ESU Academic Awards History

EAST STROUDSBURG – Senior Katie D'Ambrosia, the PSAC East Women's Tennis Athlete of the Year, and sophomore Rose Mascoli, an All-American in the 5K and 10K at the NCAA Championships, give East Stroudsburg University two student-athletes on the PSAC Spring Top 10 for athletic and academic achievement, the conference announced Friday.

ESU claimed four student-athletes on Top 10 lists for the 2010-11 academic year, tied with Shippensburg for the most in the conference. Shippensburg had seven total selections due to repeat honorees in cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field.

All-America football linebacker Matt Freed and women's soccer standout Lindsay Foder, ESU's Senior Scholar-Athletes of the Year, were the Warriors' two recipients in the fall. Each PSAC institution may nominate a male and female Top 10 recipient for the Pete Nevins Scholar-Athlete of the Year Awards, which will be announced next month and were renamed in 2007 to honor Nevins, ESU's sports information director from 1969-2002.

D'Ambrosia, who graduated with a 3.90 grade-point average, and Mascoli, who has a perfect 4.0 GPA through her first four semesters, are both Exercise Science majors and were named to Capital One Academic All-District teams earlier this spring. D'Ambrosia was named to the women's at-large second team and Mascoli was on the women's track and field/cross country first team, which puts her on the ballot for Academic All-America honors which will be announced next week.

D'Ambrosia (Broomall/Marple Newtown) went 9-3 in singles and 9-7 in doubles as a senior, earning her fourth straight All-PSAC East selection in doubles and third career mention in singles. She was 7-1 at No. 2 singles and 5-0 against conference competition, and 6-5 at No. 1 doubles and 4-2 in conference play while leading the Warriors to their second PSAC Tournament appearance in three seasons.

The PSAC East Freshman of the Year in 2007-08, D'Ambrosia is the first ESU women's tennis player to be named the PSAC East Athlete of the Year and Academic All-District. She had 108 combined career victories, going 59-30 in doubles and 49-28 in singles, and was 20-6 in doubles and 17-6 in singles in 2009-10 when ESU made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance.

Mascoli (Lebanon/Lebanon Catholic) placed third in the 10K and fifth in the 5K at the NCAA Division II Outdoor Track & Field Championships, capping a record-setting sophomore season that also included All-America honors in cross country in the fall. She became the first ESU athlete to earn multiple All-America honors at the same NCAA track and field championship by running times of 33:54.74 in the 10K on May 26 and 16:38.24 in the 5K on May 28.

She set three school records within 26 days during the outdoor season, running 9:54.65 in the 3K at Lafayette on April 2, 16:36.98 in the 5K at Bucknell on April 9 and 34:39.13 in the 10K as the runner-up at the Penn Relays on April 28. All three records had stood for at least 25 years, and she dropped the 10K record by 1:59 after shattering the record for a second time at the NCAA Championships.

Mascoli scored 18 points for the Warriors at the PSAC Outdoor Championships, placing second in the 3K, third in the 5K and fifth in the 1500. She was a member of the ESU swimming program during the indoor season. During the fall cross country season, she placed in the top 5 at all five meets in the regular season, won two titles, set two ESU course records, placed fourth in the region and was 24th at the NCAA Championships.

The remainder of the women's recipients are Gannon lacrosse All-American Mary Eshenour, Shippensburg NCAA 5K champion and PSAC Women's Track Athlete of the Year Neely Spence and Bloomsburg tennis player Laura Sullivan. The men's honorees are Shippensburg distance standouts Bryan Beegle and Stephen Schelander, Gannon first baseman Kolten Hoffman, Millersville tennis player Drew Slocum and Slippery Rock thrower Chris Warning, the PSAC Men's Field Athlete of the Year.

ESU has had nine student-athletes combine for a total of 13 Top 10 honors in the last three years, the second-most in the conference behind Shippensburg's 15. The Warriors have had 26 student-athletes earn a total of 37 honors, tied for fourth-most in the 16-school conference, since the PSAC's sports information directors began selecting the lists in 1997-98.


2011 PSAC Spring Top 10 List

Men
Bryan Beegle, Shippensburg, track & field
Kolten Hoffman, Gannon, baseball
Stephen Schelander, Shippensburg, track & field
Drew Slocum, Millersville, tennis
Chris Warning, Slippery Rock, track & field

Women
Katie D'Ambrosia, ESU, tennis
Mary Eshenour, Gannon, lacrosse
Rose Mascoli, ESU, track & field
Neely Spence, Shippensburg, track & field
Laura Sullivan, Bloomsburg, tennis