What an exciting year it has been in Cadet athletics – Championships, All-Americans, Players of the Year, Coaches of the Year, and more.
So far this school year, five different Cadets have earned All-American honors for their sports. Ann-Frederique Guay (women's hockey), Drennen Atherton (men's hockey), Joey Thongsythavong (men's soccer), Leo Clayburgh (men's rugby), and Rashawn Fraser (men's rugby) each earned that distinction during the 2022-23
year. Thongsythavong became the first Cadet ever to be named United Soccer Coaches first team All-American. In addition, both Guay and Atherton were finalists for their respective National Player of the Year awards. For the second year in a row, the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) has honored multiple Cadets as All-Americans as well. This year, 11 different student-athletes were recently named NSCA All-American for their dedication to strength and conditioning in conjunction with their athletic accomplishments.
An amazing 11 Norwich athletes were honored by their various conferences with multiple top conference awards. Men's and Women's Swimming and Diving brought home four of the major awards after winning Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) conference titles in both sports. Nikky Avise finished her stunning career as potentially the best women's swimmer in school history by being named GNAC Women's Swimmer of the Year while setting multiple program records. She was joined by Men's Swimmer of the Year Martin Adlianitski and Men's Diver of the Year Jack Brennan. Both men's and women's hockey teams won major awards as well. Ann-Frederique Guay was named the New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Women's Player of the Year while Drennen Atherton repeated as the NEHC Goalie of the Year. Men's Soccer also doubled up with Kam Jorgenson winning GNAC Defensive Player of the Year and Joey Thongsythavong repeating as GNAC Offensive Player of the Year. Trevor Chase became the first Cadet ever named New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Offensive Player of the Year in football. Thongsythavong and Chase were each unanimous in their selection as Offensive Player of the Year in their conferences. Three Cadets collected GNAC Rookie of the Year honors
as Adrian Riendeau won for swimming and diving, Judson Nash claimed the award for men's cross country, and Matt Printup took home the honor for golf.
At the end of the year Senior Athlete Recognition Luncheon, several of the student-athletes were honored with individual awards. The recently renamed Mariano Outstanding Athlete award, in honor of longtime Director of Athletics Tony Mariano, was presented to Women's Hockey player Ann-Frederique Guay and Men's Soccer player Joey Thongsythavong. Both of them were conference players of the year, first team All-Americans, and among the top players in the entire country in their sports. The Scholar Athlete Awards were presented to the two senior athletes with the best overall GPAs. The two award winners both completed their college careers with perfect 4.0 GPAs and both majored in Mechanical Engineering. They are Men's Hockey player Andrew Albano, who was also recently named the Presidential Fellow for the David Crawford School of Engineering, as well as Ann-Frederique Guay who equally excelled in the classroom an
d on the ice. All senior student-athletes with a 3.25 cumulative GPA or above were also recognized. A staggering 72 student-athletes, 57% of this year's senior athletes, accomplished
that feat. There is no doubt that the summer Academic All-American announcements will be filled with several familiar names from Norwich athletics.
A pair of student-athletes won the Garrity and Looke Awards. The two awards are presented to the senior athletes, one from the Corps of Cadets and one Civilian student, who have distinguished themselves both athletically and academically while displaying great leadership. Nikky Avise, Women's Swimming and Diving, and Callum Jones, a dual sport athlete representing both Men's Lacrosse and Men's Hockey, were honored with the Garrity and Looke Awards respectively.
The Charles Crosby Courage Award is annually presented to the graduating student-athlete who has overcome significant adversity during the course of their college career. The award is named in honor of Charlie Crosby '63. The Distinguished Alumni Award winner was a three sport athlete and a member of the Corps of Cadets before serving in the United States Army for six years. The Norwich University Hall of Famer was a wealth of knowledge regarding his beloved maroon and gold. He battled Leukemia for 15 years even while continuing in his role as the Norwich Sports Information Director. This year's award recipient was Brendon Jones who played for Men's Hockey who shared his family's life-threatening health issues and how those have had an impact on his life during high school and college.
Men's Cross Country claimed the first conference title of the school year when they took home the trophy midway through the fall semester. Coach Michael McGrane also garnered GNAC Coach of the Year hon
ors after the championship season. Norwich swimming and diving was dominant and capped the year by winning conference championships on both the men's and women's sides. Head Coach Jennifer Cournoyer and her staff won coaching staff of the year for both men's and women's swimming and diving. Men's Rugby recently swept the New England Wide Collegiate Rugby Conference Championships in order to advance to the National Collegiate Rugby (NCR) 7's Tournament.
The 2022-23 year has also seen some magnificent individual accomplishments. Donovan Lewis Jr. completed a wonder career for Men's Basketball by
finishing as the sixth all-time leading scorer in Norwich history. Volleyball standout Sarah Farnum finished her career as the school record holder in assists per set as she continued to cement her place as one of the best players in program history. Dual sport student-athlete Maren McGinn showed tremendous flexibility. She led the GNAC conference with 55.4% shooting during the basketball se
ason before immediately jumping into softball where she was both the top pitcher on the team as well as 2
nd in batting average. In addition, she was named Academic All-District after the basketball season. Michaila Furchak continued to climb the Women's Lacrosse all-time lists and hit the 100-career point milestone midway through the 2023 season. Sophomore wrestler Mason Sprinkel showed a glimpse of the
future when he defeated the #8 ranked wrestler in the country and finished the year with a 5
th place finish in regionals. Baseball Ace Matt Ingraffia, a junior, topped the 100-career strikeout mark, with over half of the those coming this season alone.
Norwich University hockey, both the men's and women's teams, qualified for the NCAA postseason tournament. The Women's Hockey team claimed their playoff berth by winning the NEHC Tournament in an epic run in which they only gave up a single goal throughout the entire tournament. The Men's Hockey team earned an at-large bid on the strength of ending the regular season ranked 5
th in the country. During the
regular season, Norwich also handed the eventual national champions their first loss of the season in a very exciting game at Kreitzberg Arena.
Coed Rifle and Golf both made triumphant returns to campus this past fall. Each of the programs had an extremely successful first year. Also this past fall, Football successfully retained The Mug and The Maple Sap Bucket after
defeating rivals Coast Guard and Castleton. In fact, this year's senior class is the only class in Norwich history to have gone undefeated against these rivals and proudly possessed the two trophies for their entire career. Just recently, the GNAC conference recognized the Cadet Tennis team with the Team Sportsmanship Award, an award Men's Basketball also won in the winter.
In the past few weeks, the GNAC conference announced Aliah Curry '15 will be a part of its upcoming Hall of Fame class. The Women's Basketball great graduated as the all-time leading scorer in both GNAC and Norwich history with 2,267 career points. A truly prolific scorer, she was the only sophomore to ever break into the 1,000-point club, became Norwich's all-time leading scorer midway through her junior season, and has already been named to the New England Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 2022-23 year has been exciting and the future looks bright. As we celebrate our past year's successes, we also look forward to seeing what can be accomplished in the upcoming seasons.
