Photos by Yifei Li
DKU held its second annual Athletic Awards ceremony on Thursday, April 25 to acknowledge the athletic highlights of the past academic year.
In an opening address, Dean Van velzer said the athletics community has a “supersized role, critical in the life of a university”. He highlighted that although DKU athletes do not come to the school or play on athletic scholarships, he believes their energy and love of their sports is nonetheless unwavering, admirable, and serves as the basis for the future of sports on campus.
Director of Athletics Dr. Zarko Krkeljas said this past year, DKU athletes showed spirit and integrity as trailblazers for the future of DKU athletics. He said it was an amazing year for individual students, clubs, and teams, highlighting many first achievements by various DKU athletic communities in the past year, including: the opening of the Phase II Sports Complex, the Varsity Men’s Football team joining the Suzhou College Football League, hosting the first ultimate frisbee tournament, holding the first local Kunshan relay run, the first tennis tournament, the Taichi club competing internationally, and the week-long April dance festival.
He also highlighted the local Kunshan community’s dedication to uplifting the athletes at DKU, which he says “strengthens the bond between our university and the city we call home”. Local Kunshan residents often come to watch on-campus sports events.
Bonnie Cabot, captain of the Varsity Women’s Football Team, and senior sports complex associate Ziyue Zhong served as MCs for the night.
DKU Moves Director Bingfang Li highlighted several achievements of the DKU community as a whole, including a total logging of over 150,000 kilometers registered by over 650 members in physical activity on DKU Moves and record-breaking participation in recent Running Club Park Runs.
Varsity Women’s Volleyball took home the best varsity team award. Their recent performance in the 2024 UNNC Tournament saw them take second place.
Chinese language Professor Mengtian Chen was awarded the Pinnacle of Moves Award for logging 2300 kilometers of exercise in the past year, while Bing Shi, who represented DKU in the 2024 Wuhan Marathon in March took home the Strive and Thrive Award with 2128 kilometers logged. Journalism and EAP Professor John Noonan was awarded the Quantum Leap Award for his athletic improvement.
Photo by Yifei Li
Photo by Yifei Li
The complete list of award winners can be found below:
Team Awards
Best Varsity Team: Varsity Women’s Volleyball
Community Engagement Award: Running Club
Most Improved Team Award: Varsity Men’s Volleyball
Sports Club of the Year: Running Club
Photo by Yifei Li
Individual Awards
Sportsmanship Award: Kennedy McNeilly-Anta
Female Scholar Athlete Award: Ann Tong
Male Scholar Athlete Award: Kennedy McNeilly-Anta
Scholar-Athlete Leadership Award: Jeremy Choi
Pinnacle of Moves Award: Prof. Mengtian Chen
Strive and Thrive Award: Bing Shi
Energetic Scholar Award: Kennedy McNeilly-Anta
Quantum Leap Award: Prof. John Noonan
Student Staff Awards
Facility Operations: Kennedy McNeilly-Anta
Event Support: Jiahe Chen
Media and Communications: Mingyue Jiang
Photo by Yifei Li
In addition to specialized awards, acknowledgement was given to graduating seniors that dedicated time to their sports teams or clubs during their journey at DKU. The complete list of 2024 senior scholar athletes can be found below:
Varsity Badminton: Ketong Han (captain)
Varsity Men’s Basketball: Zixing Chen
Varsity Women’s Basketball: Yixi Chen
Varsity Men’s Football: Othmane Echchabi (captain), Jiangxi Huang, Hengchen Liu, Chadi Tolaimate, Xiaoyuan Wang
Varsity Table Tennis: Jingxi Cui (captain), Yifan Chen, Xueting Li, Hanzhi Peng, Rixin Wang
Varsity Men’s Volleyball: Jeremy Choi, Rodrigo de la Vega Gomar, Jack Nyi Hun
Varsity Women’s Volleyball: Erica Ham
Badminton Club: Xi Chen, Tu Hong, Hanzhi Peng
Basketball Club: Zhenkun Fang, Yihang Fu, Zhe Niu, Tianji Wang, Han Zhang, Zhihang Xu, Hongkai Zhu, Xiangrong Zhu
Chinese Dance Club: Xueyan Liu
Historical European Martial Arts Club: Yifan Li, Chenxi Wang, Junhao Zhang, Weicheng Zheng
Judo Club: Neville Choo, Zhenghao Li
Kendo Club: Yanzhang Zhu
Running Club: Sarah Hinterkoerner, Sichang He, Kennedy McNeilly-Anta, Yanming Shen
Ultimate Frisbee Club: Zhenkun Fang, Peng Wang, Jialong Wang, Qixuan Zhang
Sailing Club: Yiyang Zhang
Street Dance Club: Zia Claros, Qixuan Zhang
Tennis: Yunfei Dong, Siran Luo, Graham Wood
Volleyball Club: Kaiqi Wu
Yoga: Nelson Aknin, Sarah Hinterkoerner, Jonathan Wang, Shuang Wu
Photo by Yifei Li
Photo by Yifei Li
As emphasized by Krkeljas, the 2023-24 academic year was defined by first opportunities for the DKU athletic community that he hopes can soon become traditions. As one of the foundational ideals of DKU, he says, teamwork gives students the ability to make their voices heard both on and off the court and these opportunities will continue to be supported by the DKU athletic community.
Photo by Yifei Li
