Four Wesleyan scholar-athletes received the 2009-10 Roger Maynard ’37 Memorial Award on Friday: Keisuke Yamashita ’10 (men’s soccer), Jory Kahan ’10 (men’s soccer), Clare Smith ’10 (women’s lacrosse), and Beth Kenworthy ’10 (women’s soccer and track and field). All four scholar-athletes also received NESCAC All-Academic honors each season they were eligible during their careers. The Maynard Award is given annually to outstanding male and female scholar-athletes in their last year of eligibility. The winners were honored at a luncheon Friday in support of National Student-Athlete Day.
Yamashita and Kahan were starters on the 2009 men’s soccer team, which posted the first undefeated regular season since 1940 (10-0-4) and advancing to the NESCAC semifinals before falling to Middlebury. The team received an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament, its third appearance in the tournament in the last five years, and advanced past St. Joseph’s College of Maine and Western New England College before falling to the University of Rochester in double overtime in the round of 16. Kahan, a 2009 tri-captain, was a three-year starter in the backfield, while Yamashita started at forward for three years; both were members of the team for four years. Yamashita led the team in scoring in 2009 with 15 points (five goals, five assists); he racked up 31 points in his career (13 goals, five assists) and led the team in scoring in 2007 as well.
Yamashita posted the fourth-fastest hat trick in Division III history, netting three goals in a span of 3:30 in a 3-1 victory at Springfield College in 2008. He was named a second-team District I CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine Academic All-American in 2009. Kahan, a first-team District I Academic All-American, started 44 of a possible 49 games from 2007 to 2009 and was a key component of a Wesleyan defense that led the NESCAC with a goals-against average of 0.49. Kahan also tallied a goal and an assist this season, giving him three goals and two assists in his career.
He also provided the play-by-play for broadcasts of basketball and ice hockey games during the winter. Yamashita is a math-econ major with a cumulative GPA of 3.84, and Kahan, a neuroscience and behavior major, holds a 3.82 mark.
Smith came to Wesleyan as a junior transfer from Columbia University, where she played lacrosse for two years, and became an immediate starter on defense in Middletown; she has started each game over the last two years. Smith, a fixture on defense, also netted seven goals in 2009 and has tallied two goals and an assist through 11 games so far in 2010. Smith, a Science in Society major, maintains a 3.93 cumulative GPA.
Kenworthy started every women’s soccer game for the Cardinals over her four-year career. She spent a majority of her time on the pitch in the backfield but also collected two goals and seven assists in her career, including a goal and a team-leading four assists in 2009. She helped the team post back-to-back winning campaigns for the first time since 1995 as the team amassed an 8-6-1 mark last season after a 7-6-1 showing in 2008. Kenworthy also joined the indoor track team as a sprinter in 2009-10 and was part of the Cardinals’ 4x400m relay squad, which received all-New England Division III laurels. Like Kahan, Kenworthy is a Neuroscience and Behavior major with a 3.82 cumulative GPA.
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