Three Highlanders Selected as Man, Woman of the Year Nominees
NJIT seniors Nicole Loehle and Miku Okada have been selected as 2020-21 America East Woman of the Year nominees while senior Julio Marcano has been selected as America East Man of the Year nominee, the league office announced on Thursday.
Twenty-one institutional nominees for the 2020-21 America East Man and Woman of the Year are up for the honor that recognizes the conference's senior male and female student-athlete who has best distinguished himself and herself throughout their collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, service and leadership.
Nicole Loehle - Women's Soccer
Loehle, the Highlanders senior defender, was selected NJIT's Woman of the Year by New Jersey Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (NJAIAW).
She has been an integral part of the Highlanders' defense. She has started 50 of 55 games on the back line - including 43 of 44 over the last three seasons - and helped NJIT set several school records, including fewest season goals allowed (18, 2019), shutouts (9, 2018), and longest shutout streak (3 games, 2018).
Loehle's efforts also contributed to NJIT's highest win total and record (11-5-2, 2018) and a pair of trips to the ASUN Conference semifinals (as a No. 2 in 2018, after a first-round win as a No. 6 seed in 2019). Loehle was named to the ASUN Second Team in 2018 and the ASUN All-Tournament team in 2019.
Academically, Loehle, who graduated in May with a Chemical Engineering degree, boosted a 4.0 GPA in the spring semester. She is a three-time member of the ASUN Academic Honor Roll (2017-20) and a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society.
Loehle spent time during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic helping the NJIT community by assembling masks and personal protective equipment (PPE) at NJIT's Makerspace.
Miku Okada - Women's Track and Field
Okada, who graduated in May with a mechanical engineering degree, recorded a 3.88 spring semester GPA and was named to the Dean's List six times.
She is an NJIT top-five performer in three events and the holder of four NJIT high jump records
Okada recorded NJIT's first-ever America East women's medalist (bronze in High Jump) and was NJIT's first-ever scorer at ECAC/IC4As.
NJIT's senior speaker at the end of the year Athletics Award Ceremony, Okada was President of the Rotaract Club of NJIT, Vice President of the Society of Women Engineers and was selected women's track and field most outstanding player.
She was selected to the 2021 Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Showcase Team.
Julio Marcano - Baseball
An America East Conference first-team honoree, Marcano, a utility player, started games at multiple positions for NJIT this year and hit either second or third in the batting order.
Marcano, who started every game (46), led the Highlanders with a .322 batting average while topping the America East in runs batted in (42) and home runs (10) and ranked second in the league in runs scored (40).
He became the 11th player in NJIT program history with 100+ career RBIs on May 21, 2021 in the Highlanders doubleheader sweep over UMBC.
Marcano won the first-ever America East Player of the Week award for the NJIT baseball program on May 4, 2021.
An America East All-Academic team selectee and a member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society, Marcano recently completed his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering with a 3.5 spring semester GPA, plans to return next season and pursue a Masters, also in Mechanical Engineering.
To be nominated, student-athletes must have completed intercollegiate eligibility in their primary sport by the end of the 2021 spring season or received their undergraduate degree prior to the conclusion of the summer 2021 term and have a minimum cumulative grade-point average of 2.500 (4.000 scale). Institutions are permitted to submit up to two nominees for each award if at least one is an international or ethnic minority student-athlete.
The nominees will be narrowed down to three finalists per gender, who will be announced on Wednesday, June 16. The 2020-21 America East Man and Woman of the Year will be unveiled on Tuesday, June 22.
