Lynn Athletics Recognizes Student-Athletes at Sixth Annual Awards Show
Photo Credit: Lynn Athletics
Lynn University’s athletics department handed out 38 awards to student-athletes and inducted four new Hall of Fame members at the annual Student-Athlete Recognition Awards show on Tuesday night, held at the Wold Performing Arts Center on campus. John Silviano of the baseball team and Marissa Tandron of the volleyball team were awarded the Fighting Knights’ top honor of Blue & White Athlete of the Year, Martin Cancino and Rosalie Willig were named Scholar-Athletes of the Year, Rigo Beltran and Leanne Wright garnered Mr. and Mrs. Fighting Knight status while the swimming program captured the inaugural Lip Sync Award
Silviano set a school and Sunshine State Conference record with 31 home runs while clipping a team-best .405. The sophomore backstop became just the third player in NCAA Division II history to smack 30 home runs in a season. Additionally, Silviano established new single-season program marks for total bases (190), slugging percentage (.950) and runs batted in (76). After being named the 2016 SSC Player of the Year, Silviano was named the South Region Player of the Year by the American Baseball Coaches Association, Division II Conference Commissioners Association and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. All three organizations went on to tab him as a first team All-America selection, and Silviano was also chosen as a finalist for the Tino Martinez Award, which recognizes the top individual Division II player in the nation. He becomes the fourth player in program history to collect first team All-America recognition by three separate publications.
Tandron was just the second consensus all-region selection in program history this season, earning first-team honors from both the AVCA and the Division II Conference Commissioner’s Association. She was also a First Team All-Sunshine State Conference honoree after leading the league’s setters in assists per set. The Jacksonville, Fla., native broke the school’s 15-year-old single-season assist record and fell just shy of breaking the all-time career assists mark. She also became the third student-athlete from any sport in Lynn history to become a three-time CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team selection.
Male Scholar Athlete of the Year was awarded to senior golfer Martin Cancino, a two-time All-American and 2016 Cleveland Golf Scholar All-American set to graduate with a 3.67 grade point average. Rosalie Willig of the women’s tennis team earned Female Scholar Athlete of the Year honors following a stellar career on and off the court in which she garnered three All-America and three ITA Scholar Athlete awards while competing with a 3.98 GPA. Additionally, Cancino and Willig have each been named to the Commissioner’s Honor Roll on five occasions.
Rigo Beltran of the baseball squad and Leanne Wright of the softball team were named Mr. and Mrs. Fighting Knight for their efforts outside of the field. Beltran is the co-president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee while Wright, also a SAAC member, has been involved in several organizations throughout the Lynn University campus.
After earning Sunshine State Conference Player of the Week accolades twice so far this season, freshman Karolina Flores was named Newcomer of the Year. So far in her freshman campaign Flores has led the team in batting average (.349), doubles (12) triples (5) and slugging percentage (.577) while guiding the team to the most victories since 2004 and the most SSC wins since 2003.
The first annual Boca Regional Hospital Comeback Player of the Year was awarded to senior men’s soccer player Adam Hutchinson. The Newcastle, England, native came back from a medical redshirt to start all 12 matches in 2017 while captaining the team to SSC Regular Season and Championship titles. Hutchinson was also an All-SSC Second Team and SSC All-Tournament honoree.
Lynn awarded the Best Game Performance of the year to Kristina Ortiz. Then a freshman, Ortiz smashed the women’s golf 54-hole program record by six-shots with a 210 to win the 2016 Barry Women’s Golf Invite, also becoming the first freshman to win a tournament since 2011.
Finally, Best Championship Performance went to Manuel Torres, whose individual efforts helped the men’s golf program to their second consecutive Sunshine State Conference title in 2016. He steadily improved throughout the three days with scores of 77-72-70 for a 219 total, becoming the second golfer in program history to win the individual conference title while helping the Fighting Knights to back-to-back SSC crowns.
The night began with a dinner for the senior student-athletes and the annual inductions to the Lynn University Athletes Hall of Fame. Keri Remillard (Women’s Soccer, ’97), Hoyt McGarity (Men’s Golf, ’06), Dennis Riegraf (Men’s Tennis, ’07) and Kyle Conrad (Men’s Soccer, ’11) became the four newest members of the Lynn Athletics Hall of Fame. The night concluded with the announcement of Silviano and Tandron as Blue & White Athletes of the Year.
