Sophomore Johann Schmidt
Men's Swimming and Diving
Schmidt earned the award for his performance in this past weekend's NESCAC Championships at Williams College. Schmidt won both the one− and three−meter dives — earning scores of 496.10 and 536.25, respectively — and remains undefeated in his two years at the conference meet. Both scores were the highest ever achieved at Williams' Samuelson−Muir pool and were also enough to qualify him for the NCAA Championships on March 21st in Indianapolis.
"I wanted to do really well for me and have a personal best, and I really wanted to win, of course," Schmidt said. "I wanted to defend my first place last year on both boards and do the same thing this year."
Schmidt has been dominant in his meets all season, finishing first in all but two diving events. He will now continue to train to represent the Jumbos at the national meet, where he earned a pair of All−American honors last year by finishing 12th in the one−meter and sixth in the three−meter dive.
"I'm hoping to get top eight [at nationals]," Schmidt said. "Everyone is really good at nationals, so basically it's [about] who is going to mess up. I need to practice hard this week."
Junior Liz Moynihan
Women's Basketball
A couple of weeks into the season, Moynihan easily could have thrown in the towel.
After breaking into the starting lineup as a freshman, she managed just 5.5 points per game over her first four starts this season and was relegated to the bench the rest of the way.
But Moynihan continued to work on her game and contribute off the bench, making major contributions for the team down the stretch on both the offensive and the defensive ends.
While her performance for much of the second half of the season has been deserving of praise, it was the way she played in one of the biggest games of the Jumbos' season on Saturday that earned her this award.
Looking to return to the NESCAC Championship game for the first time since the 2007-2008 season, Tufts faced off with a Bowdoin squad that had already beaten them once this year. But led by Moynihan's 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting and five rebounds in just 25 minutes, the Jumbos jumped all over the Polar Bears in the second half, earning a definitive 55-40 victory.
Tufts opens NCAA play Friday against Misericordia, and there is little doubt that Moynihan will play a crucial role.
