Two Player of the Year Winners Highlight UWSP All-WIAC Honors

Throughout the past few weeks,  the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference announced the All-WIAC teams for hockey and basketball, giving awards to many Pointer athletes, including two Player of the Year winners.

 

The University of Wisconsin Stevens-Point men’s hockey team had eight players awarded All-WIAC honors with seven players named first-team. Player of the Year was awarded to senior defenseman Kevin Gibson. Gibson is the top-scoring defenseman in the nation with 29 points, including seven goals and 22 assists. It is the fourth-straight year Gibson was named to the All-WIAC team and second-straight season a Pointer won Player of the Year award, as senior forward Garrett Ladd won it last year and was All-WIAC for a third time this year.

 

Defensemen Kyle Brodie and Alex Brooks, forwards Joe Kalisz, Kyle Sharkey and goaltender Brandon Jaeger joined Gibson and Ladd on first team. The conference awarded Jaeger the WIAC Max Sparger Ice Hockey Men’s Scholar-Athlete award, the first at UWSP since 1993-94. For the second straight season,  the conference selected team captain Evan Dixon  for the All-Sportsmanship team.

 

The women’s hockey team also had  conference Player of the Year along with seven other players named All-WIAC. Senior goaltender Janna Beilke-Skoug was awarded WIAC Player of the Year as she played the most minutes of any goaltender in the nation and started  27 games. Beilke-Skoug recorded the most saves in conference with 718, including a 17-7-2 record. It is the second straight season a UWSP player won Player of the Year.

 

Defensemen Betsy Anderson, Megan Menotti and Nicole Schaub, and forwards Emily Lester and Kat Nejedlo joined Beilke-Skoug on the All-WIAC first team. Menotti is second in scoring for defenseman with Anderson in third. The conference named forward Ali Biagini honorable mention and forward Rachel Reynard to the All-Sportsmanship team.

Head coach Bob Snelling. Photo by Jack McLaughlin

Head coach Bob Snelling. Photo by Jack McLaughlin

 

The conferene named the  men’s basketball team’s  starting five players to the All-WIAC team, while head coach Bob Semling was named Co-Coach of the Year. It is the third straight year Semling has won the award and his fifth in ten seasons at UWSP. Semling is now one of three coaches in WIAC history to have won the award five times.

 

All-WIAC first team honors were awarded to seniors Alex Richard, Joe Ritchay and Austin Ryf.  Richard led UWSP in scoring averaging 12.5 points per game and has not been named All-WIAC before. He also leads the conference in field-goal percentage at .601. Ritchay and Ryf previously received honors, but this is their first on the All-WIAC first team. Senior Jordan Lutz and junior Stephen Pelkofer received honorable mentions. Pelkofer previously received this honor.

Photo by Jack McLaughlin

Photo by Jack McLaughlin

 

The UWSP women’s basketball team had two athletes named to the All-WIAC first team. Sophomore Lauren Anklam and senior Kaitlyn Jacobs received the honors for the first time. Anklam led UWSP in scoring averaging with 10 points per game, finishing in the top 15 for scoring, assists and steals per game. Jacobs was UWSP’s second leading scorer with 9.4 points per game, second in the WIAC in rebounding. She averaged 7.7 points per game and was second for double-doubles with six.

 

Marty Kauffman

Sports Editor

mkauf036@uwsp.edu

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