General | 4/28/2020 11:04:26 AM
Nazareth women’s basketball standout Rachel Benedict and St. John Fisher women’s lacrosse coach Linda Michele were named 2019 Rochester Press-Radio Club award winners. Both women will be honored at the prestigious Press-Radio Club 2020 Day of Champions Dinner, which was originally scheduled for June 3, but is on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Benedict was named the Jerry Flynn College Athlete Award winner, while Michele was the Jean Giambrone Award recipient for her commitment and dedication to women's sports.
Benedict capped off a brilliant collegiate career by being named the 2019-20 Rochester Area NCAA Division II-III Player of the Year by the United States Basketball Writers Association last month. In addition, she was named an honorable mention All-American by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association; garnered All-Empire 8 first team honors for the third straight season and was selected as a second-team East Region all-star by D3hoops.com.
Benedict closed out her college career by averaging a double-double with 18.4 points and an Empire 8-best 11.6 rebounds per game in 2019-20. She also made 50 three-point baskets and led the team in free throw accuracy (95-for-111, .856). Her career stats include 1,624 points (third all-time at Nazareth, fifth in the Empire 8) and 1,026 rebounds (second all-time in program history and second in the Empire 8), making her the only player in Nazareth basketball history to combine 1,600 points with 1,000 rebounds.
Since taking over the reins of the Cardinals' lacrosse program in 2012, Michele has guided Fisher to an unprecedented eight consecutive Empire 8 Championships and eight NCAA Division III Women's Lacrosse Championship appearances. In that time, Michele has amassed 130 wins, including 52 victories against Empire 8 competition and owns a career mark of 153-45 (.773). Under her guidance, the Cardinals have posted 15 wins or more in a season seven times overall, including a program record 19 victories in 2019.
The award is named after long-time journalist and University of Rochester Hall of Famer, Jean Giambrone, who spent 42 years at the
Times-Union, and in 1965, became the first female golf writer to be awarded press credentials at The Masters. Giambrone has been called the woman who opened doors for female athletes and was widely considered Rochester's First Lady of Sports. The award, which was named in her honor in 1982, is given annually to a person who has made an exemplary lifetime commitment to local women's sports.
With Michele on the sidelines, Fisher has been ranked every season in the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Coaches Association poll and finished the abbreviated 2020 campaign ranked 12th. Under her guidance, the Cardinals have gone 16-0 in the Empire 8 Championship and have reached the second round or better in the NCAA Championship five times overall, including a runs to the Sweet 16 in 2016 and 2019.
Over the last eight years, Michele has coached some of the top players to ever don the Cardinal and Gold with 50 student-athletes being named All-Conference by the Empire 8 under her watch. Additionally, Michele has mentored four All-Americans and numerous All-Region selections while at Fisher. Michele's teams have demonstrated their all-around abilities in the classroom as the Cardinals routinely earn academic praise from both the Empire 8 and the Intercollegiate Women's Lacrosse Association.
ABOUT THE EMPIRE 8 CONFERENCE
The members of the Empire 8 Conference are committed first and foremost to the pursuit of academic excellence and the league is regarded as an outstanding NCAA Division III conference. The membership has distinguished itself among its peer group for its quality institutions, spirited and sportsmanlike competition, outstanding services and highly ethical policies and practices. Its commitment to serve the educational needs of its student-athletes is the hallmark of the E8. For more on the Empire 8 visit
www.empire8.com.
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