Christina Gelardi

New Haven
David Thomas
Track and FieldNative of Taneytown, Md., was an All-America honoree in the indoor season while also qualifying for the national meet in the 60-meter dash. Named the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association East Region Indoor Track Athlete of the Year, the Northeast-10 Outdoor Track & Field Athlete of the Year and the conference’s Most Valuable Athlete at both the indoor and outdoor championship meets. He earned an NCAA berth in the long jump and met provisional standards in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes.
Jason Thompson
Football
From Indiantown, Fla., the All-American hauled in 44 passes for 881 yards, including 16 touchdowns. He ranks in the top five in program history in receptions, receiving yards, touchdown catches and points and recently signed as an undrafted free agent with the Washington Redskins.
Keidy Candelaria
Volleyball
The native of Vega Baja, Puerto Rico, was named All-America by two organizations after guiding the Chargers to the NCAA East Region title and the national quarterfinals. She was the AVCA East Region and Northeast-10 Player of the Year and the Most Outstanding Player of the East Region Championship. She is one of just seven players to tally 1,000 kills and 1,000 digs in the storied history of the program.
Christina Gelardi
Softball
The Derby native was the Northeast-10 Player of the Year and led the nation with a .647 on-base percentage. She ranked in the top 10 nationally in five categories. Gelardi is top five all-time at New Haven in walks, batting average, RBIs, stolen bases, hits, home runs and doubles.
Yale
Elizabeth Epstein
Tennis
The Chicago native helped lead Yale to three Ivy League titles and four ECAC team championships during her career. She is a three-time All-Ivy selection and a two-time winner of the team’s Lisa Rosenblum Award, given to the team’s MVP. In her four years, the Bulldogs posted a 24-4 record against Ivy League foes, including a perfect 7-0 mark in 2012, and made three appearances in the NCAA tournament.
Andrew Miller
Hockey
The captain of the first Yale hockey team to win a national championship, Miller received the William Neely Mallory Award, the most prestigious athletic award given to a senior male at Yale. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime of the national semifinal, had a goal and an assist in the title contest — a 4-0 win over Quinnipiac — and was the Frozen Four Most Valuable Player in Pittsburgh. He signed with the Edmonton Oilers a few days after the national championship game.
Quinnipiac
Eric Hartzell
Hockey
Hartzell led the Bobcats to 30 wins and a Frozen Four appearance — the first in program history. A finalist for the Hobey Baker Award, Hartzell posted a 30-7-5 record, a 1.57 goals-against average and a .933 save percentage, which also included an 8-1 record against teams that competed in the NCAA tournament. He signed with the Pittsburgh Penguins following the Frozen Four.
Nicole Lewis
Field hockey
The senior from East Amherst, N.Y., is the only student-athlete from the Northeast Conference to receive the NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Last year, Lewis was honored after finishing her undergraduate degree with the highest grade-point average (3.96) in Quinnipiac’s School of Health Science. On the field she was named the NEC Goalkeeper of the Year after leading the conference with a .812 save percentage and four shutouts. She also ranked third in goals-against average (1.59) and finished with 11 wins on the year for the Bobcats, who qualified for their fifth consecutive NEC tournament.
Albertus Magnus
Stephen Zapata
Soccer
The Hamden product paced the Falcons to their second Great Northeast Athletic Conference title and first-ever NCAA tournament appearance. An all-ECAC selection, he was also named second-team All-American after leading the Falcons with 38 points on 13 goals and 12 assists. He registered a team-high 92 shots, including 43 on goal, while he tallied six game-winners. He was also 4-for-4 in penalty kicks. Zapata finished his career at Albertus with 114 points on 31 goals and 52 assists in 80 games played.
Lianna Carrero
Basketball
The Hamden native was among the nation’s leaders in scoring for most of the season and notched the 1,000th point of her career in a game played at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Named to the Capital One Academic All-America Division III Second Team, she scored 46 points in a game against Norwich. The All-GNAC performer led the Falcons in scoring at 20.2 ppg.
SCSU
Paul Ryskowski
Cross country/track
A senior from Bristol, Ryskowski was named to the USTFCCCA All-Academic Cross Country Team for the third straight year. A distance runner who ran a 4:19.15 in the 1,500 meters in the outdoor track season, Ryskowski was part of the Owls’ New England championship team and an NE-10 academic honoree.
Jaclyn Sullivan
Cross country/track
The senior from Lisbon was named to the NE-10 indoor and outdoor academic all-conference teams. She is an all-region performer and a former NCAA qualifier in the distance medley. She is a three-time all-conference academic pick.

— Bill Cloutier

All winners chosen by their respective schools; SCSU chooses scholar-athletes.

