RIVERDALE, N.Y. – As Gojaspers.com continues to look back at the last 100 years, it is now time to highlight the individual achievements of the Jasper athletes who have been an integral part of their team's successes over the years.
Success for Jasper student-athletes has been a constant in the 100-plus year history of athletics at Manhattan. The Jaspers have earned all-conference, all-region, and all-american honors in multiple different sports and have collected their share of coach of the year honors at the league, regional and national levels.
The Jaspers are a founding member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC), which was founded in 1980. The other founding members of the conference were Army, Fairfield, Fordham, Saint Peter's, and Iona. The first MAAC Player of the Year award winner for the Jaspers went to women's basketball program legend, Sheila Tighe. Tighe took home the award in back-to-back years (1982-1983 & 1983-1984) and currently is the only women's basketball player to have her name and jersey up in the rafters of Draddy.
The next player to earn player of the year honors was Keith Bullock of the men's basketball team in the 1992-93 season. A couple of years later, Gina Somma of the women's basketball team got the nod from the conference for her performance during the 1995-96 season. Somma is also the last women's player to record a triple-double in a game, doing so on Feb. 16, 1994, with a 20-point, 10-board, 12-steal performance.
In the 1996-1997 season, Pat Callahan earned Player of the Year for the South Division, which was baseball's first time winning the award. Women's lacrosse earned its first POY honor in 2000, with Lori Graham earning the recognition and spearheading the team to its first MAAC title in program history.
Luis Flores is the only Jasper to earn back-to-back MAAC Player of the Year honors. The all-time leading scorer in men's basketball history won for his performances during the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons. In both seasons, the Green and White won both the regular season and conference titles and earned births to the Big Dance.
Baseball found itself with another major award, with current Manhattan Hall of Fame member Matt Rizzotti earning the honor in 2005. The last Player of the Year honor to be earned also goes to baseball, with Christian Santisteban earning in 2016
Men's soccer earned its first major award this year since 2017, with freshman defender Nassim Akki bringing the defensive player of the year award back to Riverdale. The last major award for the program belongs to Marcellin Gohier, who was the goalkeeper of the year in 2017.
As the only program with a team a national championship, the track and field program also has some individual national champions. The first one came in 1934 when Frank Crowley raised the trophy in the 2-mile run, finishing in 9:22.4. In 1955, Charlie Pratt took home the national title in the 220-yard hurdles in 23.1 seconds. The following year, Ken Bantum won the shot put, with a top mark of 60'1". Bob Meade won the weight throw national title, chucking the weight 59'5". The distance medley relay team of John Lovett, Mike Kenny, Al Novell, and Tom Donahue took home the title in 9:49.2.
As for the national title team, Lovett once again took home the distance medley relay title, this time with Ray Johnson, Jon Savage, and Tony Colon, finishing in 9:43.8, which was the world record for the time. Mike Keogh was the other individual champion at the event, winning the 2-mile run in 8:39.7. Colon was also a two-time All-American miler.
There was some time before a Jasper once again raised the NCAA hardware. In 1988, Gary Halpin won the weight throw with a top distance of 68'3. In 1995, Michael Williams won the 800-meter dash in 1:48.12.
In the 2000s, the Jaspers earned three more national titles. Aliann Pompey brought home the 400-meter title in 52.27. Jake Freeman is the program's only athlete to win two individual titles. In 2003, he won the weight throw, launching a final distance of 71'2". The following year, in the hammer throw, he won with a monster throw of 232'2.
The Jaspers' track and field program has collected numerous MAAC Most Outstanding Performer honors in cross country and track and field. Since 1997 at the MAAC Indoor Championships, the Jaspers have won at least one most outstanding performer honor in every year but four. Outdoors, Manhattan has been nearly as proficient and has collected a handful of honors in cross country.
