10 minute read
WARRIOR SPIRIT
ATHleTic uPdATeS
Hana Cicerelle and Tatyana Petteway
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women’s lacrosse reaches ncaa dii semifinals for 2nd time in three seasons
The Warriors, under head coach Xeni Barakos-yoder ’11, won its secondever Atlantic Region championship and finished No. 4 in the IWLCA DII poll, its highest ranking in program history. ESU avenged three losses earlier in the season to defeat West Chester, 13-9, on May 16 at Eiler-Martin Stadium to add the 2021 regional title to its 2018 crown. The Warriors advanced to the NCAA DII Final Four in Salem, Va., falling to Queens (N.C.), 17-14, to finish with a 12-4 record. Graduate students Hana Cicerelle ’20 and Tatyana Petteway ’20 rewrote the ESU record book throughout their final seasons. Cicerelle became ESU’s all-time points leader (270 points) and ranks second in both goals (180) and assists (90). Petteway is ESU’s all-time saves leader (764), ranking sixth all-time in Division II in the category. She also became the all-time DII goalkeeper minutes played leader. Freshman Emily Mitarotonda posted one of the best debut seasons in school history, ranking second among freshmen (to her sister, Krista) in both goals (48) and points (60). She led ESU with six goals in the NCAA semifinals. Petteway earned IWLCA All-America honors for the third time in her career, and was joined by Cicerelle and Mitarotonda on the All-America team. Also named to the IWLCA All-Atlantic Region team were seniors Kayleigh Pokrivka (1st team), Kristen Andreychak (1st team) and Gianna LeDuc (2nd team). Barakos-Yoder has led the Warriors to a 75-22 record in six seasons, guiding ESU to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments (the first in program history), along with two regional titles and the 2017 PSAC championship.
ESU earned its third-ever NCAA Tournament bid and first since 2007, and had a tremendous run in the NCAA DII Atlantic Regional, played at Kutztown. After being no-hit by West Liberty in the opening round, the Warriors stayed alive with wins over Claflin (5-1), Kutztown (6-2) and reached the regional championship game with a victory over West Liberty (4-2). The season came to a heartbreaking end with a 2-1 loss to West Chester on May 22. Led by head coach Jaime Wohlbach in her sixth season, the Warriors dominated in their first season at Creekview Park, posting a programrecord 20 wins in just 24 home games played. ESU did not lose a PSAC East series and had a school-record 17 conference wins. The Warriors tied their best-ever win total with 29 victories overall. Senior Marah Range was ESU’s first-ever PSAC East Pitcher of the Year and was first team D2CCA All-Atlantic Region. She finished her final season with a 15-7 record, 2.96 ERA and PSAC-best 114 strikeouts. Freshman 3B Reilly Vicendese posted an impressive debut season, setting freshman records in hits (61), runs (38), and RBI (31), and tying the freshman mark for stolen bases (25). She was All-PSAC East second team, and a second team All-Region selection. As a team, ESU set a record for stolen bases (133), ranking second in DII among over 250 schools.
ALUMNIAND FRIENDS— Connect at the course and support ESU’s athletic and academic programs!
Soccer
Friday, June 25 • Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort, Shawnee On Delaware, Pa. The Bill Bergen Memorial Golf Tournament
Benefitting Football • Friday, July 2 • Skytop Lodge, Skytop, Pa. The Jeff Dailey Memorial Golf Tournament
Benefitting Men’s Basketball
Friday, July 23 • Great Bear Golf Club, East Stroudsburg, Pa. Men’s and Women’s Wrestling
Saturday, August 14 • Green Pond Country Club, Bethlehem, Pa. Softball
Saturday, August 28 • Bethlehem Golf Club, Bethlehem, Pa. ESU College of Business and Management
Friday, September 24 • Skytop Lodge, Skytop, Pa. Baseball
Saturday, October 1 • Great Bear Golf Club, East Stroudsburg, Pa.
