DEROO NOMINATED FOR NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
CENTER VALLEY, Pa. (6/14/12) – Recent Colgate University graduate Elise DeRoo was one of two Patriot League female student-athletes to be nominated for the 2012 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. Navy’s Jess Palacio was also nominated by the League on Thursday.
The Patriot League’s Senior Woman Administrators chose DeRoo and Palacio as nominees due to their excellence in the four areas of importance for the NCAA Woman of the Year award: service, leadership, athletics and academics.
Both recently-graduated seniors, DeRoo and Palacio became two of the most well-known and respected student-athletes within the Patriot League in the last four years, as both earned multiple League titles in either cross country or track and field.
DeRoo, a native of Newtown, Conn., finished up an incredible four-year career at Colgate in this spring. She was a dominant force in cross country for two years, capturing the women’s individual championships in 2009 and 2010 before taking third at the 2011 event. Her 2010 season in cross country was so strong that she earned an invitation to the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind., where she placed 100th, the highest finish for any League student-athlete since 2006.
DeRoo was also a force within the League in both the indoor and outdoor seasons of track and field during her career. She won a pair of individual titles at the 2010 indoor championship meet in the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs en route to earning first-team All-League laurels. That spring she added two more victories in the 5,000 and 10,000 events at the outdoor championships. She earned another gold at the 2011 indoor championships when she set the meet record with a winning effort in the 1,000, and was part of Colgate’s meet record-setting foursome that took first in the distance medley relay.
After not competing at the League’s 2012 indoor track and field championships, DeRoo returned in the spring to take fourth place at the League meet with a personal best in the 10,000 while adding a fifth-place finish in the 5,000-meter run.
DeRoo excelled in the classroom as well as in competition, graduating with a 3.97 grade-point average with a degree in molecular biology. She was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year five times, including twice in cross country (2010, 2011), twice in indoor track and field (2010, 2011) and once in outdoor (2010). She twice earned first-team Academic All-America honors from CoSIDA in 2010 and again in 2011, and added Academic All-Patriot League honors for outdoor track this spring. Additionally, she’s a four-time member of the League’s Academic Honor Roll in cross country and a three-time honoree in track and field, and appears well on her way to a fourth. A member Colgate’s Dean’s List all four years, she earned the school’s Mitchell Memorial Award as the graduating student-athlete with the highest GPA.
DeRoo, who plans to spend next year working in a vascular surgery lab at the University of Michigan before attending medical school, participated in a number of volunteer initiatives over the last four years. In addition to serving as the historian of the Tribeta Biological Honor Society on campus the last two years, she participated in the Adopt a Classroom initiative, along with spending one summer volunteering in the endoscopy center at Danbury Hospital and at the Danbury Animal Shelter, both in Danbury, Conn.
The Woman of the Year selection committee will review all nominations and narrow down the field to 10 NCAA student-athletes from each of the three divisions. From there, the committee will select the top three in each division before determining the NCAA Woman of the Year. The committee will announce the winner in October in Indianapolis, Ind., where the top 10 from each division will be recognized.
HARTQUIST HOMERS TWICE AGAINST ARMY
Game 2 (Box Score)
HAMILTON, N.Y. (4/8/12) – Sophomore pitcher Rachel LeCoq recorded a complete game shutout, while senior Stephanie Hartquist hit a pair of home runs on Sunday as the Colgate Softball team split the final two games of the weekend series against Army.
The Raiders won the first game 7-0, before dropping the final game 8-4 to the Black Knights at Eaton Street Field.
LeCoq pitched seven scoreless innings allowing six hits, while striking out seven to record her fourth-straight win, while Hartquist finished the day hitting 5-for-6 with two home runs, three runs scored and five RBI.
In the first game, Colgate (12-16, 7-1) broke open a scoreless tie with five runs in the fifth inning, including a three run homer from Hartquist, to grab its seventh League win of the season.
Jennifer Ortega starting the scoring with an RBI single to center field to bring home Alana Dyson, who led off the inning with a double down the right field line.
After Hartquist homered to right center with two outs to make the score 4-0, Natalie Siedhof extended the inning with a single to left field and then scored after LeCoq doubled to right field to score the fifth run.