The surprises keep on coming in the Northeast-10 Conference softball tournament.
No. 1 seed Southern Connecticut State dropped two games on Friday and is eliminated. The Owls will still earn a berth in next week's NCAA tournament but their top seed is in jeopardy. If SCSU is ranked first or second it will host a tourney site at Yale. If they fall to three they'll be on the road.

As for New Haven, it appears the Chargers need to win the NE-10 tourney to earn an NCAA b berth. They'll play Le Moyne today at 1 p.m.
Despite hitting four home runs, including a pair of blasts from senior Jessica Rosa, the No. 18 nationally ranked Southern was eliminated from the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament on Friday evening with an 8-5 loss to Assumption.
Le Moyne defeated Southern 2-1 in the first game.
The Owls fell to 37-10 on the year and will now wait to learn of their NCAA Tournament opponent when the selections are announced on Monday morning at 10 a.m. Assumption (30-16) advances to play either Le Moyne or New Haven in another elimination game on Saturday at 4 p.m.
Southern fell behind 5-0 in the second game before Kate Hoffman connected for her fifth home run of the year. The next inning, Kristin Whitley started a three-run rally with a solo shot, her third long ball of the year. Then, after a walk to Alyssa Downs, Rosa launched a blast over the center field wall to get the Owls within a run.
However, Assumption scored three times in the sixth to push its lead to 8-4. Rosa homered again in the seventh to close the scoring for the Owls.
In the opener LeMoyne scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning and held on for the win.
No. 7 New Haven moved to the semifinal round with an 8-3 win over Assumption. The Chargers (29-18) will face fourth-seeded Le Moyne today at 1 p.m.

Kelsey Malloy picked up the win in relief of Alana Wesche. She allowed one run in six innings while fanning five.
Jess Spivey and Gilly Childs homered for New Haven and Shannon Angehr had two hits and two RBIs.

The Northeast-10 opened its softball tournament play on Tuesday with a pair of thrillers. Top-seeded Southern Connecticut survived a scare from Stonehill winning 4-3 in 10 innings. Jessica Rosa (pictured) had the game-winning hit for the Owls.

New Haven rallied from a 4-1 deficit to defeat No. 2 seed Adelphi 5-4 in its first-round game. The first round of the tourney is a single-elimination format. After that it becomes a double-elimination tournament.

2012 Northeast-10 Softball Championship Schedule
First Round Single Elimination

Tuesday’s results
#1 Southern Connecticut 4, No. 8 Stonehill 3 (10)
#7 New Haven 5, #2 Adelphi 4
Wednesday, April 25
Game 3: #6 Southern New Hampshire at #3 Assumption – 2:00 p.m.
Game 4: #5 UMass Lowell at #4 Le Moyne – 2:00 p.m.
Games at SCSU

Double elimination format
Friday’s games
Game 5: Southern Connecticut vs. Game 4 winner – 1:00 p.m.
Game 6: New Haven vs. Game 3 winner – 4:00 p.m.
Saturday games
Game 7: Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser – 10:00 a.m.
Game 8: Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner – 12:30 p.m.
Game 9: Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 loser – 3:00 p.m.
Sunday games
Game 10: Game 9 winner vs. Game 8 winner – 11:00 a.m.
Game 11: If Necessary – 30 minutes after conclusion of Game 10

The Southern women's basketball team won its 12th straight game on Saturday.
Click here for my story on their star guard: Sylvonya Moore.

Owls Finish Year Ranked No. 4 In Two National Polls
A trip to the national semifinals has earned the Southern Connecticut State University baseball team a No. 4 final national ranking in both the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and the College Baseball Lineup polls. The Owls finished the 2011 season with a final mark of 45-9-1, setting a new single-season record for victories.
The Owls also won their first College World Series games in school history, finished No. 1 in New England and won the Northeast-10 Conference regular season title for the second consecutive year.

Yale's Mangano invited to Jr. National Team tryouts
Greg Mangano has already enjoyed one successful trip to China this offseason. Now, he’s hoping to return later this summer.

Mangano is one of 22 of the nation’s top collegiate athletes who have accepted invitations from the USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee to attend the 2011 USA Basketball Men’s World University Games Team training camp.

The training camp, which will be held July 29-Aug. 7 at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (USOTC) in Colorado Springs, Colo., will be used to select the 12-member team that will represent the USA at the 2011 World University Games men’s basketball competition Aug. 13-23 in Shenzhen, China.

“The opportunity to try out for the USA team is a tremendous honor,” said Mangano, who averaged 21.5 points in four games during Yale’s 10-day visit to China in May. “I'm excited to have the chance to play against some of the best players in the country. My goal is to make the team and have an opportunity to represent our country in the world games. If nothing else, the tryout will help me improve my game by playing against the best competition which will only help me for my last season at Yale.”

