NEWARK, NJ – Valentina Palchetti and Kevin Olah took home the coveted Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards as Rutgers-Newark celebrated the year in sports at the annual Scarlet Raider Awards Dinner at the Mediterranean Manor.
2012-13 Scarlet Raider Awards Dinner (PDF)
Palchetti, a sophomore on the women's soccer squad, and Olah, a junior shortstop on the baseball team, were tabbed for the female and male awards while the winners of the Athlete of the Year and Rookie of the Year laurels will be announced following completion of the women's and men's track & field seasons later this month.
Two-hundred and thirty eight letters were handed out for participation in the 16 varsity sports represented at the dinner with 88 student-athletes receiving the department's Academic Achievement Award for compiling a minimum 3.0 grade point average for completion of at least 12 hours of academic work for the fall or spring semesters of 2012. Thirty-four student-athletes received academic notice for both 2012 semesters.
Seniors Margeaux Hedley of women's soccer and Stephanie Touzan received Academic Achievement Awards for the seventh straight semester.
Twenty-eight seniors were recognized by their coaches along with recipients of the Coaches' Awards for unselfish dedication to the team in each sport.
Coaches Awards went to Ryan Maloney (baseball), Fateen Belfield (men's basketball), Jasmine Daniels (women's basketball),
Chris Happel (men's cross country), Megan Krause (women's cross country), Robi Rosario (men's soccer), Margeaux Hedley (women's soccer), Liane Drastal (softball), William Cheung (men's tennis), Yara Elsekhely (women's tennis), Mustafa Lawrence (men's indoor track & field), LaSha Johnson (women's indoor track & field), Joshua Stinson (men's outdoor track & field), Ashley Canty (women's outdoor track & field), Cody Chidsey (men's volleyball) and Rachel Witt (women's volleyball).
Twenty-eight student-athletes were recognized for garnering special notice by the New Jersey Athletic Conference, the Eastern College Athletic Conference or national coaching organizations. Included on the list were first-team All-NJAC honorees Rachel Witt, Matt Broomall, Gabriel Avans, Jade Howard, Michael Agyei, Donnie House, Mustafa Lawrence, Dennis Willis, Jr. and Faith Njoku.