The Raiders then added a pair of runs in the sixth inning on three-straight hits with two outs to make the final score 7-0. The first two Raiders grounded out before Ortega walked and Emmie Dolfi singled to put runners on first and second.
Courtney O’Connell then double to left center to make the score 6-0, before Hartquist recorded her third hit of the game to bring home the final run.
In the second game, the Raiders scored one run in the first inning on an RBI single from Tera Vaughn and held the lead until the Black Knights scored one run in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead.
Colgate answered back with one run in the bottom of the fifth on a solo homer from Hartquist to make it 3-2, but that was as close as the score would get as Army scored three more runs in the sixth inning a two in the seventh to build an 8-2 lead.
Hartquist did double in the bottom of the seventh, before Siedhof hit a two run homer to left field, but it wasn’t enough as Army won the final game of the weekend series to snap the Raiders 11-game winning streak over the Black Knights.
Colgate will be back in action on Thursday, April 12 for a doubleheader against Siena. The first game of the twinbill is scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m. at Eaton Street Field.
SOFTBALL DROPS FINAL GAME AT UNDER ARMOUR INVITATIONAL
TAMPA, Fla. (3/18/12)– Senior Michelle Hollebeke pitched her second complete game of the season, but Hartford took advantage of two errors to hand the Colgate Softball team a 3-2 loss in its final game of the Under Armour Invitational at the Eddie C. Moore Sports Complex.
Colgate (4-13) scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on three hits including a two out RBI single from Stephanie Hartquist to give the Raiders an early lead. The Hawks then answered back with a run in the top of the second inning on a two out single up the middle by Chelsey Mooney that scored Peyton Fisher from second.
Fisher reached base with two outs on a Colgate throwing error and then advanced to second on an illegal pitch. Hartford would tie the game 2-2 in the third inning and the score would remain tied until the Hawks took the lead in the top of the sixth. The Hawks got their third run with two outs in the sixth inning after a single by Mooney, followed by a wild pitch and another Colgate throwing error.
Hollebeke finished her second complete game of the year by giving up five hits and one earned run, while striking out four.
Colgate will be back in action on Friday, March 23 against Syracuse for the “Duel at the Dome”. The game is scheduled to begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Carrier Dome and will be televised live on Time Warner Cable Sports.
SOFTBALL DROPS DOUBLEHEADER TO UTAH
FORT MYERS, Fla. (3/12/12) – Hannah Clements doubled to right center in the bottom of the seventh inning to drive in the game-winning run as Utah topped the Colgate Softball team 2-1 in the first game of a doubleheader Monday at the FGCU Softball Complex. Generra Nielson picked up the win for the Utes by throwing a no-hitter with 16 strikeouts. Utah also took the second game 8-0 in five innings.
In the first game, Colgate (2-8) took a 1-0 lead in the top of the fifth inning when Jennifer Ortega scored from third after a wild pitch by Nielson. Ortega led off the inning by hitting a ground ball to the shortstop, but reached first base on a throwing error. Ortega then advanced to second after a popup by Emmie Dolfi to the catcher, before stealing third with one out. Courtney O’Connell started in the circle for the Raiders and only gave up two hits in the first six innings, before a late Utah rally brought home two runs. O’Connell finished the day going 6.1 innings giving up six hits, two runs with three strikeouts.
In the second game, Utah (19-5) scored one run in the second inning, before exploding for six runs in the third to complete the sweep. The Raiders had a chance to get on the board in the bottom of the second after Ortega led off with a double to left center, but Nielson sat the next three Raiders down in order to maintain the 1-0 lead. Utah added another run in the top of the fourth to build an 8-0 lead and Naomi Amu came on in relief in the bottom of the fifth to help seal the win.
Rachel LeCoq started the second game for Colgate throwing four innings allowing two earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts. All six of the Utah runs scored in the third inning were off three Colgate errors.
Colgate will be back in action on Tuesday, March 13 for a doubleheader at Florida Atlantic. The first game is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. followed by the second at 8:00 p.m.; both games will have live stats provided by FAU.
