armstrong before her blowout of Pat Fitzgerald. The field hockey star won the Sheridan Region.

The Final

An inductee of the Northwestern Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000, Gretchen Scheuermann was a two-time All-American field hockey player who won Conference Player of the Year and Offensive MVP in 1994. The Vermont native was the first Wildcat to win the Honda Broderick Cup as best player in the nation that season as well. Her team advanced all the way to the Final Four where she was selected to the All-Tournament team as well.

Adams was also a two-time All-American on the tennis court, winning the NCAA Doubles national title in 1987. She and her partner Diane Donnelly went 72-5 in two seasons and did not drop a single set in their national title run. She also amassed nearly 400 winsin a lengthy career on the WTA Tour. She was inducted into the Northwestern Athletic Fall of Fame in 1997.

Voting ends Monday night at 11 p.m. Central.

5. Gretchen Scheuermann (Field Hockey, 1991-1994) vs. 10. Katrina Adams (Women’s Tennis, 1984-1987)