Erika was one of only six students, one female and one male from each of the three National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) divisions in the Conference, who received the honors. Phil Buttafuoco, ECAC commissioner, presented the awards Sunday night at the 2005 ECAC Honors Dinner Presented by Josten's. Sponsored by Robbins Sports Surfaces, the Cincinnati-based sports surfaces company, the awards pay tribute to the outstanding academic and athletics achievements of student-athletes representing ECAC schools in Divisions I, II and III.
Eisenhut and the five other winners were chosen for their “extraordinary achievements in academics, athletics and community service.” She was joined by her parents, Katherine and Gregory Eisenhut, as well as Union athletic staff representatives that included Associate Athletic Director Joanne Little, Head Women's Basketball Coach Mary Ellen Burt, and Sports Information Director Eric McDowell.
A three-sport athlete, Eisenhut was the second player in Division III history to compete in three NCAA championships in the same season (2003-04). A starter on the soccer, basketball and softball teams, she also excelled in the classroom with a 3.83 cumulative grade point average in psychology and mathematics.
Her three sport teams combined for a record of 68-17-1 in 2004-05, good for a winning percentage of 79.7 percent. She had nine goals and 26 points for the soccer team, which went 19-2-1 last fall and won the ECAC Upstate New York Championship. She started all 28 games for Union's women's basketball team and led the squad in assists (91), steals (73) and blocks (12) while scoring at a 10.5 clip. Union finished 19-9 and the Dutchwomen reached the ECAC Upstate Championship Game. On the softball diamond, Eisenhut hit .315 and led the team with 12 stolen bases while driving in 21 runs. The softball team (30-6) finished with a school record in victories. The Dutchwomen entered the NCAA tournament, their third straight appearance, with a #8 national ranking, the highest in the program's history. Eisenhut is a Big Brothers Big Sisters Volunteer, a Union Peer Tutor and a Girl Scout Troop mentor, and she was a member of the recent Athletic Director Search Committee. She is the sister of Clifford Eisenhut '04.
In addition to Eisenhut, Nick Bayley, a 2005 graduate of Colby College, earned the Division III male honors. In Division II, James Newman of Assumption College and Shannon Seidel of University of Massachusetts at Lowell were the recipients, and in Division I, Matt Groenwald of St. John's University and Katy Cross of Pennsylvania have been honored. The students who were in attendance at the dinner joining Eisenhut were Bayley, Seidel, Newman and Greenwald.
Other honorees at the dinner were Jo Anne Harper, Athletic Director of Dartmouth (the Katerine Ley Award honoring a women's administrator), John Davis of Montclair State (The Dr. Donald Grover Award for an athletic trainer), Reta Brown and Tom Meagher (George L. Shieber Awards for officials/referees), Craig Poisson, Asst. AD at Springfield with Kristy Walter, AD at Lasell (Administrators of the Year), Erin Bingham of Dartmouth, Jennifer Strysko of URI and Raul Altreche of Amherst (Awards of Valor), Princeton University's crew teams (Boathouse Sports Trophy), and the Jostens Institution of the Year (Keene State College).
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference with 324 Divisions I, II and III colleges and universities from Maine to North Carolina. Established in 1938, thisnon-profit service organization sponsors 100 championships in 37 men's and women's sports, assigns more than 5,100 officials in 15 sports, administers 10 affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues and recognizes more than 4,000 student-athletes in 21 sports through the public relations arm of the conference. The ECAC is the primary conference for select members in men's and women's ice hockey, men's lacrosse, men's gymnastics, wrestling, fencing and rowing. Robbins Sports Surfaces provides more than half of the NCAA Division I colleges and universities and 66 percent of the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship floors. With four production facilities and an Authorized Dealer Network, it is the world's most comprehensive provider of maple and synthetic flooring systems for all collegiate sports.