The Department of Athletics and Recreation celebrated the outstanding achievements of the 2019-20 Waterloo Warriors season virtually on Friday night.
"It is unfortunate we could not all be together in the same room to celebrate all of our individual and collective accomplishments of the past year but I am glad we still had the opportunity to recognize all of our award nominees and winners over our social media platforms," said director of athletics and recreation,
Roly Webster.
"It was an honour to watch all of our exceptional student-athletes perform this year and I am very pleased we were able to still celebrate them. We are no doubt in unprecedented times right now but it is incredibly uplifting to see the spirits of our student-athletes, staff and coaches who will once again galvanize our community when they are permitted to return to competition"
"I would also personally like to thank all of our graduating student-athletes for their commitment and efforts over their career as Warriors, and would encourage them to stay conected with our university, their team, and the Warrior family."
The top awards of the 2019-20 season went to
Taytum Clairmont (Waterloo/) of women's hockey and
Tyler Ternowski (Hamilton/) of football.
Clairmont was named the 2020
Marsden Trophy winner as the Female Athlete of the Year. The fifth year Masters of Business Technology student put together the best statistical season in the history of the women's hockey program. She led the OUA in points (28) and assists (17) and was named the OUA Player of the Year, Forward of the Year and a First-Team All-Star. Clairmont is the first player in Warriors history to lead the league in scoring. She also collected a U SPORTS Second-Team All-Canadian recognition and was named the U SPORTS Athlete of the Month in November.
Ternowski put together another incredible season in his fourth year with the football program. It is the second straight year a member of football has won the
Totzke Trophy as Male Athlete of the Year. The fourth year Economics student was named a U SPORTS First-Team All-Canadian and First-Team OUA All-Star. He was again the number one target for
Tre Ford (Niagara Falls/), finishing with 47 catches (4th most in U SPORTS) and 695 receiving yards (8th best in U SPORTS). His five receiving touchdowns were fourth most in the country and he was ninth with his 86.9 yards per game.
The
WUSA Rookies of the Year Awards went to
Janelle Clarke (Brampton/) of track and field and
Pavle Milic (Toronto/) of men's tennis.
Clarke had an incredible rookie campaign with the track team, winning the gold medal in long jump at the OUA Championship with a very impressive leap of 5.79m, her personal best and second-best jump in UW history. She was also named a OUA First-Team All-Star. In her other event, the 60m hurdles, Clarke finished sixth overall at the OUA Championship. In her national championship debut, Clarke wound up in 10th place in the long jump. She also won silver medals in the 60m race at the Don Wright Challenge and 60m hurdles at the Ravens Last Chance Meet.
Milic was unstoppable in just his first year with the men's tennis team, playing as the No. 1 seeded player in both singles and doubles. After leading his team to the OUA Bronze Medal winning both his singles and doubles matches, Milic was named both the OUA Rookie of the Year and All-Star. He will certainly be a key player for the program for years to come.
The
Team of the Year Award went to Women's Golf after a stellar season from start to finish. The Warriors won five team golds (led by five individual gold medal performances) and one silver in OUA tournaments leading up to the championship event where they took home the team silver. Individually,
Olivia Richards (Kitchener) won the OUA silver medal while three members of the squad collected OUA All-Star nods. Women's Golf also finished fourth at the University/College Championship while individually,
Elanna Lachaine-DeMarchi (Cambridge/) came in fourth spot.
The
Imprint Coach of the Year was collected by
Maria Leahy (Waterloo) after leading the field hockey team back to the podium for the first time since 2015 with an OUA Bronze. Leahy was named the OUA Coach of the Year and saw her players earn two OUA Major Awards (Goalie of the Year, Gail Wilson Award) as well as one U SPORTS Major Award (Gail Wilson).
The
Shield of Excellence Award, given to graduating student-athletes' who have have achieved an elite level of distinction throughout their university career with their respective teams, was collected by
Tyler Ternowski (Hamilton/),
Josh Lorentz (Peterborough) and
Larissa McLeod (Cambridge/).