Visit esufoundation.org/warriorgolfoutings for more information and to register.
baseball earns two all-psac selections; nowak throws no-hitter germani appointed head coach; men’s track & field second at psac championships
Freshman Tim Haverstick and redshirt senior Connor Johnson were named All-PSAC East second team, and sophomore Chase Nowak fired ESU’s ninth no-hitter in program history. Haverstick started 27 games behind the plate and became ESU’s fifth freshman to earn all-conference honors. He hit .333 with three home runs, 14 RBI and 15 runs. Johnson was 3-1 with a 3.41 ERA in 31.2 innings, struck out 29 and held hitters to a .231 average. Nowak blanked Kutztown, 11-0, with 11 strikeouts on April 16 for ESU’s first no-hitter since 2019, and was named NCBWA DII Atlantic Region Pitcher of the Week. ESU was runner-up at the PSAC Outdoor Championships for the first time since 2014 and had four PSAC champions – senior Dan Amari (pole vault), freshman Raul Esteves (100m), sophomore Carlos Pepin (high jump) and junior Dominic Walton (shot put). Amari cleared 15-10, the second-best mark in program history, for ESU’s first pole vault title since Matt Gallup in 2009. Esteves is the first 100m champion since Asher Ashfield in 2011, and set the freshman record with ESU’s third-fastest time overall (10.64) in April. Pepin’s high jump title is ESU’s first since William Berry won three straight from 2014-16, winning with a mark of 6-7 1/2. In the shot put, Walton’s title was the first since Paul Wagner in 2010, posting a mark of 54-5 1/2. Walton and Amari both had NCAA provisional marks. Sophomore Sean Roberts was named PSAC Champion Scholar for the second straight year. He has a 4.0 GPA as a double major in political science and criminal justice. Justin Germani, ESU’s interim coach, was officially appointed head coach shortly after the season. He is just the program’s third head coach since 1969, following Dick DeSchriver (1970-89) and Joe Koch (1990-2020).
Senior Casey Ellis was second at the PSAC Championships, ESU’s first runner-up since 2012 and one of just four runners to finish in the conference’s top two in program history. Junior Teddy Mostellar was 23rd to earn All-PSAC honors. Three athletes earned All-PSAC in women’s cross country – senior Mandy Fine was 19th, freshman Keely Arndt 24th and senior Brittany Carratura 25th. Arndt was ESU’s first freshman since Tina Vosper in 1995 to earn allconference honors. Senior Lauren Reightneour, a health and physical education major with a 4.0 GPA, was the PSAC Champion Scholar.
danoski, makar break historic records for women’s track & field
Graduate student Carly Danoski and freshman Elizabeth Makar broke a pair of historic records during the outdoor track and field season. In just her second meet at ESU, Makar smashed a 42-year-old record in the shot put with a mark of 45-3 3/4, surpassing the previous record set by Cheryl Baker in 1979 by two and a quarter inches. She set ESU freshman records in the shot put, discus (131-8) and hammer throw (150-7), and was PSAC runner-up in the shot put. Danoski broke the 800m record in her final race of the year, running 2:12.44 to break Jan Blake’s record of 2:12.94 by a half-second.
muhamadou kaba ’15 named head men’s basketball coach at delaware valley university
Muhamadou Kaba ’15, ESU men’s basketball assistant coach since 201617, was named head coach at Delaware Valley in early May. As a coach or player, Kaba was a part of three of ESU’s four PSAC Championships (2012, 2014, 2018) and five of the program’s seven NCAA Tournament appearances (2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019) in program history under head coach Jeff Wilson ’86 M’92. In 2020, he was named as one of the top Division II men’s basketball assistant coaches in the country by the Minority Coaches Association (MCA) and was recognized as one the “50 impactful Division II Assistants” by Silver Waves Media. In spring 2018, he was one of just six Division II coaches to be recognized on the National Association of Basketball Coaches “30-Under-30” list.
