Scholastic Roundup: A medal for the Sharks

August 9, 2024 Andy Furman

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LIU features alumni who have won Olympic medals, most notably Brendon Rodney, who took home a bronze medal in 2016, and a silver medal in 2020. Rodnmey had already completed his time at LIU as he turned pro in 2016. He is also competing in this year’s Olympics in Paris.

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Mikayla Lantto, an alum who was a member of LIU’s women’s ice hockey team, has signed with Skelleftea AIK of the Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL) in Sweden. Lantto spent two seasons with the Sharks which included a NEWHA title in 2022-23 and an NCAA Tournament appearance. That season she earned NEWHA All-Tournament and All-Academic Team honors and scored her first LIU goal against perennial powerhouse Northeastern. She continued her LIU career in 2023-24 where she was named Second-Team All-NEWHA after scoring a league-high-tying 20 goals and tallying 11 assists. Skelleftea AIK begins their season September 12 as part of the growing SDFHL, which is comprised of three leagues which allows for team promotions and relegations.

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Soccer tryouts are set for Saturday, August 24th for Bishop Loughlin High School. Prior to trying out, one must have an up-to-date physical, according to Lions’ Athletic Directors, Ms. Angela Price, and Mr. Edwin Gonzalez.

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Medgar-Evers College’s men’s and women’s cross-country teams will compete in eight regular season meets, the CUNYAC championship, and potentially, three postseason meets.
Second-year head coach Hugh Reid and the Cougars open the season at the Vassar Season Opener, Friday, August 30th. Ther following Friday (September 6th), Medgar Evers will run at the New Paltz Invitational at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome (Milton, New York).

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The Skyline Conference announced the 2023-24 Winter/Spring Academic Honor Roll, featuring 38 student-athletes from St. Joseph’s University (Brooklyn). These athletes represent men’s and women’s basketball, men’s volleyball, baseball, and softball.
The Academic Honor Roll comprises 805 student-athletes from the league’s core-member institutions and men’s volleyball affiliates. Of the 38 St. Joseph’s (Brooklyn) representatives, 25 student-athletes were recently named to the Bears Scholar-Athlete Team and all seven College Sports Communicators Academic All-District Team honorees were recognized by the Skyline.

A total of five local athletes made the list for St. Joseph’s University (Brooklyn). They are:

Joshua Gordon, Sr., Basketball, Bishop Loughlin High School
Arianna Heinsch, Sr., Softball. Fontbonne Hall Academy
Matt Arcati, So., Baseball, St. Edmund Prep
Vincent Camerada, So., Baseball, New Dorp
Miguel Toribio, So., Baseball, Williamsburg Prep

In addition, Payton Walker was named the league’s Rookie of the Year in softball; and Nick Tapio, baseball, Heinsch and Brianna Kilimet, softball, graduated as four-time Academic Honor Roll recipients.

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Brooklyn College’s men’s soccer team will open the 2024 season on the road in a non-conference match against St. Joseph’s (Brooklyn) at Aviator Field Complex, August 30th, 7 pm. The 2023 Bulldogs, under coach Luis Flores, made a magical run through the CUNYAC championship tournament as the No. 5 seed, knocking off John Jay and No. 1 Lehman to advance to the final against Baruch. Brooklyn will host their home opener at Brooklyn College Field, Tuesday, September 3rd against Sarah Lawrence College with a 6 pm kickoff. Brooklyn opens CUNYAC play on the road against borough rival, Medgar Evers, October 2nd.

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The Brooklyn College women open their soccer season in non-conference play at SUNY Maritime, Friday, August 30th at 4 pm. The Bulldogs host their home opener at Brooklyn College Field, Wednesday, September 11th against Keystone College with a 4 pm kickoff. Brooklyn opens CUNYAC play at Lehman College, October 12th.
Head coach Agath Tsantsaridis enters season No. 3 – the Bulldogs won two of their last three matches of the 2023 regular season to qualify for the CUNY Championship Tournament where they eventually fell to champ CCNY in the semifinals.

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In their second season competing as full NCAA Division III members, Pratt Institute continued to perform well in the classroom maintaining a 3.504 grade-point-average for the 2023-24 academic year.
Every Cannoneer team assembled no lower than a 3.25 grade-point-average for the year with men’s tennis leading all teams with a 3.708 average followed by women’s volleyball (3.698) and women’s track and field (3.676), according to a school release.
Individually, 91 student-athletes across 13 sports competing in the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference received All-Academic distinction for maintaining a yearlong GPA of 3.2 or-better. With 71.7 percent of its eligible athletes receiving the honor, Pratt maintained the second-best percentage in the C2C Conference.

In the United East Conference, where Pratt is an associate member in men’s volleyball, the Cannoneers’ 3.365 GPA led all men’s volleyball teams for the third-straight season to earn the Team Academic Award. Pratt also received the Team Academic Award from the Atlantic East Conference for maintaining a 3.249 GPA in the spring semester.

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Seems Howard Kellman has a rebuttal. The Sheepshead Bay High grad who has called play-by-play for the Indianapolis Indians for 48 seasons — over 6,850 ballgames – challenges Chris Welch.
Last month, Kellman – the kid who attended P.S. 206 and lived at East 23rd Street and Avenue V – was honored by the Indians in a game with the Louisville Bats. The ballclub named the broadcast booths at their home ballpark, Victory Field, as “The Howard Kellman Broadcast Booths.”

And Chris Welch, the former lefthanded pitcher who now calls games on Cincinnati’s 700-AM Radio for the Cincinnati Reds, had a comment for Kellman on X, formerly Twitter.

“How ‘bout this guy,” wrote Welch. “He was the voice of the Indianapolis Indians when I played for the team in 1984.
“Under Buck Rodgers and alongside guys like Razor Shines, we won the American Association title. During our raucous celebration, I pulled off his toupee and doused him,” Welch wrote.

Not so – according to Kellman. “Chris never pulled off my hair piece. Nobody ever did. And that was the first year I wore it – 1984 – and wore it for 24 years,” Kellman said.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle. He may be reached at: [email protected] ; Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR