University of Maine basketball player Sigi Koizar and distance runner Jesse Orach have been honored as 2015-16 America East Winter Scholar-Athlete selections.
Orach and Koizar were among five student-athletes recognized for demonstrating excellence both athletically and academically and achieving the two highest grade point averages of the five honorees.
Koizar, a junior guard from Austria, has a 3.96 GPA with a double major of chemistry and pre-medical studies. She was a first-team, all-conference basketball pick, was named to the women’s basketball All-Academic team, and won the M Club Dean Smith Award.
Orach, a senior who competed in track and field, also won the AE honor in cross country. He boasts a 3.95 GPA majoring in chemical engineering and is pursuing a five-year Master’s in business administration.
Orach was an America East All-Academic selection in both indoor track and cross country. He placed third in the 5,000 meters at IC4As and was fifth at the America East Championship. He also claimed the Dean Smith Award.
The other America East award winners were Albany men’s basketball player Peter Hooley, University of Maryland Baltimore County diver Coco Darelius and Stony Brook distance runner Christina Melian.
UMA player turning pro
University of Maine-Augusta senior basketball star Brandon Rogers on Friday signed a contract to play basketball for the University of Essex in England next year while pursuing a graduate degree.
Rogers, a native of Turlock, California, will also play for the University of Essex Blades professional team, a national development league of 32 teams across England. He will be the first UMA graduate to play basketball professionally.
The three-time United States Collegiate Athletic Association All-American led both USCAA Division I and II in rebounding during his senior campaign, averaging 15.8 boards per game. Rogers broke the record for rebounds in a season (441) while averaging 21.2 points per game.
“UMA has been a driving force in my life the last three years,” Rogers said in a news release. “Having the opportunity to play overseas has been a dream since I was a kid, and having the support of my family, friends and coaches have made this possible.”
The 6-foot-6 Rogers was the 2015-2016 Yankee Small College conference Player of the Year and was also a USCAA First-Team All American. He will graduate from UMA next month with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies and a minor in Secondary Education.
Mount View senior commits
Jennie Nadeau, a senior at Mount View High School in Thorndike, has made a verbal commitment to play basketball at Division II Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas.
Nadeau was a Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference second-team selection last season after averaging 13.3 points and 5.5 rebounds. She served as a tri-captain for coach Tony Staffiere and earned the team MVP award.
Nadeau will attend Harding as a preferred walk-on after committing to coach Tom Kirby’s program during a recent tryout and official visit on April 7. The Bison play in the Great American Conference.
Black earns Byers scholarship
Tufts University senior Mitchell Black, a three-time national champion in the 800 meters who wants to be an astronaut, is one of two student-athletes in the country to be awarded the NCAA’s 2016 Walter Byers Postgraduate Scholarship.
He is the first recipient ever selected from the New England Small College Athletic Conference.
Established in 1988 to honor the former NCAA executive director, the program awards a $24,000 scholarship each year to one male and one female scholar-athlete selected from a pool of applicants from NCAA Division I, II and III schools. The grant, which can be renewed for a second year, recognizes outstanding academic achievement and the potential for success in postgraduate study. The University of Tulsa’s Katherine Riojas, a soccer player, is this year’s other recipient.
Black, an Academic All-American in 2015, is pursuing a double major in mechanical engineering and astrophysics at Tufts and plans to earn a doctorate in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech or the University of Michigan. He has a 3.72 grade point average and received Tufts’ C.P. Ciaffone and L.W. Pote Scholarship for excellence in engineering.
Black is a nine-time All-American for the Jumbos who won the NCAA indoor 800 meters championship in 2015 and 2016, as well as the NCAA outdoor 800 title in 2015. He has been a key member of three straight NESCAC championship teams at Tufts, and will join his teammates in the pursuit of a fourth conference title on April 30.