Hutchinson Jr. and Atkinson take home top hardware.
Three Ontario Colleges Athletic Association (OCAA) medals, three Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) Academic All-Canadians, and playing host to the 2019 CCAA Women’s Volleyball championship; it’s safe to say that NC’s Athletics and Recreation had plenty to celebrate Friday night.
The Niagara Knights celebrated the 50th edition of their annual athletic awards banquet in an evening spent recognizing the achievements of student-athletes and coaches. A total of 121 individual awards were handed out over the course of the night, a perfect backdrop for saluting the college’s 50 years of honouring dedication to athletics and academic excellence.
The evening’s top athletic honours saw a basketball program sweep, with Van Hutchinson Jr. (third year, Nassau, Bahamas, General Arts) and Bridget Atkinson (fourth year, Protection, Security and Investigation, Welland) being named the 2018-19 Niagara College Knights Male and Female Athletes of the Year.
Taking home the year’s top Female and Male Leadership awards were men’s volleyball Ben Fillmore (fifth year, Sales and Marketing, Port Dover), and local Kara Latham (third year, Fitness and Health Promotion, Welland) from women’s soccer.
Top Rookie of the Year Honours went to Madelyn Berg (first year, Police Foundations, St. Catharines) of women’s volleyball and men’s soccer player Oti Frigole (first year, Social Services, St. Catharines).
While the evening was spent celebrating athletic accomplishments, the success in the classroom did not go unnoticed. With three Niagara Athletes named CCAA Academic All-Canadians, one of the most prestigious honours from the CCAA, several Knights athletes maintained top GPA’s this season. Golf’s Chris Hallborg (first year, Professional Golf Management, St. Catharines) and women’s volleyball player Anica Haberstock (first year, General Arts and Science, Vernon, B.C.) took home the Top Scholastic Awards, notching an impressive 95% and 99% respectively.
For the full list of award winners, visit the NC Knights website.
