By Joe Arruda
@joearruda9
It was a mad rush to the polls for this week’s Springfield Student Athlete of the Week honor, and senior Kaleigh Dale came out on top – barely – for the second time this year. The active Springfield College women’s soccer legend beat out Olympian Mikaili Charlemagne by the narrowest of margins – 38.6 percent to 38.2 percent.
Dale continued to pile on the accolades when she recorded the sixth hat-trick of her career in the team’s 4-4 tie to Wheaton on Wednesday. Recording her 100th career point, Dale became just the second student-athlete in program history to do so.
Sitting at 101 career points as of Wednesday, Dale is second all-time behind Angel Schofield who recorded 127 in her career from 1989-92. Dale eclipsed the milestone in just her 58th game played after missing the entirety of her junior season due to the pandemic. The star senior is just nine goals away from Schofield’s career goals record and just eight away from the assists record.
Charlemagne, who competed for her native country of Saint Lucia in the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, created a buzz on Twitter but came up just short in the poll that received almost 500 votes.
In the last week, Charlemagne competed in the women’s swim team’s first meet of the year. She was part of the 200 medley relay group that finished in 1:53.20 on Saturday. Charlemagne also took third in the 50 free (25.20) and fifth in the 100 free at 55.66.
Charlemagne, the only current Springfield College student-athlete to have her own Wikipedia page, finished in the top 50 amongst the world’s top 50 meter freestyle competitors and second in her heat.
Field hockey’s Emma Robinson gathered 19.8 percent of the vote, enough for third place in the poll. The sophomore scored her third goal of the season and recorded an assist in two losses in the week.
Rounding out the nominees on the women’s side was perennial nominee, Camryn Bancroft. The women’s volleyball graduate student had yet another impressive week as she tallied 39 kills, nine block assists and two solo blocks in three matches.
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In a very different result from the women’s poll, quarterback David Wells ran away with the votes this week. He did so with the football as well during the team’s 46-17 win over NEWMAC-foe WPI on Saturday.
Wells ran for a game-high 192 yards, shattering his previous career-high of 62. The senior also found the endzone twice for the Pride on the ground – his third time doing so this season. Wells also passed for 44 yards in the win.
Springfield football improved to 3-0 in conference play and will host NEWMAC-leading 4-0 Merchant Marine on Saturday at Stagg Field.
James Chan, a star on the men’s swim team, finished second in the polls after an impressive performance in the team’s first competition of the year.
The junior standout from Hong Kong finished first in the 100 freestyle (48.28) and second in the 1000 free (9:52.23) and the 500 free (4:46.47). Chan was also part of the 400 free relay team that came in first place with a time of 3:14.33.
Men’s golf standout Nicholas DeMaio piled up the accolades, including All-New England honors after he tied for fifth place in the NEIGA Championship last weekend. DeMaio led the Pride to their best finish at the two-day event in program history as the team finished third overall.
Back in the pool, junior diving standout Luca Brashear rounded out the men’s nominees. Leading the men’s team to a sweep of the podium on both the one-meter and three-meter boards, Brashear finished first in both events. On one-meter, Brashear posted a 285.83, along with scoring a 273.75 on three-meter.
Be sure to follow The Student on Twitter @TheSpfldStudent so you don’t miss out on next week’s poll!