The #6 sports story of the 2020-2021 school year at Central involves a record-breaking performance on the bases by a Dutch softball player.

In a tradition-rich program largely built on aggressive baserunning, Sara Tallman stole the 115th base of her career in a 4-1 win over Bethel on May 7th in St. Paul, Minnesota. It broke a record that had stood for more than two decades, and took Tallman a little bit of extra work to achieve.

She graduated in 2020, but took advantage of an NCAA waiver after the cancellation of her senior season to become the first ever Dutch softball player to come back for a fifth year. Tallman says that part of the reason she came back was to take a run at the stolen base record.

“That was one of my goals that I was working towards my senior year that I was really bummed about and was one of the reasons I came back, other than the fact that I love playing softball. So that was a big goal of mine.”

Tallman also broke Central’s runs scored record, finishing with 153 for her career, and she finished third in career hits (199) and fifth in batting average (.377).