The College of Wooster Athletics Department has selected swimming & diving's Noah Golovan as its nominee for the North Coast Athletic Conference Don Hunsinger Award and cross country and track & field's Isabelle Hoover and women's lacrosse's Britta Treu as NCAC Pam Smith Award nominees. Additionally, men's soccer's Langston Hood and volleyball's Hayley Nash were chosen as Wooster's recipients of the NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award, football's Cole Hissong and track & field's Claudia Partridge for the College's Manges Athletics Prize, and Hoover and football's Matt Ulishney for the department's David Guldin Award.
Wooster's NCAC Don Hunsinger Award Nominee
Golovan, a breaststroker who helped Wooster's men's swimming and diving team to its first top-three NCAC finish since 2003, swam in his first individual championship final at the NCAC Championships as a senior, taking ninth-place in the 100 individual medley (53.84). On relays, Golovan was on the Scots' scoring quartet four times during his career. As a sophomore, Golovan helped Wooster's 200 (1:35.79) and 400 medley relays (3:30.75) set Timken Natatorium records at the Wooster End of Season Meet. As a junior, Golovan logged the second-fastest 100 breaststroke time (58.40) in program history.
The College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District® honoree is a projected three-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll. The philosophy and political science alumnus conducted an ethical evaluation with a content analysis of news coverage of the January 6 Insurrection for his Independent Study project. Golovan was one of two students on the search committee for the College's new president and was heavily involved with student government, serving as Scot Council president for the 2022-23 academic year. Golovan coordinated and chaired meetings between members of the College's Board of Trustees and student body each semester, led general assembly and executive committee student government meetings, and met regularly with the College's senior leadership team. Golovan was previously a class representative.
Elsewhere, Golovan was a teaching assistant, was involved with the Wooster College Republicans student organization, worked in Admissions as a senior intern, was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, and founded and administered a campus-wide intramural swimming league. He secured an APEX Fellowship to work at the Stow Municipal Courthouse, was a legal intern at Westfield Insurance Group, a campaign intern for Dave Joyce's Congressional campaign, and was a judicial intern at Stow Municipal Court.
Wooster's NCAC Pam Smith Award Nominees
Hoover, the 2022 NCAC Indoor Distance Athlete of the Year, was a four-time conference champion and earned 10 all-conference laurels between cross country, indoor track & field, and outdoor track & field. The alumna swept the NCAC indoor 3,000 (10:32.11) and 5,000 meters (17:47.61) titles in 2022 and won back-to-back 10,000 meters outdoor titles in 2021 (38:00.59) and 2022 (36:51.49). In cross country, Hoover was a two-time top-seven harrier for first-team All-NCAC status. Her fourth-place time of 23:54.9 in 2022 marked Wooster's highest finish since W Association Hall of Famer and five-time All-American Katie Wieferich won the 2006 individual title. The 10-time NCAC Athlete of the Week helped the indoor track & field team to its first runner-up NCAC finish since 1997 in 2022, and its highest conference cross country finish since 1998 in 2021.
The NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient is a projected two-time CSC Academic All-District® honoree and has earned all-academic laurels from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association five times. The projected four-time NCAC Academic Honor Roll honoree had multiple papers selected for publication or presentations at various national conferences. Hoover's internship portfolio is headlined by one in the registrar's office at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She aided with the filing and archiving of insurance paperwork, shipping paperwork, condition reports, and other legal documents. Other key duties of Hoover's internship included budgeting, planning, installation, and deinstallation of special exhibitions and uploading information into systems for the museum. Hoover's other internship was at the Toledo Museum of Art.
Hoover's campus involvement included working as a peer tutor for Greek and Latin courses. She was a research assistant, departmental assistant, and teaching assistant for the Classical Studies Department, was a research assistant to an art history professor, took part in the College's Wooster Community Care Network, and was a violinist with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra. Hoover will pursue a master's of philosophy in art history and architecture degree at the University of Cambridge.
Treu capped a successful lacrosse career with second-team All-NCAC honors, following a year in which she broke the program's 21-year-old record with 42 assists. Treu's 77 career assists place her fourth all-time in program history despite playing less than three full seasons due to COVID. Treu's 59 points ranked second on the team this year, and she had eight games with at least three assists as a senior. Treu wrapped up her career with 127 career points and she had 50 goals, 17 of which came this season.
The communication studies alumna was selected as one of Wooster's student Commencement speakers. She examined technology's impact on Gen Z's face-to-face communication skills for her Independent Study. The projected three-time NCAC Academic Honor Roll selection was active in Wooster's music department, serving as a trumpet section leader for the Scot Marching Band. She was in the Wooster Symphonic Band, the Wooster Mercury Brass Quintet, and the Wooster Symphony Orchestra during her time at Wooster. Treu served as president of Wooster Christian Fellowship, helped lead bible study groups among student-athletes, and was in Shades of Gold, an a cappella group on campus. Treu was active with various community service projects on Wooster's campus and served as a youth lacrosse coach in the summers.
