Smith finished her career as one of the top field hockey student-athletes in NCAA Division II history (PHOTO BY Matt Campbell) |
Skyhawk seniors listed among 32 student-athletes up for consideration
NE10 Man and Woman of the Year Nominees Announced
EASTON, Mass. (May 16, 2019) – Stonehill College senior All-Americans Kacie Smith and Alex Demeule have been listed among the 32 nominees for the Northeast-10 Conference Woman and Man of the Year awards, both of which are selected by the league's Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) Council.
Each nominee is a senior student-athlete that has excelled in all areas of their collegiate careers, on the field, in the classroom, and in the community. The two respective winners are set to be announced from a group of three finalists, and honored at the NE10 year-end banquet in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Monday, June 3, at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The 2018-19 academic year marks the seventh year in which a Man of the Year will be named, while the Northeast 10 Conference Woman of the Year honoree will be put forth as the NE10's official NCAA Woman of the Year nominee.
Smith received Stonehill's Fr. William Gartland, CSC, Female Senior Student-Athlete Award at the College's recent Awards Ceremony at the conclusion of a record-breaking career with the field hockey program. One of just two three-time NE10 Players of the Year in field hockey in Conference history, she is the third three-time first team All-American in program history and a three-time Longstreth/National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA) East Region Player of the Year. She earned Longstreth/NFHCA Division II Player of the Year honors following a junior season in which she led all three divisions of NCAA field hockey in points (99) and goals (41), setting a Division II single-season record in the latter category, while dishing out a program-record 17 assists that led Division II.
Demeule |
Smith |
Smith is one of just two in NCAA Division II history to surpass 100 career goals and 200 points, finishing her career ranked second in Division II history with her NE10 record 257 points and 109 goals to go with a program-record 39 assists. She has also performed in the classroom as a health care administration major, earning NE10 Academic All-Conference honors as a junior and senior and being named to both the NE10 Academic Honor Roll and Athletic Director's Honor Roll multiple semesters. Smith is a member of Upsilon Phi Delta honor society and has volunteered her time with the College Against Cancer committee at Stonehill, Relay for Life, the Special Olympics and the field hockey program's Athletes Crush Cancer 5K and Golden Lights Night fundraisers. The Skyhawks captain has also completed a communications internship with the American Cancer Society, is a member of the Stonehill Healthcare Society and completed the Stonehill Leadership Academy.
Demeule received Stonehill's Edward E. Martin Male Senior Scholar-Athlete Award at the College's recent Awards Ceremony and is a three-sport student-athlete with the Skyhawks men's cross country and indoor and outdoor track & field programs. He earned All-America honors as a member of Stonehill's 4000-meter distance medley relay team that placed fifth in a then school-record 9:49.12 at the 2018 NCAA Division II Indoor Track & Field Championships and has been a key member of a Stonehill cross country team that has won the last two NCAA East Regional Championships as well as the 2017 NE10 title as part of an undefeated season leading up to nationals, where he has competed at the NCAA Cross Country Championships three-straight years. Demeule is also a two-time participant at the NCAA II Indoor Track & Field Championships with the DMR.
Demeule earned All-America honors with the DMR in 2018 and helped lead the Skyhawks cross country team to two regional championships |
Demeule, a finance major at Stonehill, has been recognized with the St. Thomas Aquinas Medal for having the highest cumulative grade point average on the men's cross country and track & field programs, is a Google Cloud Academic All-America third team selection as a junior and received the NE10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award for cross country last fall. He has been inducted to the Lambda Epsilon Sigma and Beta Gamma Sigma honor societies, is a member of the Financial Management Association and was named the finance department Student of the Year. Demeule has volunteered his time with Stonehill's Earth Day Event, My Brother's Keeper and at the NCAA Division II Championships community outreach projects. He is portfolio manager with Stonehill's Investment Finance Initiative (SCIFI) a yearlong, comprehensive, academic and professional development course of study charged with the management of the Mary Herlihy Opportunity Fund at the College.
With 21 intercollegiate sports, Stonehill boasts one of the top athletic and academic programs in the country. In addition to finishing in the top three of the Northeast-10 Conference Presidents' Cup standings for overall athletic performance 14 straight years, the Skyhawks have received the NCAA Division II Presidents' Award for Academic Achievement each of the first eighth years of the program's existence of honoring institutions with an Academic Success Rate (ASR) of 90-percent or better. Stonehill has earned a 96% Academic Success Ranking (ASR) by the NCAA, which considers the academic success rate of the institution based on the graduation rate of student-athletes, good for seventh among all NCAA Division II institutions, with eight Skyhawk teams receiving a perfect rating of 100%. In addition, the Skyhawks are ranked 11th in the National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) Power Rankings for Division II used to assess the academic and athletic standards of all NCAA and NAIA athletic programs.
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