dr. anthony drago ’76 named psac’s nominee for ncaa dii faculty mentor award
Dr. Anthony L. Drago ’76, distinguished professor of psychology, was named the PSASC’s nominee for the 2020 Dr. Dave Pariser Faculty Mentor Award in January. ESU’s football academic faculty mentor, Dr. Drago has been a faculty member at ESU since 1992 and demonstrates a student-first approach. The award recognizes faculty members at NCAA Division II institutions for their dedication to supporting and mentoring student-athletes, as well as their commitment to Division II student-athletes’ lifelong learning, competition and well-being. The winner will be selected by the NCAA DII Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and will be honored during the 2022 NCAA Convention in Indianapolis.
In March, the ESU athletic department introduced a 12-part monthly webinar series entitled Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in College Athletics: A Call to Action. The series, open to all both inside and outside the ESU community, features a guest speaker presentation on the topic of diversity, equity and inclusion along with an opportunity for viewers to ask questions via the chat function. Past guest speakers include former ESU men’s basketball assistant coach Muhamadou Kaba ’15, ESU swimming head coach Fan Yang and ESU acrobatics and tumbling head coach Miles Avery.
rece bender named psac student-athlete advisory committee co-chair
Junior wide receiver Rece Bender will represent ESU, along with other PSAC institutions on the eastern half of the state, as co-chair of the PSAC’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC). Bender will serve on the PSAC Advisory Council, made up of athletic administrators and coaches among other executive personnel, to review proposals that are then passed along to the PSAC Presidents Council. He will also represent ESU and the eastern division at board of directors’ meetings and additional conference gatherings. A junior sport management major, Bender is a dean’s list student and serves as ESU’s SAAC vice president.
freshman wrestler claims usa Junior national championship
ESU women’s wrestling freshman Mia Macaluso is a USA Junior national champion. Macaluso, from Otisville, N.Y., won a best-of-three championship series at the 59 kg weight class to earn the national championship in Irving, Texas on May 8. She will represent the United States in a newly created USA Junior World Team in freestyle that will compete in the 2021 Junior World Championships in Ufa, Russia in August. Macaluso previously represented the US at both the Cadet and Junior Pan-American Championships in June 2019. She won a bronze medal at the Junior Pan-American Championships, and claimed the gold medal at the Cadet Championships and was named the outstanding wrestler, earning the Golden Boot. David Akinwande, a junior majoring in nursing from Bristol, Pa. and a member of the ESU football team, had a unique opportunity to administer a COVID-19 vaccine to one of ESU’s athletic trainers, Jayme Galdieri in March. Akinwande is participating in a clinical at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Pocono as part of his academic program at ESU. Galdieri is one of three full-time athletic trainers who work with the Warriors’ 625 student-athletes.
esu athletics welcoMed two staff MeMbers to its sPorts inforMation teaM, bringing warrior news and uPdates froM the courts and fields. Ryan Long was named the coordinator of athletic communications and Derek Skinner ’18 as athletic communications assistant. Long was most recently assistant director of media relations at Duquesne University, a position he held since August 2019. Previously, he was assistant director of athletic communications at the University of Maine for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 academic years, and was media relations intern at Villanova University during the 2016-17 academic year. Long is a graduate of Pleasant Valley High School in Brodheadsville. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sport media from Ithaca College in Ithaca, N.Y., in 2016. Skinner returns to the Poconos after serving as an athletic communications assistant at Presbyterian College since August 2020. Prior to his time in Clinton, S.C., he held a graduate assistant role in the athletic communications office at Youngstown State. At ESU, Skinner was a student assistant for four years in the sports information office. As an undergraduate, he also interned with Lafayette College athletic communications and the Lehigh Valley IronPigs. A native of Bethlehem, Pa., Skinner graduated with his bachelor’s degree in sports management at ESU in 2018 and a master’s degree in professional communication at Youngstown State in 2020.