Wooster's NCAC Scholar-Athlete Award Recipients
Hood, a four-year key contributor at forward, made 41 career appearances for Wooster's men's soccer team. He scored eight goals and passed out an assist. Hood ranked within the team's top three in goals each of the last two seasons. The CSC Academic All-District® selection and projected three-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll researched compatibilism as a potential solution to the free will and determinism problem for his Independent Study. Hood majored in English and philosophy and was actively involved with Wooster's SAAC and was the president of the campus chapter of the NAACP. He was a teaching assistant for two professors, worked in the athletic training room, and was a substitute teacher at Montessori School of Wooster.
Nash, Wooster's first volleyball player to be a three-time first-team All-NCAC selection, finished her career third in program history with 3.46 kills per set. The four-year staple at outside hitter graduated fifth in school history with 1,020 kills, 3,029 attack attempts, and 0.36 services aces per set. Nash recorded her 1,000th career kill in a straight set win over Oberlin College in 2022 and tied the program record with nine service aces in a four-set win over St. Mary's College (Indiana), also in 2022. The CSC Academic All-District® honoree and projected three-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll double majored in art history and studio art. She compared past and present Arizona homes to convey how styles have evolved for her Independent Study and will be pursuing a career in interior or industrial design and furthering her education in those fields back home in Arizona. Nash worked in the equipment room at Wooster and lived in one of the College's program houses which perform regular community service.
Wooster's Manges Athletics Prize Recipients
Hissong graduated as one of the top tight ends in Div. III history. He earned second-team All-America honors from D3football.com and the Associated Press following the 2021 season and was a three-time D3football.com Preseason All-American. Hissong became Wooster's first player to earn all-region honors from D3football.com three times and became the second three-time All-NCAC tight end in program history this past fall. Hissong, who is the program's 40th all-time three-time All-NCAC selection, played in the All-American Bowl and the Podyum College All-Star Bowl. He graduated as the program's all-time leader in receptions (145), receiving yards (2,020), and touchdowns (18) by a tight end, with the totals ranking third, fifth, and sixth all-time in program history. Hissong became D3football.com's first five-time Team of the Week tight end this past fall.
Partridge, a hopeful four-time national qualifier in the high jump, logged a career-best ninth-place finish at the 2023 Div. III Indoor Track & Field Championships after clearing 5 feet, 3.25 inches. The alumna previously placed 12th (5 feet, 3.25 inches) and 19th (5 feet, 1.25 inches) at the 2022 indoor and 2022 outdoor Div. III Championships, respectively. The eight-time all-conference performer was the NCAC champion in the high jump at the 2022 indoor championships, clearing a program-record 5 feet, 6.5 inches. This season, Partridge's 2,779 points in the pentathlon won her a second NCAC title and secured her seventh-career NCAC Athlete of the Week award. She has four USTFCCCA All-Region certificates and was a two-time USTFCCCA All-Academic qualifier.
Wooster's Guldin Award Recipients
Hoover – please see above under Pam Smith Award nominees.
Ulishney, a first-team CSC Academic All-American®, was one of a record three football Scots named to the Academic All-America® Team. The third-team All-NCAC selection led the NCAC with 103 tackles as a senior and ranked 22nd nationally with 10.3 tackles per game. The first Scot since 2014 to log over 100 tackles had six games with at least a dozen, including against Wittenberg University, where Wooster rallied back from a 33-7 third-quarter deficit to win 44-43 for the program's first victory over the Tigers since 2008. The four-year starter is a projected three-time member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll. The CSC Academic All-District® honoree and Hampshire Honor Society qualifier examined variables to build overtime win probability models in NCAA Div. I football. The mathematics major gained quantitative analysis field experience as an intern at SESCO Enterprises. There, Ulishney built interactive applications to display results, created presentations, and communicated methodologies to help the company make informed data-driven decisions. The Eagle Scout was involved with Men Working for Change on campus and served as a peer mentor for calculus courses.
About the NCAC and Departmental Awards
The Hunsinger Award recognizes one male senior student-athlete who has distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service, and leadership. The Smith Award criteria is the same, and the NCAC's winner from that contest is put forth as the NCAA Woman of the Year nominee. A committee of NCAC administrators in conjunction with the conference office will review the nominees in the coming weeks and make the selection of this year's recipients.
The Manges Award, established in 1925 by Monroe Manges '88, is awarded annually at Wooster's graduation to the member of the senior class most proficient in vigorous physical activity, or more specifically, varsity athletics. The Guldin Award goes to the top two scholar-athletes in the senior class based on both their academic and athlete ability, while the NCAC Scholar Student-Athlete Award is awarded to one male and one female athlete as chosen by each member institution based on institution-specific criteria.