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Delaware Athletics, community & campus recreation 2022 Year in Review

To Our Blue Hens Family,

Entering a new year is always an exciting time! As we look ahead to all the possibilities to come, I am enthusiastic about all that's ahead in 2023. But, I spent some time over the holidays reflecting on the past year, how lucky I am to lead this department, how honored I am that we get to represent the state of Delaware and this terrific University every day, and how ProUD I am of everything we were able to accomplish in 2022. And what an incredible year it was! I felt it was important to share with our amazing Blue Hen family some of the highlights of 2022 before we head into 2023.

We won five CAA Championships, sent both basketball teams to March Madness, competed in the Men's Lacrosse NCAA quarterfinals, had five individual NCAA competitors, won an ITA Regional Championship for the first time ever, and won two spirit national championships. We had 94 All-CAA honorees, four national players of the week, and seven All-Americans. We finished 104th out of 350 schools in the Learfield Directors Cup, leading all schools in the CAA and our second-highest finish since 1998.

Our Blue Hens maintained a GPA above a 3.0 for the 18th-straight semester. Our student-athletes raised over $280,000 for the B+ Foundation through UDance, and spent their time teaching youths in Delaware the sports they love. Between our athletic competitions, recreation offerings, events, ice arena programs and pools, we had over a million visits to our campus facilities by community members.

There is so much to celebrate, and I hope you'll take the time to view some of the highlights below. I'm so incredibly proUD of what we achieved together in 2022, and the future is bright for our Blue Hens!

We look forward to achieving excellence together and continuing to represent the 302 proudly in 2023 and beyond!

Go Hens!

Chrissi Rawak

Student-Athlete Success

We have almost 700 student-athletes representing the University of Delaware in 21 varsity sports and spirit programs. Our student-athletes hail from all over the country and the world, we have 96 Fightin’ Blue Hens from right here in Delaware, 520 from other states in the US, and 77 international student-athletes representing 29 countries. Delaware student-athletes had an incredibly successful 2022 in the classroom. Representing 83 different undergraduate majors and 23 graduate programs, our student-athletes amassed a 3.2 GPA - the 18th-straight semester with a GPA above a 3.0. We had 46 student-athletes in the honors program in the spring and 44 in the fall, and had 176 student-athletes in the spring and 208 student-athletes in the fall make the Dean's List.

Our Blue Hens weren’t just successful in the classroom, they starred in competition as well.

Both Men’s and Women’s Basketball won the CAA Tournament, becoming one of only five schools in the country to have both their men’s and women’s teams win their conference tournament to advance to March Madness.

Men’s Lacrosse won the CAA tournament, and went on to defeat #2 Georgetown to advance to the NCAA Quarterfinals.

Delaware Softball had one of its most successful seasons ever, defeating Purdue, Penn State, and NC State in non-conference play, and winning the CAA regular season title for the first time in program history.

Delaware Football defeated Navy to start the season, its first defeat of an FBS program in 15 years, and won a NCAA Playoff game for the first time ever under a first-year head coach.

Field Hockey won its 9th conference tournament in 10 years, outscoring its CAA tournament opponents 12-2, and defeated Lehigh 4-0 in its opening round NCAA tournament game.

Track & Field had two Blue Hens advance to compete in NCAA East Regionals. After winning the CAA Javelin title and earning the meet's Most Outstanding Field Athlete award, school record holder Megan Albamonti finished 19th in the NCAA regional competition and broke the javelin throw record for both the program and CAA Championship (55.78m). Susanna Weir, who owns the school record in the 10,000m, jumped 20 places from her seed to place 25th in the race.

Our spirit program brought home national championships for the 16th-straight year, with the cheer team winning the Small Coed Game Day Cheer National Championship and the dance team winning the Division I Hip Hop National Championship.

The women’s tennis doubles combo of Adel-Byanu Abidullina and Eliza Askarova became the first Blue Hens to claim an ITA Regional Championship in program history. The duo went on to represent Delaware at the ITA Fall National Championships, defeating Iowa State and LSU to advance to the quarterfinals before falling to second-ranked UNC, after which they became the first nationally ranked Blue Hens women’s tennis players ever, finishing sixth in the country.

In men’s golf, Roberto Nieves had a record breaking year, including breaking his own program record of averaging 70.58 shots per round. He was named first team All-CAA, and competed in the NCAA New Haven Regional Championship.

Toni Sabev's impressive start to his collegiate career continued into 2022 after he earned All-Conference honors in five events and set program records in six events. He was named a CSCAA Scholar All-American. During international competitions, Sabev set a Bulgarian national record in the 400-medley relay at the SC World Championships and also competed at the European Championships.

Women's swimming senior Mira Selling continued her historic career with another record-breaking season, as she won three CAA Championships, was named the CAA Championship Most Outstanding Performer, earned All-CAA honors in three events, and set Delaware program records in three events.

Julia Servas and Rowan O'Sullivan both competed in the 1-meter competition of the NCAA Zone A Diving Championships in March in Annapolis, Md. Servas, a former CAA Diver of the Year, recorded a score of 209.15, while O'Sullivan finished with a score of 202.95. Servas and O'Sullivan were two of 12 CAA divers competing at the meet.

