Runner Laurie, golfer Brown win Laurier’s top awards
WATERLOO — She excelled in cross-country and was every bit as impressive as a middle-distance runner for the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks track team.
Kitchener native Lizzy Laurie is this year’s winner of the President’s Award as the top female athlete of the 2019-20 school year.
The Kitchener-Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School alumnae learned of the recognition Friday afternoon at a virtual athletic banquet.
Golfer Jaron Brown, from Thornhill, captured the President’s Award as the top male athlete.
“I’m extremely honoured and I’m really excited to receive this award, especially to come back from injury that prevented me from running last year,” Laurie said. “I had two great seasons and I left it out there every race.”
Laurie, a fourth-year communications major, started the school year on a high note by finishing ninth at the Ontario University Athletics crosscountry championship. She was named a second-team OUA all-star as a result of that performance, becoming the third Laurier runner to achieve allstar status.
She later became the first Laurier runner to become a U Sports all-Canadian, earning a second-team nod thanks to a 12th-place finish at the national championship.
Laurie’s performance at the U Sports cross-country championship earned her a spot on the Canadian team that was to participate in early March at the FISA championship in Marrakesh, Morocco, but was postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
The winter indoor season was every bit as impressive, with Laurie finishing fourth in the 3,000-metre distance at the OUA championship and second at the U Sports championship. She became Laurier’s first medallist at nationals and she was again honoured as a U Sports second-team all-Canadian.
Laurie was a late addition to the U Sports championship because it was scheduled the same week she was to have competed in Morocco.
“It was disappointing to have (FISU) postponed and it really doesn’t look like it’s going to happen in the future,” said Laurie. “This award definitely helps with missing FISU, but I don’t know if it totally makes up for it.”
Brown was a standout for the men’s golf team at Laurier and capped the fall season by winning the Len Shore Trophy as individual champion at the OUA men’s championship. He took medals in three of four events leading up to the provincial championship and led Laurier to its first OUA team title by a five-stroke margin over the Ottawa Gee-Gees.
Meanwhile, Waterloo native Kate Moran overcame serious knee injuries to become the female winner of the Rich Newbrough Rookie of the Year Award, along with men’s hockey goaltender Matt Williams of Upper Tantallon, N.S.
Moran, the first women’s basketball player to earn the award in11years, started14 of 22 games and averaged 7.3 points, six rebounds and 1.3 assists per contest. In the blocks department, she was tops in Canada with 53 on the season, and an average of 2.4 per outing.
Williams won the starting job early in the season and would go on to start 18 of the team’s 28 games.
He was first in the OUA among rookie netminders for minutes played, save percentage and goals-against average, finishing with an 8-9-2 record for Laurier, a 2.62 goals-against average and a 0.922 save percentage.
The men’s curling team that captured the U Sports national championship in March earned the Glenn Carroll Team of the Year Award.
The team is comprised of Matthew Hall (Kitchener), John Willsey (Orillia), Jordie LyonHatcher (Ottawa), Graham Singer (Etobicoke), alternate Adam Vincent (Seaforth) and coach Matthew Wilkinson.
Kitchener’s Jasmine Raines, from women’s swimming, and men’s hockey player Jeremy Pullara of Vaughan won the Luke Fusco Academic Athletic Achievement Award. The honour goes to the female and male athletes who best combine academic and athletic achievement.
Cheerleader Erin Bailey of Holland Landing, Ont., and baseball player Kai Harris of Toronto won the Fred Nichols Community Service Leadership Award.