26 River Hawks earn Hockey East all-academic honors

LOWELL, Mass. The UMass Lowell field hockey team had 26 players named to the 2022-23 Hockey East All-Academic Team, tied for first in the league, the conference office announced Tuesday.

“The coaching staff is proud to learn that our hockey team led the league with the most players on the Hockey East All-Academic Team,” said the head coach. Norm Bazin. “We are proud that the players strive for excellence both on the ice and in the classroom. We also recognize that the team had six seniors who achieved this honor each year they were at UMass Lowell.”

To be eligible for the All-Academic Team, a student-athlete must achieve a 3.0 GPA or higher. Massachusetts was the second team with 26 wins, while Maine trailed with 25.

UMass Lowell’s pioneer was a graduate student defender Jon McDonald (Livonia, Mich.), who finished his career as one of three Hockey East student-athletes to earn a fifth consecutive All-Academic Team honor. McDonald earned his MBA at the UMass Lowell Manning School of Business.

Seniors Carl Berglund (Hammaro, Sweden), Brian Chambers (Weymouth, Mass.), Zach Kaiser (Orangeville, Ontario), Marek Korencik (Zilina, Slovakia) v Blake Wells (Blackie, Alberta) joined McDonald and was named a Hockey East Distinguished Scholar for making the All-Academic Team in all four of his varsity seasons.

Freshman defenseman Mark Cooper (Cambridge, Ontario) shared the Top Scholar-Athlete honor, which goes to the student-athlete(s) with the highest GPA in the entire Hockey East region. He finished his rookie campaign with a 4.0 grade as a quantitative economics major.

Cooper was joined by a second-year goaltender Edvard Nordlund (Nacka, Sweden) on the Hockey East All-Academic All-Star Team, made up of the 12 student-athletes who had the best GPA at each position this year. Nordlund, a business major with a 3.98 GPA, was one of two goaltenders on the All-Star Team, while Cooper is one of four defensemen.

Junior Nik Armstrong-Kingkade (Mannheim, Germany) finished his junior year with a third straight All-Academic Team selection.

The Six River Hawks also became double honorees. Second year students Owen Cole (Dunnville, Ontario), Isaac Jonsson (Angelholm, Sweden) and Nordlund earned recognition for the second year in a row, and the juniors Brehdan Ingum (Burnsville, Minn.), Ben Meehan (Walpole, Mass.) and Henry Welsh (Lakeville, Minn.) were tabbed for the second time in their careers.

The list of awardees is completed by the first-timers of the All-Academic Team. In addition to Cooper, that list includes the Freshmen Mitchell Becker (Rogers, Minn.), Dilla’s Bentley (Peoria, Ill.), Jack Collins (Canton, NY), Owen Fowler (Tewksbury, Mass.), TJ Schweighhardt (Manahawkin, NJ) and Scout Truman (Lethbridge, Alberta), sophomores Gabe Blanchard (East Aurora, NY) and Matt Crass (South Setauket, NY), seniors Ryan Brushett (Montreal, Quebec) and Jake Stella (Karstad, Sweden) and for graduate students Filip Fornä Svensson (Linköping, Sweden) and Gustav Davis Grigal (Riga, Latvia).

A total of 202 student-athletes from across the league were named to the Hockey East All-Academic Team after achieving a GPA of 3.0 or higher in 2022-23.

Complete list of 2022-23 UMass Lowell Hockey East All-Academic Honorees
Nik Armstrong-Kingkade ***
Mitchell Becker
Dilla’s Bentley
Carl Berglund +
Gabe Blanchard
Ryan Brushett
Brian Chambers +
Owen Cole **
Jack Collins
Mark Cooper ^
Matt Crass
Brehdan Ingum **
Filip Fornaa Svensson
Owen Fowler
Gustav Davis Grigal
Isaac Jonsson **
Zach Kaiser +
Marek Korencik +
Jon McDonald !
Ben Meehan **
Edvard Nordlund **
TJ Schweighardt
Jake Stella
Scout Truman
Blake Wells +
Henry Welsh **

** double honor award
*** triple awardee
^ Top Scholar-Athlete (Highest GPA in Hockey East)
+ Distinguished Scholar (3.0 in each semester of the four university terms)
! Five times honorary award