Many of our Blue Hens received individual accolades for their successful performances. We had 94 student-athletes receive all-conference honors. Four Blue Hens were recognized as National Players of the Week in their sport (Nolan Henderson and Johnny Buchanan in Football, Jasmine Dickey in Women's Basketball, and Lani Mason in Volleyball). In addition, seven Blue Hens were named All-Americans - Jasmine Dickey (Women’s Basketball), Owen Grant (Men’s Lacrosse), Mike Robinson (Men’s Lacrosse), Julia Duffhuis (Field Hockey), Kedrick Whitehead (Football), Johnny Buchanan (Football) and Lani Mason (Volleyball).

Our Blue Hens didn’t just show up in the classroom and in competition, but they do extraordinary work in the community as well.

Our student-athletes raised over $280,000 for the Andrew McDonough B+ Foundation, hosting Reps for Kids and culminating with the UDance dance marathon event.

Our football, men’s basketball, women’s soccer, women’s lacrosse, cheer and dance teams had B+ Heroes or Team IMPACT kids as part of their programs, building relationships with youths fighting cancer and other diseases.

In partnership with ChristianaCare and local elementary schools, over 2,600 students participated in our Be A HERO (Hens Encouraging Respect to Others) anti-bullying program, celebrating their completion of the program at a Delaware Football game.

Our student-athletes love sharing their passion for their sports at clinics with youths in the community. Our women’s sports programs hosted over 200 local girls at our annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day clinic sponsored by ChristianaCare, and our Downstate Day event had over 300 kids sign up to learn skills in soccer, football, basketball, field hockey and cheer.

During our Holidays with the Hens program, Delaware Athletics partnered with local charities to host coat, toy and food drives at Delaware basketball games to benefit community partners Friendship House Clothing Bank, Kind to Kids Foundation, and the Food Bank of Delaware.

fan engagement

Delaware Football led the CAA with 101,410 total fans at regular season games this season, an average of 16,901 fans per game. Delaware also saw an increase of 48% in student attendance this season, highlighted with a $10,000 prize for a student who attended all six home games. Both Delaware Men’s and Women’s Basketball had over 97% season ticket renewal rates for the 2022-2023 season. Delaware Men’s Lacrosse had the highest attendance in 5 years.

We had some pretty special moments featured on national news outlets during the last year. We had three SportsCenter Top 10 plays featured, including a pair of behind the back goals from men’s lacrosse players Clay Miller and Mike Robinson, and an incredible 52 point performance from women’s basketball’s Jasmine Dickey. ESPN’s Moments that Matter also covered a special moment between men’s basketball’s Jameer Nelson Jr. and his father after the CAA tournament win.

2022 was a record-breaking year for the University of Delaware’s annual I Heart UD Giving Day, raising over $1 million for the University, including over 2,000 donors raising $220,000 for Delaware Athletics, Community and Campus Recreation.

Social Media Growth

student-athlete development

Ensuring we are supporting the holistic student-athlete is integral to our ability to support our Blue Hens during their time at UD and prepare them for life after graduation. We hosted 30 BLUE (Building Leaders Utilizing Education) programs for our student-athletes, including education on personal branding and NIL, leadership and career development, and life skills such as financial planning and cooking and meal preparation. We hosted over 50 leadership and culture conversations and activities, including focus on captain and team leader development. Our Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) facilitated Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training and monthly conversations, training programs for all student-athletes on safely hosting recruits, and headshots and resume review sessions for all student-athletes. We had 27 student-athletes paired with alumni mentors, and hosted a Women in Business networking event for our female student-athletes to learn from seven incredibly successful Blue Hens alums.

Our Sport Performance team continues to work cross-functionally to improve sport specific athletic performance and keep our student-athletes healthy and available for competition, and both mentally and physically prepared to win.

Our Performance Nutrition team works to empower student-athletes to make informed choices to optimize their performance through nutrition. UD is one of only nine universities in the country to have a Gatorade SNIP (Sports Nutrition Immersion Program) Fellow hosted within the athletic department, and one of five universities in the country to have an athletics dedicated Aramark Fellow. The Performance Nutrition team continued its nutrition education programming, individual counseling, team sessions, cooking demonstrations, and grocery shopping tours and added serving breakfast for our student-athletes after morning workouts during the fall of 2022.

The Sport Psychology team added a second full-time sport psychologist this year and continued their support of our student-athletes through both individual and team sessions, including a focus on mental performance skills and resiliency training.

Our Sports Science and Analytics, Strength and Conditioning and Athletic Training staffs worked with nine programs to implement StatSports GPS to track student-athlete volume and intensity during practices and games, allowing for data informed decision-making for practice planning, load management, injury prevention and performance decisions for our student-athletes.

Our Sport Performance team works hand-in-hand with a number of areas on campus for daily operations and to provide educational opportunities for University of Delaware students, including the College of Health Sciences and Physical Therapy program, the College of Engineering, the Applied Economics and Statistics program, and campus wellness units.

community and campus recreation

Our recreation facilities had 536,212 total visits in 2022, with students and staff taking advantage of our fitness and weight equipment, fitness classes, indoor pool, rock climbing wall, spin studio, Crossfit gym, and more. We had over 3,000 students participate in intramural sports, and over 1,500 students represent the University of Delaware in competition on 37 club sports teams. We had 30,000 visits to the outdoor pool in the summer of 2022, hosting 43 pool parties and serving as the long course training home for three local swim clubs. Our Ice Arenas also host thousands of local community members through our open public skates, learn to skate programs and youth hockey tournaments. The High Performance Skating Center at the UD Ice Arenas is one of the world’s leading training centers for ice skaters.

HERE'S TO CONTINUED SUCCESS FOR OUR BLUE HENS IN 2023!