Mitchell Allan, Garrett Cheadle, Brian Wahl Named to D3football.com All-West Region Team

CLAREMONT, Calif. - Senior linebacker Mitchell Allan, junior running back Garrett Cheadle and senior offensive lineman Brian Wahl were named to the D3football.com All-West Region Second Team, the website announced this morning.

The three honorees marks the most that the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps football team has ever had on the D3football.com All-West Region team, which began in 2005. The 2015 squad had two honorees, cornerback Victor Bunce (first team) and defensive lineman Paul Slaats (third team).  

Allan, a four-year starter and two-year captain for the Stags, was also named the SCIAC Defensive Player of the Year after leading the defense with 78 tackles from his middle linebacker position. After yielding 45 points in the season opener to Puget Sound, Allan and the defense held their opponents to 10 points or less six times over the last nine regular season games, including a 20-10 road win at Redlands that decided the SCIAC title (when Redlands scored their touchdown in the final minute) and a 16-9 win over Chapman that clinched an NCAA bid for the Stags. 

Cheadle, the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Year finished this season with 1,305 yards, placing him second all-time in program history, behind only the 1,486 yards that Chris Dabrow rushed for in 1987. He was the first Stag to cross the 1,000-yard barrier since Ryan Gocong in 2002, and broke the single-game rushing record for the program with 274 yards in a 34-21 win over Whittier. Cheadle had a chance to break the single-season rushing record, but carried the ball for the last time early in the second quarter of the regular season finale against Pomona-Pitzer, due to injury. Cheadle appeared in the CMS NCAA Tournament game at Whitworth, but only for the first few plays as a decoy before coming out of the game for good.   

Wahl was a key member of a veteran offensive line that helped pave the way for Cheadle's rushing onslaught this season. CMS finished the regular season ranked second nationally in time of possession per game (36:05) while churning out over 200 rushing yards per contest (205.6), ending with 190.3 after the NCAA Tournament game (when the Stags went to a passing offense in the absence of Cheadle and sophomore running back Jordan Leonard). Wahl was named the SCIAC Offensive Player of the Week after helping the offensive line put together a 10:14 fourth-quarter touchdown drive to seal the win at Redlands, finishing with almost 200 rushing yards against a team that came in allowing only 33 rushing yards per game. Wahl and the line also helped maintain the ball for over 43 minutes in the SCIAC-clinching win over Chapman, when 64 of the 74 CMS plays were on the ground. 

CMS made program history in 2018, capturing the first SCIAC title for the program in 31 years since the 1987 team finished in first place. The Stags also made the first NCAA Tournament appearance in the history of the program.