Augustana’s Gretta Melsted Wins #700: Five Fast Facts

Augustana head coach Gretta Melsted earned her 700th career win on Sunday.

Melsted earned the milestone victory as her team swept a Sunday doubleheader over Minot State, winning the games with final scores of 8-0 and 20-1.

As the Vikings’ head coach celebrates the milestone achievement, here are Five Fast Facts about her and her career.

1. She is in her 17th season as Augustana head coach.

Melsted took over the Augustana program ahead of the 2007 season and has remained at the helm ever since. After finishing below .500 in her first two seasons at the helm, the Vikings have reached the 30-win plateau in every season since.

2. She has crossed the 50-win plateau in four separate seasons.

Since taking over at Augustana, Melsted’s club has reached 50 wins in four separate seasons. In 2011 and 2012, the Vikings reached that win total in back-to-back seasons; they also crossed the 50-win mark in 2015. In 2019, for the first time, the Vikings crossed the 60-win plateau, finishing with 61 victories.

3. She is a national champion.

As part of that 61-win 2019 season, Melsted led the Vikings all the way to the Division II national title. The Vikings were 14-3 in the postseason, including losing the first game of the national championship series before winning two in a row to take home the title.

4. She was a two-sport college athlete.

During her own playing career in the late 1990s, Melsted was a two-sport athlete, playing both basketball and softball at Carleton College in Minnesota. She continues to hold the Carleton program record for runs scored in a single season, 36, a mark she set in 1997.

5. She has led the Vikings to ten NCAA tournaments.

Augustana reached the NCAA tournament for the first time under Melsted in 2010, and the squad have been postseason mainstays ever since. The Vikings only missed the postseason in 2016 and have made ten total appearances under Melsted’s tutelage.