Ripon College honors student-athletes with first Rally Awards
The first Rally Awards sports recognition event was held May 2 as a spinoff of the ESPYs awards. Winona Holmes Robbins ’17 of Birmingham, Alabama,senior swimmer and president of Ripon’s Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT), was the master of ceremonies for the event.
Rally winners included:
- Staff Spirit Award: Professor of Economics Paul Schoofs.
- Comeback Athlete: Kaylee Tadych ’18 of Menasha, Wisconsin, women’s soccer. After earning All-Conference recognition in 2013 and 2014, Tadych missed the 2015 season after giving birth to her son, Carson. She returned to the team in 2016, now as a commuter student and a working parent, to set a program record for career assists and finish with the second-most single-season assists in program history, while leading all of Division-III in assists per game. She earned First Team All-Conference and Third Team All-Region honors in 2016.
- Breakthrough Performer: Lateesha Hiser ’18 of Douglas, Wyoming, women’s swimming. At this year’s MWC Championships, Lateesha came into the meet ranked seventh in the 50 freestyle, but ended up winning the event. She also moved up seven spots to finish fourth in the 100 freestyle and broke the school record in both events that weekend.
- Upset of the Year: Men’s basketball for ending seventh-ranked St. Norbert’s D-III record 72-game conference win streak.
- Individual Performance of the Year: Lexi Reetz ’19 of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, softball. Lexi tossed a perfect game in a 12-0 win against Minnesota-Morris earlier this season. She needed only 50 pitches to accomplish that feat, with 41 going for strikes. She struck out 10 of the 15 batters she faced in that game.
- Championship Performance: Ty Sabin ’17 of New Berlin, Wisconsin, men’s basketball. In the MWC Tournament semi-finals against Cornell, Ty scored 50 points, including the game-winning 3-pointer with one second remaining to send Ripon to the MWC championship game.
- Best Moment: Men’s basketball, winning the MWC Tournament and advancing to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002.
- Leadership Award: Nickie Zeman ’17 of Sussex, Wisconsin, women’s track and field. A two-time Midwest Conference Elite 20 Winner, Nickie is a team captain and works in the Office of Athletics with administrative assistant duties. She also does volunteer work with her sorority.
Also recognized for their achievements were:
- 125 Academic All-Conference performers from the 2015-16 school year.
- 35 All-Conference selections across 13 different sports from spring 2016 to winter 2017.
- Ty Sabin ’17 of New Berlin, Wisconsin, (MWC Men’s Basketball Player of the Year, D-III Central Region Player of the Year, First Team All-America, Division-III statistical leader in points per game, total points, and field goals made).
- Paige Birschbach ’17 of Eden, Wisconsin, (MWC Women’s Soccer Player of the Year, All-Region First Team, Division-III statistical leader in Total Goals, goals per game, and points per game.
- Kaylee Tadych ’18 of Menasha, Wisconsin, (Women’s Soccer All-Region Third Team, Division-III statistical leader in assists per game).
- Nickie Zeman ’17 of Sussex, Wisconsin, in track and field (NCAA National qualifier in the outdoor 400-meter hurdles.
- Cycling’s Corrie Osborne ’17 of Mequon, Wisconsin, and Jacob Bons ’20 of Menononee Falls, Wisconsin, (competed at the 2016 Mountain Bike National Championships in Snowshoe, West Virginia. Osborne also competed at the 2017 USA Cyclocross National Meet in Hartford, Connecticut).
- Men’s and women’s teams with the highest grade point average during the fall semester 2016: women’s tennis and men’s cross country.
- Men’s and women’s cross country teams earned National All-Academic honors.
- Women’s swim team earned Scholar All-America honors for the fourth consecutive semester, finishing with the 10th-highest GPA among all Division-III women’s swim teams.
- Men’s basketball team finished the season as the Division-III statistical leader in both field goal percentage and 3-point percentage.
- MWC Elite 20 Award winners: Emma McDonald ’18 of Onalaska, Wisconsin, women’s basketball; Sara Olk ’19 of Brown Deer, Wisconsin, women’s swimming; and Nickie Zeman ’17 of Sussex, Wisconsin, indoor track and field.
(Photo: Rally the Red Hawk, left, award winner Paul Schoofs and MC Winona Holmes Robbins)
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