Joining Mangano at the camp will be Notre Dame’s Tim Abromaitis, VCU’s Bradford Burgess, Missouri’s Marcus Denmon, Missouri’s Kim English, Cincinnati’s Yancy Gates, Pittsburgh’s Ashton Gibbs, Michigan State’s Draymond Greem, Alabama’s JaMychal Green, Xavier’s Tu Holloway, Syracuse’s Scoop Jardine, Vanderbilt’s John Jenkins, UC Santa Barbara’s Orlando Johnson, Minnesota’s Trevor Mbakwe, Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum, Texas A&M’s Khris Middleton, Kentucky’s Darius Miller, Alabama’s Tony Mitchell, West Virginia’s Aaric Murray, UConn’s Alex Oriakhi, Northwestern’s John Shurna and Wisconsin’s Jordan Taylor.

“After a lot of thought and consideration of potential players, the committee has put together a very strong roster for the training camp,” said USA Basketball Men’s Junior National Team Committee Chair Jim Boeheim, the head coach at Syracuse. “As always, the committee will be looking for not only the most talented players, but also players that will work well as a team.”
Mangano, an Orange, Conn., native, is coming off a season in which he finished ninth in the nation in blocked shots (3.0 per game) and 24th in rebounding (10.0 rpg.). He averaged 16.3 points and was a unanimous first team All-Ivy selection and earned all-district honors from the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC).
Mangano led the Ivy League in rebounding and blocked shots and was second in scoring. He is the first Ivy player to average a double-double for the season since Harvard’s Kyle Snowden in 1995-96. His numbers were even more impressive in Ivy games where he averaged 18.6 points and 10.4 rebounds, which both led the league.
Mangano, a four-time Ivy League Player of the Week selection, was dominant on both ends of the floor. His 85 blocks were the most in a season in school history and the third most in Ivy history. In addition, his 51 blocks in league games were a new Ivy record. He scored 20 points or more in nine games this season, including tallying a career-high 30 in a victory at Dartmouth. He led the Bulldogs in rebounding in all but four games and grabbed a career-high 17 at Brown.
In addition, he became the first Yale player since Chris Dudley in 1986-87 to average a double-double for the season.
Purdue University head coach Matt Painter, who previously assisted the 2009 USA U19 World Championship Team to a gold medal, is the head coach of the 2011 USA Men’s World University Games Team, while collegiate head coaches Cuonzo Martin of the University of Tennessee and Brad Stevens of Butler University will serve as assistant coaches.
The World University Games are held every other year and are organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The United States, which has claimed a medal in every World University Games since beginning play in 1965, has captured a record 13 golds, three silvers and three bronze medals in the 19 WUGs in which a USA Basketball men’s squad has competed.

SCSU third in NE-10 in President's Cup standings:
The Southern Connecticut State University athletic department has placed third out of 16 institutions in the 2010-11 Northeast-10 Conference Presidents’ Cup race. The Owls totaled 161 points to match their highest finish and post their highest point total since joining the league. In the process, Southern Connecticut placed in the top three in the Presidents’ Cup for the second time in the past three years. The Presidents’ Cup is presented annually to signify overall athletic excellence in the Northeast-10 Conference and is awarded to the institution that compiles the most points based on the placement at the conclusion of the regular season of each of its programs which compete in league championships. SCSU is one of only public institutions in the conference.

Softball
UMass 1, Quinnipiac 0: At Amherst, Heather Schwartzburg struck out 10 batters and allowed four hits in the contest taking the loss for the Bobcats (30-25).
Baseball
SCSU sweeps: No. 8 Southern defeated UMass-Lowell 3-1 and 2-0 at New Haven to wrap up the Northeast-10 Conference regular-season title.
The Owls jumped out early in the first game with two runs in the second off a triple by Bryan Dorsey and back-to-back doubles by T.K. Kiernan and Michael Cleary.
In game two, Southern got an RBI single from Kyle Rosadino.
Quinnipiac splits: At Smithfield, R.I., the Bobcats split a Northeast Conference doubleheader against Bryant University, losing the first game, 5-0, before bouncing back with a 5-2 win in the second game. The Bobcats close out their NEC schedule with an 11-21 mark in conference play while they move to 15-32 overall. Bryant goes to 26-23 overall and 15-12 in the Northeast Conference.
Ben Farina managed one hit in the doubleheader to tie Ryan Rizzo ’07 for the second most hits all-time at Quinnipiac. The hit, his 238th, came in the Bobcats’ five-run third inning of the second game.
UConn 9, So. Florida 5: At Storrs, George Springer hit his 44th career home run to lead the No. 20 UConn baseball team over South Florida 9-5 in BIG EAST play on Sunday afternoon at J.O. Christian Field. The home run puts Springer in a tie with former Husky Mike Olt for first place among UConn’s all-time home run leaders.
Springer, who finished the afternoon with two hits and two RBI, led UConn to its 17th win in Big East play as the Huskies remain at the top of the conference standings with a 17-3 record. On the year, UConn is 33-13-1.
Men’s lacrosse
Mount St. Mary’s 14, Quinnipiac 9: At Emmitsburg, Md., Christian Haggerty and Kevin Kelly both scored three goals in the Northeast Conference Championship game. Quinnipiac ends the season at 7-7, while the Mountaineers move to 9-6.
Track and field
Southern men and women dominate: The SCSU women’s outdoor track team won their third straight Northeast-10 Conference Championship collecting 196 total points in the team ranking. Coach Chris Covert was named Coach of the Year, while Alasia Griebel took first in the 1500 meter run with a track record time of 4:37.93. Brittany Niemczyk was first in the 400 meter hurdles and Brittany Brown won the high jump.
The Southern men’s team won its 18th straight conference crown collecting 221 points in the team ranking through 21 events today. The Owls truly showcased their dominance finishing in first or second in twelve events out of a possible 21 events. Diwani Augustine was named Athlete of the Meet and Coach John Walling was named Coach of the Year.
Nana Ocran won the 100 meter dash with a time of 11.07.
Stevens win 5K: Quinnipiac’s Kristen Stevens won the 5,000-meter run helping the Bobcats to seventh in the Northeast Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships. Monmouth won the event.

