At the end of each academic year, The Dartmouth’s sports section puts up players to be voted upon by the student body as the best of the best. In this year’s The D Sports Awards, five of the top rookies, five of the top female athletes and five of the top male athletes at Dartmouth were pitted against each other. The winners emerged after 481 popular votes were cast by members of the Dartmouth community. The D is happy to announce Emily Henrich, Tanguy Nef and Kierra Sweeney as the winners of this year’s awards.
Emily Henrich ’22 of the women’s rugby team is The Dartmouth’s Rookie of the Year.
After recently winning the MA Sorensen Award as the top player in all of collegiate women’s rugby, Henrich capitalized on her momentum to receive recognition from The Dartmouth. A season that saw women’s rugby win its first-ever National Intercollegiate Rugby Association championship fittingly brought Dartmouth its first Sorensen winner in Henrich. The young center carried the team with a team-high 11 tries and 73 points in the fall — the second-most on the team — and was named to the All-Ivy First Team and a U.S. national team.
Henrich’s final vote share was 37.27 percent, with Tricia Mangan ’19 in second (25.93 percent) and Mia Leko ’22 in third (15.74 percent).
“It’s such a huge honor to win Rookie of the Year as it is not only a win for me but a win for the game of rugby,” Henrich wrote in an email statement. “As one of Dartmouth’s youngest varsity programs, it’s amazing the direction and dedication of everyone in the program. I could not have had my on-field success without them. This season with Dartmouth has truly been incredible.”
Kierra Sweeney ’19 of the women’s lacrosse team is The Dartmouth’s Female Athlete of the Year.
Sweeney led this year’s squad — the only Big Green team to win an Ivy League championship this spring — in goals and points. Her 58 goals this season are the most any Dartmouth women’s lacrosse player has netted in a season since 2005 and the fifth-most in a single season in school history. With 73 career points, Sweeney is now tied for the second-most points in school history. She averaged 3.41 goals per game, which was the 16th-most in all of Division I women’s lacrosse this season and the second-most in the Ivy League. This season alone, she earned Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association All-Northeast Region honors, All-Ivy First Team honors and an Ivy League All-Tournament team selection.
Sweeney earned 43.84 percent of the vote, with Katharine Ogden ’21 in second (21.17 percent) and Remy Borinsky '19 in third (11.88 percent).
“Wow, this is so amazing!” Sweeney wrote in an email statement. “I was honored to even be nominated and am so grateful to receive this award. My team is an incredible group of women and I definitely could not have gotten this far if it weren’t for all of them.”
For the second consecutive year, alpine skier Tanguy Nef ’20 is The Dartmouth’s Male Athlete of the Year.
This accolade is not Nef’s only proof of ongoing success. He brought a national championship in the giant slalom back to Hanover this year after winning in the slalom in 2018; he was named the Men’s Alpine Skier of the Year by the United States Collegiate Ski Coaches Association for the second consecutive year; he was an All-American for the third year in a row; and he won the Norwegian Trophy, which Dartmouth’s coaches award to the skier with the best performance, for the second consecutive year. Monday evening, the Dartmouth athletics department awarded Nef with the Alfred E. Watson Trophy as the top male athlete.
After receiving 29.81 percent of the final vote, Nef now has another award as The Dartmouth’s Male Athlete of the Year. Adrian Clark ’20 came in second (23.94 percent) and Isiah Swann ’20 in third (19.95 percent).
“It’s an incredible honor to win this award and I am super pumped by the support and trust that the ski team, athletics and the school have brought me for the last 3 years,” Nef wrote in an email statement. “I also want to congratulate all the other award recipients and nominees for the awesome achievements. Go Big Green!”
