DENVER – With very little fanfare, MSU Denver's Annie Van Wetzinga reached a significant career milestone on Sunday.
 
The Roadrunners' softball coach has 400 career wins.
 
"I knew I had over 300," Van Wetzinga said. "Because someone mentioned it then. I don't really keep track of those kinds of things."
 
Already MSU Denver's all-time leader with 247 wins (and counting) in her eighth season, Van Wetzinga is 400-290 in her 14^th season overall in a career that started with three seasons at Colorado School of Mines and three more at Upper Iowa.
 
"To me, it's over three different schools, and when things like that happen you think about where you have been, who you've coached," Van Wetzinga said. "I've been really lucky to have really good assistant coaches – I have Jacqueline (Flood) with me right now and Nicole Trimboli helps us – and they are a big part of it. And I've had really talented players. It's being around good people. … And it just means I'm getting older."
 
Van Wetzinga is 247-134 (.648 winning percentage) at MSU Denver, including 18-6 this season heading into a huge doubleheader Wednesday at noon at Colorado Christian that leads into a four-game weekend series at home against Fort Lewis.
 
The Roadrunners are 16-4 in RMAC games, including a 16-game conference winning streak that has tied the program record for longest single-season conference win streak and is approaching the program's longest conference win streak of 18 games set during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
 
Van Wetzinga joins a 400-win club of active Division II coaches that numbered 54 heading into the 2021 season.
 
Coaching has been a calling for her.
 
"Athletics has always been important to me, and I come from a long line of teachers and coaches in my family, on both sides," Van Wetzinga said. "My mom coached me, which back then was a pretty rare thing, and that was a big advantage for me. I grew up at ballfields. I had two older brothers and I was always at their stuff.
 
"It's kind of in my blood. So it's probably not shocking that I do this for a living."
 
As a player, Van Wetzinga played at Central (Iowa) and was coached by George Wares, Division III's all-time leader with 1,263 wins and counting.
 
"A big part of why I do this is that I had such a great experience as an undergrad in my college softball career," Van Wetzinga said. "I was lucky. I got to play for a Hall of Fame coach. I played in a national championship game. To be part of program that was successful on the field, but more importantly provided a really good experience, I was able to grow through that. It was special, and so that was definitely a catalyst."
 
Van Wetzinga was head coach at Colorado School of Mines from 2008 through 2010, compiling a record of 101-64 and winning an RMAC regular-season championship. She then spent three years rebuilding a downtrodden Upper Iowa program, going from 6-41 to 18-35 to 28-16 and setting the team up for a trip to the NCAA Tournament the following year. At MSU Denver she has won one RMAC regular-season title and two RMAC Tournament championships.
 
"Part of the challenge for me is that I've been at such vastly different schools," Van Wetzinga said. "I started at Colorado School of Mines and I loved that experience, but it's obviously a very different type of student-athlete – they almost seek you out because it's such a specific educational experience. At Upper Iowa, it was extremely small, rural Iowa – a lot of Midwest kids who are looking for an all-around experience in a close-knit community. Here, we definitely wanted to get back to the Denver area and I always loved the winning ways of this department, but it couldn't be more different than my previous two stops.
 
"I've had to learn along the way here that some of the approaches at Mines or at Upper Iowa, how I approached recruiting, had to be different."
 
At 18-6, the Roadrunners have the same record this season as they did last year when the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In difficult times, MSU Denver has weathered the storm.
 
"It's been a rough year for everyone, not just for us," Van Wetzinga said. "So when you get frustrated or tired of this year, you realize that it's happening to everyone. But our team has really persevered through it well. They've taken a lot of hits and had some tough patches, but I really like where we're at and that says a lot about the core group that we have. They're hard-working and they care about their performance on and off the field, and they care about the program."
 
MSU Denver is ½ game behind Colorado Christian (17-6 overall, 16-3 RMAC) heading into Wednesday's twinbill.
 
"They're balanced," Van Wetzinga said. "They're going to have a little bit of everything – some speed, some players who can hit for power, and good pitching. They have kids with a lot of experience.
 
"We have those things, too, so really we're just hoping we can play well. When you go into a big game, you just want to play to your standard and then let the chips fall where they may."
 
The Roadrunners had multiple games postponed or canceled early in the season due to weather and COVID-19 concerns, but did play a four-game home series with first-place Colorado Mesa on Feb. 28 and March 1 and were swept despite having a chance to win three of the games.
 
Since then, they've rolled in league play against teams with sub-.500 records, so the level of competition jumps back up this week.
 
"Outside of our first series against Mesa – which seems like two years ago – you look at the winning percentages and we haven't played some of the top teams," Van Wetzinga said. "So this is a good opportunity for us to be challenged. Hopefully we rise to the challenge and play well."
 
Fort Lewis comes in for doubleheaders scheduled for noon Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. The Skyhawks are 12-16 overall and 12-12 in the RMAC.
 
"They're improved," Van Wetzinga said. "They've got a pitcher who can keep them in the game when she's on. They'll play with energy. They have some athletic kids. We'll have to be sharp."
 
Van Wetzinga would also like the Roadrunners to find more success at the Assembly Athletic Complex. They are 12-0 on the road and 6-6 at home.

"All of our losses have come at home," Van Wetzinga said. "So that's kind of tough. Some of it is the quality of the opponent and the timing of the games. It's been an odd year. But I want to get better. I want to get on the right side of that. Hopefully this weekend will be an opportunity for that.
 
"I'm hoping we can bring the same energy and focus that we did to UCCS (a four-game sweep last weekend), whether its midweek at CCU or against Fort Lewis at home on the weekend."