Team/individual accomplishments, spring 2020
Men’s basketball trio earns conference honors
Three Binghamton men’s basketball players earned postseason recognition from the America East, the conference announced. Sophomore guard Sam Sessoms was selected to the all-conference second team, freshman forward George Tinsley was named Rookie of the Year and both Tinsley and freshman guard Brenton Mills made the All-Rookie Team.
Tinsley’s Rookie of the Year honor gives Binghamton a major award in back-to-back seasons. In the 40 years of the award, a team has won it twice in a row only six times, the last being Vermont eight years ago. With the pair of All-Rookie selections, Binghamton now has seven recipients in the last eight years, tied with Vermont for the most of any team in the conference.
DePrez captures conference wrestling title
Redshirt sophomore No. 4 Lou DePrez highlighted the Binghamton University wrestling team’s day two at EIWA Championships with the 184-pound title. DePrez became the second Bearcat to earn the first-place trophy, joining heavyweight Tyler Deuel (2015) as the only Binghamton wrestlers to do so.
As a team, Binghamton finished the tournament in sixth place out of 17 teams, which ties the program record mark set a season ago. In total, four Bearcats made it to the podium, including a third place finish by Zack Trampe, and sixth place finishes by Anthony Sparacio and Joe Doyle.
Moon named America East Women’s Basketball Player of the Year
Senior guard Kai Moon has been named the America East Women’s Basketball Player of the Year. The announcement was made by the conference office as it unveiled its 2019-20 all-star teams. Moon was also named to the America East All-Defensive Team while junior forward Olivia Ramil was selected to the conference’s All-Academic Team.
Moon is the third player in Binghamton program history—and second in the last three years—to earn the America East Conference’s highest annual honor. She joins Sarah Cartmill (2002) and Imani Watkins (2018), both of whom were also chosen during their senior seasons.
Track & field shines at America East Indoor Championship
Juniors Dan Schaffer and Brittany Korsah as well as senior Troy Zanger all won individual events, highlighting Binghamton’s performance at the final day of the America East Indoor Track & Field Championships at the Boston University Track & Tennis Complex. The Bearcat men were fifth out of nine teams in the final standings while the women were seventh.
Schaffer captured the men’s mile with a time of 4:07.22. It marks his second career America East title, having also won the 1.500 at the 2019 outdoor meet.
Korsah took top honors in the women’s triple jump with a distance of 40-6. She was also fourth in the 400 (55.10). Korsah now has three career conference crowns, having won the 400 at the 2018 indoor meet and 2019 outdoor championships.
Zanger, meanwhile, was victorious in the men’s heptathlon with 5,141 points. He now has two career America East titles, with the first one coming in the decathlon of the 2018 outdoor championships.
Schaffer runs 4-minute mile
Redshirt junior Dan Schaffer is officially a four-minute miler after clocking a time of 4:00.38 at the Boston/Last Chance Meet. There was no team scoring at the meet.
The Boston/Last Chance Meet is open to both collegiate and professional runners looking to improve their top times. The mile had 10 heats and 115 total finishers. Schaffer posted the 10th-best overall time of the day as well as the fifth-best collegiate time.
Running in the fastest heat of the mile, Schaffer was seventh overall. The winner of both his heat and the overall event was Charlie Hunter of Oregon (3:55.41).
Men’s swimming claims America East runner-up honors
Sophomore Chris Egan was named the men’s Most Outstanding Diver and fellow sophomore Ryan Board won his second event in as many nights, highlighting Binghamton’s performance in the final day of the America East Swimming & Diving Championships, which were hosted by WPI.
The Bearcat men were the runner up for the third year in a row while the women were a close fourth. There were four men’s teams and seven women’s squads competing at the meet.
Baseball picked to win America East
Binghamton baseball was picked to win the America East this spring, according to the league’s seven coaches. The Bearcats were voted first for the third time in the last four years in the Preseason Coaches’ Poll.
Binghamton garnered four first place votes and 33 points, ahead of defending champion Stony Brook, who received two first-place votes and 31 points. Hartford grabbed the other first-place vote and was third with 25 points. Albany (22 pts.), UMass Lowell (18), Maine (13) and UMBC (6) rounded out the poll.