OBLEPIAS, CABEZUDO, ORANGE, MOONEY HONORED AT COLTS ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

Joshua Cabezudo, Raven Orange, CJ Mooney and Chloe Oblepias picked up major awards as the Middlesex College Athletics Department held their annual Colts Achievement Awards Tuesday night on campus.

In voting done by the department's coaches and staff, Cabezudo and Orange were named Male and Female Athletes of the Year, respectively, while Mooney was named Coach of the Year and Oblepias was honored with the Vincent DeSario Award.

"We had a historic year here at Middlesex College and we had so much to celebrate," said Director of Athletics Rocco Constantino. "I have so much respect for the hard work our coaches put in and for the dedication showed by our student-athletes in the classroom and playing fields. This is a night to honor our staff too. There are so many people who put in a lot of work behidn the scenes to give our students the best experience possible."

The night began with recognitions for athletes and teams that represented Middlesex College on the Regional level. That included the 11 athletes who received All-Region XIX honors throughout the 2021-2022 school year. The Colts softball team was also recognized as a Region XIX champion after winning their third Region Championship in school history and first since 1981. 

Middlesex College softball Head Coach Jim Muldowney was recognized as the Region XIX Coach of the Year while Kaitlynne McCarthy was recognized for being named Region XIX Pitcher of the Year.

George Mangandi from the Men's Soccer team and pitcher Patrick Kannaley were recognized for being named NJCAA Player of the Week in their respective sports.

Wrestlers Zain Ahmad, Troy O'Connor, Chris Folkens and Nicholas Jairdullo were recognized for qualifying for the NJCAA National Division III Wrestling Tournament.

The track and field NJCAA Division III National Meet qualfiers were also recognized. That group included Axel Romero, Gilana Rincon, Angelo Botteon, Matthew Sutton and Orange.

Before moving on to the team and departmental awards, Constantino took time to honor retiring Director of Marketing and Communications Tom Peterson, who has been an ardent supporter of Middlesex College Athletics.

"Tom has been dedicated to Middlesex College and our students for many years and has done so much to support our athletics program," saiid Constantino. "Tom takes such wonderful photos at our games and is always promoting the great accomplishments of our students and we wish him well in his retirement."

Middlesex College added departmental awards this year and competition for the top awards was hotly contested.

Each team presented their individual MVP awards along with other recognitions. From the pool of team MVPs, coaches and staff members voted on the Middlesex College Athletes of the Year. 

Cabezudo captured Male Athlete of the Year honors after leading the Men's Basketball team to a 15-12 record and a berth in the Region XIX playoffs. Cabezudo was the third-highest vote getter of any Men's Basketball player on the All-Region XIX Team. He led the team with 19.8 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. In a home win in the Region XIX playoffs over Camden CC, Cabezudo scored 25 points.

Just a freshman, Orange was voted Female Athlete of the Year after capturing a National Championship in the 400 Meter Hurdles at the NJCAA Division III National Track Meet. After winning her individual heat while posting the second-best time in the preliminaries, Orange coasted to a National Championship, taking the 400 Meter Hurdles by 1.54 seconds. Orange also finished fourth in the nation in the 100 Meter Hurdles with a time of 16.57.

Mooney earned the Coach of the Year Award after leading the baseball team to a school-record 37 wins, six more than the previous record which was set in 1999. Mooney guided the baseball team to the Region XIX Tournament and only two schools in the region had more wins than the Colts. Using an aggressive style of play, Mooney's Colts led the nation in stolen bases and was seventh in runs scored. Middlesex College baseball was ranked in multiple NJCAA Division III polls throughout the regular season.

The Vincent DeSario Award was another award with many highly qualified candidates and Oblepias, a standout second baseman for the softball team, was an outstanding choice. The DeSario Award is named for former Middlesex College Golfer Vincent DeSario, who passed away in 2010 when he was a student-athlete for the Colts. The Vincent DeSario Award is given to a student-athlete who shows success on the field, in the classroom and in the community. A solid all-around player, Oblepias batted .374 with 34 hits, 30 runs scored and 21 RBIs while playing a solid second base. Oblepias also participated in the Middlesex College Softball Youth Clinic and graduated earlier this month with a strong GPA.

"It was such a tremendous year for the Middlesex College Colts and I am excited to see where we go from here," said Constantino. "It's so great to see so many students from the Greater Middlesex Conference join the Colts family after high school and succeed here. Our school does so well in giving students and affordable and rigorous option to continue their academic careers. We want to build our athletics department into a destination for local students to continue their athletic careers. When you see the many successes our athletes had this year, I feel like we're very well on our way to doing that."