Athletics Awards Night 2016
As the school year comes to an end, the Athletics Department held its annual Athletics Award Night. The program involved a review of the highlights of the sports season, a video capturing the action from the year, and reflections by three senior athletes, and the awards ceremony.
The Liz Metcalfe Memorial Award and Keith Albers Memorial Awards, the department’s highest honors, are career awards given to a female and male athlete who exhibit exemplary play on the athletic field, high achievement in the classroom, and leadership in campus activities. This year’s recipients were women’s basketball player Allie Paluchniak ’16 of Oostburg, Wisconsin, and cross country and track runner Michael Potter ’16 of Kentwood, Michigan.
Paluchniak, a three-year player and starter on the women’s basketball team, is a team leader on and off the court. For her career she averaged 8.0 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.3 assists and ranks first in the Trinity records book with a 79.7 free throw percentage. She earned 2014-15 NCCAA North Central All-Region Honorable Mention honors and for the past two years has received scholar-athlete recognition as an exercise science major.
Potter is a four-year member of the cross country and track and field teams. On the cross country course he ranks seventh overall in Trinity’s record book with a career best time of 26:14 in the 8K race. As a track distance runner he ranks in the top ten in five indoor and four outdoor records. This year he has qualified for the marathon at the NAIA National Championship. He earned 2015 CCAC All-Conference honors and, as an accounting major, is a scholar-athlete.
For their outstanding individual accomplishment for the year, cross country and track runner Ashley Jourdan ‘17of Wyoming, Michigan, and baseball player Zack Jones ’17 of Norridge, Illinois, were named the Athletes of the Year.
Jourdan is a NAIA All-American in cross country and indoor track and has already qualified in the 1500 meter for the NAIA national outdoor meet in late May. For the cross country season, she led the team, tied the school 5K record at 18:09, took second in the conference, was a national qualifier, and finished 29th at the NAIA national meet. In the indoor track season she set the school record in the mile at 5:02.75 and took fourth place at the NAIA indoor championships.
Jones is the starting catcher and a closing pitcher for the baseball team that has set school record for season wins. In the ongoing season he is a team leader with an above .400 batting average. He ranks in the top five in the conference in batting, hit, RBI, and walk averages and leads the CCAC with nine saves as a reliever. The baseball post-season awards are yet to be determined.
Recognizing a member of the Trinity community who has made a significant contribution to the athletics department, the Rich Kooy Award was presented to Brittany Lee, athletics department member. Lee not only functions as an assistant coach for the women’s soccer team, but in the past couple of years has enriched the athletics department with the formation of the Athletics Leadership Program for Students (ALPS) and by serving as a Performance Enhancement Coach.