As they look to carry their momentum from the first semester into the second, the Lions already have already collected enough accolades to make their mark in York’s history.
There must be more on the way, especially from the determined basketball, hockey, and volleyball squads, but now’s the moment to stop and take a look back at what the Lions have already achieved.
Chris Field, the head coach of the Lions’ tennis program, was named the Ontario University Athletics women’s coach of the year for tennis. Among the athletes he worked with, Nikki Carnovale was named the OUA’s player of the year, and she joined her teammates Ivana Banovic and Filip Obucina as OUA all-stars. The women’s team were the OUA silver medalists this past season.
On the rugby team, Cheyenne Legerton, Marty Alaimo, and Bobbi-Jo Cronk were all honoured as division all-stars. Their teammate Tobi Owotomo was also honoured as the division’s rookie of the year and head coach Joe Castello was named coach of the year. In field hockey, Mikhaela Slavin and Rebecca Titus were named OUA all-stars as well.
Of the Lions’ wrestling roster, Alexandria Town won bronze medals at both the Concordia Open and McMaster Open, followed by a silver medal at the Ontario Senior Championship, and most recently won a gold medal at a tournament hosted by York at the end of November. Town’s teammates Ali Koca and Sebastian Galzote joined her on the podium at Tait McKenzie gym, having won silver and bronze medals, respectively. Both Koca and Galzote also won one medal each in earlier tournaments.
Even more medals were won by the Lions’ track and field team, all in their only event last semester. At the Xmas Open in Toronto at the end of November, the team won a whopping 27 medals altogether.
Sheereen Harris won two gold medals of her own and shared a third in 4×100 metres relay with her teammates Mikeisha Bobb, Shania Payne, and Nicolette Witherspoon. Bobb also won two other medals for individual efforts, one gold and the other bronze, and Brittany Crew won two gold. Dereck Djan, Suraj Sharma, Muad Issa, and Harishan Karunenthiran contributed five medals altogether.
In football, running back Jesse Amankwaa, linebacker Jakob Butler, and receivers Colton Hunchak and Nathaniel Pinto were named to the OUA all-rookie team for their outstanding first-year performances. Amankwaa was also named OUA rookie of the year.
His teammate Jahmari Bennett was named to the special teams player of the week for both the OUA and the Canadian Interuniversity Sport in the same week for his incredible performance against the Guelph Gryphons in a season game on September 12th. The team’s assistant head coach Tom Norwell also earned the 2015 Gino Fracas Award, given annually to the CIS assistant coach of the year.
Accolades in women’s soccer were dominated by Nour Ghoneim. She was named the OUA West MVP for the second straight year, CIS first-team all-Canadian for the second year in a row as well, and CIS player of the year for the first time.
The team’s head coach Carmine Isacco was named the OUA West division coach of the year. All-stars joining Ghoneim on the OUA first-team all-stars were Shannon Wood, Tomika McIntosh, Sarah Wong, and Marilyn Grammenopoulos. Their teammate Sydney Hoareau was an OUA second-team all-star. Wood and Wong were also named CIS all-Canadians, and Wong became the first player in the program’s history to receive the honour three times in her career.
It’s safe to say that no other Lions program beat the men’s soccer team in gathering up accolades in the past few months. Joey Cicchillo was named OUA athlete of the week, and was later one of six players to be named to the OUA first-team as all-stars.
The other five were Michael Cox, Jonathan Lao, Jarek Whiteman, Tyrone Downes, and Colm Vance.Cox was both OUA and CIS player of the week for two consecutive weeks and even had the #CoxGoal social media hashtag trending during the playoffs. Vance was named CIS academic all-Canadian as well.
Then the Lions’ entire team was named the OUA team of the month, having won both the OUA and CIS championships for the second year in a row.
Hassam Munir, Sports and Health Editor