A player's on-field achievements could not be possible without guidance from their coaches, and Jasper coaches earned MAAC Coach of the Year honors across multiple teams and sports. Most recently, Drew Kelleher of the men's lacrosse team earned the award after the 2020 season. Current men's soccer coach, Jorden Scott, earned the honor in 2013. Kevin Leighton, former baseball coach, earned the nod twice in three years, in 2009 and 2011. Another coach to win it multiple times was former basketball coach Bobby Gonzalez, earning the hardware in the 2002-2003 and 2005-2006 seasons. Tim McLntee earned the honor in 2002 and 2000. In 2002, he led the team to its first-ever NCAA Tournament bid. The first two-timer goes to former baseball coach Gary Puccio, who earned it in 1996 and 1998. Dan Mecca, who coached the Jaspers track and field program for 36 years and was inducted into the Manhattan Hall of Fame this year, won MAAC Coach of the Year 33 times during his tenure.
You only get one first impression, and the best way to measure that impression is MAAC Rookie of the Year. Bullock, who went on to win Player of the Year, was Rookie of the Year in the 1989-1990 season. Rizzati also earned the honor during his freshman year, which was the 2005 spring season. One active Jasper owns the award. Women's basketball guard Emily LaPointe earned the recognition after exploding onto the scene in the 2019-2020 season.
While offensive production is typically seen as the more glamorous option, the old saying goes, defense wins' championships. Rhamel Brown of the men's basketball team won it three straight years, 2011-2012, 2012-2013, and 2013-2014. Women's basketball program legend Courtney Warley earned the award after the 2018-2019 season. Men's lacrosse goalie Brendan Krebs was co-Defensive Player of the Year honors in the 2020 season.
Other notable awards amongst a vast list of honors that have been bestowed upon the talented Jasper athletes over the years include current Hall of Famer Chris Cody being tabbed MAAC Pitcher of the Year in 2006 and starting three years of the award being housed in Riverdale, the same year he took the mound against Nebraska. He threw a gem to lead the Green and White to the upset victory and put the Jaspers on the path to a run to the regional final that season. The following year after Cody went to the big leagues, Jesse Darcy was Co-Pitcher of the Year. The run ended with Mike Gazzola winning it in 2009. The Jaspers took one year off from the award in 2010 before earning it again in 2011, with John Soldinger taking home the award.
Sean McMahon of the Jaspers men's lacrosse program earned Midfielder of the Year for his 2014 performance. Two Jaspers earned Sixth Player of the Year honors, with David Holmes being Sixth Man of the Year honors in 2002-2003, while Gabby Cajou of women's basketball won the award in the 2017-2018 campaign.
Before the establishment of the MAAC, Manhattan student-athletes still excelled on the field of competition, just under different banners. In 1968, Jasper athlete Del Benajmin won three IC4A Championships in the long jump (outdoors in 1967 and 1968; indoor in 1968). He then went to the prestigious Penn Relays in 1968 and won Long Jump Championship by leaping a school-record 25'7".
Tom Delaney was a standout performer for the men's rowing team before serving as a coach for over 20 years. The Hall of Famer competed in the United States Nationals and was a consistent finalist for the New York Athletic Club. Delaney led Manhattan to its first Metropolitan Intercollegiate Rowing Association team championship and later became president of the organization.
Mike Keogh was one of the top performers in the long, proud history of the track & field program, earning All-American honors four times while helping lead the Jaspers to the 1973 NCAA Indoor Championship. Fueling Manhattan's historic team performance was his title in the two-mile (8:39.7).
Current track and field assistant coach John Lovett was a five-time NCAA Track & Field All-American, five-time IC4A Champion, twice in the 880-yard run, twice in the indoor 1,000-yard run, and once as a member of the two-mile relay. Lovett was a member of the Jaspers' winning distance medley relay team that set a then-world record (9:43.8) and clinched the 1973 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Title.
The list of accomplishments includes multiple All-Americans in baseball, football, track and field, and former Jaspers who competed in the NCAA Tournament in multiple sports during their time in the Green and White.
