NEW YORK—Two student-athletes from Villanova were recognized on Wednesday afternoon as the winners of the BIG EAST Institutional Scholar-Athlete Award. This year's male and female award recipients from the Wildcats are
Jadyn Anczarski (men's track & field) and
Paige Rauch (softball). The honors were announced by the BIG EAST in a conference press release on Wednesday, with each winner to receive a $2,000 scholarship which can be applied to graduate or professional studies.
The BIG EAST Conference presents Institutional Scholar-Athlete Awards to one male and one female from each of the league's 11 member institutions in addition to selecting an overall Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Student-athletes are nominated by their institutions and the awards are voted on by the BIG EAST Faculty Athletics Representative Council. Academic and athletic accomplishments throughout a student-athlete's entire collegiate career are taken into consideration for the BIG EAST Institutional Scholar-Athlete of the Year honors.
Anczarski put a fitting cap on his impressive collegiate career by winning his first career individual conference title this season. In his final meet in a Villanova jersey, Anczarski won the BIG EAST title in the discus at the conference championships held in Geneva, Ohio on May 15. He threw for a distance of 49.52 meters at the BIG EAST meet after recording a personal best mark of 50.11 meters earlier in the season at the Philadelphia Big 5 Invite. Anczarski ranks fifth in school history in the discus and is also sixth in the hammer with a PR of 53.16 meters which was also set this spring during competition at the Philadelphia Metropolitan Collegiate Invitational. In addition to his outdoor track & field accomplishments, Anczarski has been an All-BIG EAST performer indoors in the weight throw and ranks fourth in school history in the weight throw with a personal best mark of 16.71 meters which was set on February 23, 2020 at the BIG EAST Championships.
Outside of his athletic endeavors Anczarski has consistently earned recognition for his academic achievement and was most recently announced as the men's outdoor track & field winner of a BIG EAST Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence Award last week. He was awarded the James C. Curvey Scholarship and Fellowship which allowed him to attend Villanova along with providing the opportunity to travel the world. Anczarski earned a Villanova undergraduate research fellowship and a graduate tuition scholarship in the Education Department. He was a Physics major and Mathematics minor as an undergraduate, and was the winner of the 2020 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics for capturing the first image of a black hole. Anczarski was named a winner of the William G. Driscoll medallion for Excellence in Physics and was a Fulbright ETA semifinalist in 2020. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Sigma Pi Sigma Physics Honor Society. Anczarski has been a five-time member of the BIG EAST All-Academic Team and a 10-time member of the Athletic Director's Honor Roll.
Rauch is enrolled in a five-year BA/MA program majoring in Political Science at Villanova and has consistently stood out for her academic achievement. She has been named an NFCA Scholar-Athlete, is a three-time Academic All-Conference selection and has been named to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll in all six semesters since she arrived on campus. Earlier this summer Rauch was named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree and she is currently on the ballot for Academic All-America honors which will be announced later this month.
It has been a record-setting year for Rauch, who broke eight school records during the 2021 season while becoming the first athlete ever to sweep the BIG EAST Player of the Year and the BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year awards in the same season. She was the Most Outstanding Player at the BIG EAST Championship and was a big part of the Wildcats emergence on the national scene as the team tallied its fourth-most wins (37) and its fourth-highest winning percentage (.712) in program history. Rauch was recognized by the NFCA as a third team All-American and a first team All-Mideast selection. She is the second Villanova softball player ever to garner All-America honors.
Rauch started all 52 games Villanova played, including 29 on the mound and 23 at either first base, right field, left field or designated player. As a batter she slashed .417/.546/.709 in 205 plate appearances and reached base safely at least once in 48 of 52 games, including each of the last 35 games of the season. Rauch led the BIG EAST in on-base percentage, hits (63), total bases (107) and walks (45). Her walk total is a new single-season Wildcats record and included a nearly inconceivable 21 walks compared to just three strikeouts in 17 regular season conference games. Rauch batted .438/.614/.875 in BIG EAST action. Her overall numbers for the year included 13 doubles, two triples, nine home runs, 46 runs scored and just for good measure six stolen bases in seven tries.
In the circle, Rauch had one of the Wildcats greatest pitching seasons in recent memory. She set a single-season Villanova record with nine shutouts and recorded the ninth 20-win season in school history in 32 appearances, including 29 starts and 19 complete games. Rauch went 20-3 with one save and a 1.97 ERA over 174 2/3 innings pitched. She held opposing batters to a .222 average against her and had 189 strikeouts while allowing just 146 hits and issuing 38 walks. Rauch averaged 7.6 strikeouts per seven innings, owned a nearly 5:1 strikeout-to-walk ratio and finished the season with a 1.053 WHIP. She led the BIG EAST in shutouts, strikeouts and ERA. Rauch was undefeated against BIG EAST teams, going 8-0 with a 1.27 ERA, a 0.833 WHIP and seven complete games in 10 regular season conference starts. She then pitched 28 of a possible 35 innings in the BIG EAST Championship and was 3-0 with a 2.50 ERA during the conference tournament.