Rutty and Babstock are athletes of year
Quinnipiac University senior Justin Rutty (Newburgh, N.Y.) and freshman Kelly Babstock (Mississauga, Ontario) were named the Quinnipiac Male and Female Athletes of the Year, respectively, at the 2010-11 Quinnipiac Athletics & Recreation Athletic Awards program at the TD Bank Sports Center in Hamden, Conn.

The honor is the second in as many years for Rutty, who also received the award last year. Rutty is one of four student-athletes, along with men’s basketball’s Roland Lavallee, men’s ice hockey’s Reid Cashman and men’s soccer’s Graciano Brito to receive the award twice. Rutty averaged 14.6 points and a league-best 9.5 rebounds per game while also shooting 53% from the floor. The senior center posted 11 double-doubles, which were second in the Northeast Conference despite playing seven fewer games than the league leader. Rutty, who led the league with 4.04 offensive rebounds per game, also became the Northeast Conference’s all-time leading rebounder after totaling 1,025 for his four-year career at Quinnipiac. Rutty passed the 1,500-point mark for his career as well. In addition, he was also named to the NABC All-District 18 team, the All-Northeast Conference First Team and was named the Quinnipiac Athlete of the Month for December and February.

Babstock had the most productive season in program-history, breaking the program's single season goals, assists, and points records. The freshman finished with 30 goals and 29 assists for 59 points, ranking first on the team, as well as first among all ECAC Hockey skaters, in all three categories. Her tremendous on-ice performance earned her the title of both ECAC Hockey Rookie and Player of the Year honors, as well as being named to the All-League First Team and All-Rookie Team. She was named ECAC Hockey/MLX Skates Player of the Week on two separate occasions, and was named Rookie of the Week five times. Babstock was one of only two freshmen named to the New England Division I Women's Ice Hockey All-Star Team and was honored with Quinnipiac Female Athlete of the Month honors in three separate months (November, December, February).

Miller promoted at UConn
The University of Connecticut announced Wednesday the naming of Glen Miller to the position of Assistant Men’s Basketball Coach. Miller served as the Director of Men's Basketball Administration for the 2010-11 season.
“I am so happy to be able to move Glen into the position of assistant coach,” said head coach Jim Calhoun. “Glen is an exceptional teacher of the game of basketball and I am excited that he will be able to get back on the court for us this year.”

SCSU tracksters moving up
The Southern Connecticut State University men's outdoor track and field team has several members that rank among the best in the nation on the NCAA Division II national leader board. New this week to the leader board, Jared Dixon claims the seventh best high jump in the nation with a height cleared of 2.12 meters achieved on May 1st at the Yale Spring Invitational. Logan Sharpe (Esperance, N.Y.) is No. 15 in the 400 meter hurdles for his time of 52.81 achieved on May 1st at the Yale Springtime Invite. Casey Canada (Royal, Ark.) adds his name to the national leader board in the 31st spot with a time of 53.62 in the 400 meter hurdles on May 1st at the Yale Invite.

For the women, Brittany Brown (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) of the Southern Connecticut State University women's outdoor track and field team has added her name to the list of top athletes in the Division II. Her performance at the Yale Invitational this past weekend ranks her 12th in the 100 meter hurdles with a time of 14.13.

Whitley, Rosadino athletes of the month
Sophomore Kristin Whitley (North Andover, Mass.) of the softball team and senior Kyle Rosadino (Berwyn, Pa.) of the baseball team have been named as the Comcast/Southern Connecticut State University Athletes of the Month for April.