The Athlete of the Week this week is sophomore basketball player Nate Howard. As the second runner-up last week, Howard has been consistently productive all season—but it was his effort in the Owls first win of the year that earned him Athlete of the Week honors. In a 79-73 win over Colby Sawyer, the 7-footer recorded an unheard of “20-20” game. Howard made eight of his 15 shots for 20 points while pulling in 23 rebounds and blocking four shots. Howard put the team on his back while playing nearly the entire game, recording a quarter of KSC’s points, nearly half of the team’s rebounds and most of their blocks. Howard followed that game up with a six-rebound, five-block performance at U-Mass Boston two days later in the Owls second win of the year.
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The runner-up this week is junior swim standout, Caitlyn Shea. Shea was a big part of the women’s swimming and diving team winning their eighth consecutive Little Eastern Conference championship meet on Saturday, Dec. 7. Shea broke two KSC records at the meet: the 200 meter freestyle and the 500 meter freestyle. Both records were held by KSC alumn Jackie Foster. As if that wasn’t enough, Shea also finished first in the 200 meter butterfly, one of the 11 races the Lady Owls won that day.
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The second runner-up this week is senior swimmer Jared Hyde. Hyde had a productive meet at the MIT Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 9. The Tolland, CT-native set a KSC record in the 200 meter individual medley with a time of 1:51.57. The time also qualified him for the NCAA championships last in the year. Do I even need to mention he finished first in the race? Hyde also competed in the 200 meter breast stroke and finished third.
Zach Winn can be contacted at zwinn@keene-equinox.com