In his career, Ternowski finished with three OUA First-Team All-Star nods, two U SPORTS First-Team All-Canadian nods and holds the UW records for most receiving TD's (26) and reception yards (2,949 yards). In the 2018 season, Ternowski broke the OUA single season record for most TD's with 14. He is also just 235 yards shy of the second most receiving yards in U SPORTS history and four TD's away from becoming third all-time in U SPORTS receiving TD's.
Josh Lorentz (Peterborough) was the second recipient of a Shield, following the most decorated career in UW track and field history. He is the UW record holder in six events (300m, 400m, 600m, 200m relay split, 400m relay split, 4x400m). Lorentz has won five OUA medals in his career (1gold, 2 silver, 2 bronze) and 1 U SPORTS bronze this past year in the 4x200m. Overall he has collected 18 medals (6 gold, 5 silver, 7 bronze) and has been named an OUA All-star three times.
The final Shield of Excellence was given to an incredibly dedicated and talented member of the field hockey program,
Larissa McLeod (Cambridge/). McLeod was the recipient of the 2019 U SPORTS Gail Wilson Award and was also a U SPORTS All-Canadian. She has been an OUA All-Star twice and team captain of the Warriors the past two seasons while leading the Warriors to an OUA Bronze Medal this past season. McLeod was also the recipient of a brand new award this season, the
Warriors Community Service Award for all of her outstanding work in our community and within Athletics.
The male recipient of the
Warrior Community Service Award was
Mackenzie Strong (Mississauga/) of baseball, who was the recipient of the Fairfax Financial Award this year as the top academic student-athlete while performing exceptionally well on the diamond for the baseball team, earning an OUA All-Star nod and finishing as the runner up for the MVP award.
Other Awards presented on Friday were the
Directors and J.O. Hemphill Awards presented annually to a male and female who has made a significant administrative contribution to the department.
Ashley Blayney-Hoffer (Guelph/) of track and
Jorden Carthy (Kitchener/) of baseball were named the winners of the administrative awards.
The
Warrior Campus Service Award was presented to Maureen Jones who is the Director of Student Awards and Financial Aid an always and incredibly reliable and supportive resource to our varsity programs.
The
Brian Farrance Award was given to Emma Hatcher (Men's Volleyball) and Jacqueline Gu (Women's Hockey) who both showed amazing maturity and professionalism as Student Therapists on their respective teams. Emma is very coachable and passionate and always open to learning new techniques and has been a valuable member of the therapy team while Jacqueline is incredibly reliable and confident and will no doubt be a valuable part of future teams as she embarks on the next chapter of her life.
Congratulations to all nominees and winners of the 2019-20 Athletics Awards Winners.
Major Award Nominees
Male Athlete of the Year Nominees
Tyler Ternowski (Hamilton/)
Josh Lorentz (Peterborough)
Lukas Wormald
Dion Pellerin (Abbotsford/)
Female Athlete of the Year Nominees
Taytum Clairmont (Waterloo/)
Larissa McLeod (Cambridge/)
Sarah Glynn
Hannah Blair (Waterloo/)
Male Rookie of the Year Nominees
Pavle Milic (Toronto/)
Issac Nesbitt
Chris Iltshishin (Kitchener/)
Trevon Halstead (Brampton/)
Female Rookie of the Year Nominees
Janelle Clarke (Brampton/)
Sherry Wu
Taylor Goodhue (St. Thomas/)
Mikayla Schnarr (Waterloo/)
Team of the Year
Women's Golf
Track & Field
Field Hockey
Swimming
Squash
Football
Coach of the Year
Maria Leahy (Waterloo)
Kate Bickle-Ferth
Carla Munch
Marisa Seth
J.O. Hemphill Award
Jorden Carthy (Kitchener/)
Michael Ingstrup
Matt Sinclair
Directors Award
Ashley Blayney-Hoffer (Guelph/)
Larissa McLeod (Cambridge/)
Ciara Dunne
List of 2019-20 OUA All-Stars/Coaches of the Year & U SPORTS All-Canadians
List of 2019-20 Team Awards (MVP's, Rookies, Most Improved, Community Service Award)
