VILLANOVA, Pa.—It is the start of Senior Week on the Villanova campus and each year that means having the Villanova Athletics family come together to celebrate its graduating student-athletes. University Vice President and Director of Athletics Mark Jackson was the emcee for Monday night's event which recognized the career accomplishments – in athletic competition, in their academic pursuits, and in the community – of more than 130 members of the Class of 2023.
"Tonight is an extra special one for everyone in this room," Jackson said during his opening remarks. "This is a celebration of four years, of the class you came to Villanova with, of the friends and teammates you have spent four years together with. This night fills us with so much joy as we look back on four years of memories, the longest-lasting of which will be memories of camaraderie; the teammates, classmates and friends who touched your lives, who kept you going every day, who experienced all of your ups and downs with you."
The seniors from each of the Wildcats varsity programs were presented with commemorative Villanova watches, while four student-athletes took home top honors on the evening. Softball student-athlete Chloe Smith was presented with the Female Senior Student-Athlete of the Year Award and track & field/cross country student-athlete Sean Dolan was the winner of the Male Senior Student-Athlete of the Year honor. The senior reception also included the presentation of the annual Sister Mary Margaret Cribben Awards to softball student-athlete Victoria Sebastian and men's track & field/cross country student-athlete Haftu Strintzos.
Celebrations such as the one on Monday night are an opportunity for reflection and a time to look back at the last four years, as well as ahead to what the future lies for the soon-to-be newest Villanova grdaduates. Their collective accolades in the arenas of athletic competition, in the classroom and in every corner of campus are equally impressive. The Class of 2023 has made 25 national postseason appearances across 12 different sports.
Villanova has won 15 conference team championships and produced 33 individual conference champions over the last four years, not to mention earning 128 all-conference honors and setting 11 school records. Twenty different teams competed in their conference tournaments at least once during the past four years, even with several having one or more of their competition seasons interrupted by the COVID pandemic.
The levels of academic achievement of the Class of 2023 are nothing short of elite and put Villanova University among the top schools nationwide for the combination of its athletic and academic reputations. Villanova Athletics has maintained a department GPA above a 3.0 for 40 consecutive semesters spanning the last two decades. The graduating class of 2023 has a cumulative GPA of 3.44, with 50 percent of the class graduating with honors by having a GPA of 3.5 or higher. That percentage includes 37 student-athletes graduating cum laude (3.5+ GPA), 22 graduating magna cum laude (3.75+ GPA) and 11 student-athletes who will graduate summa cum laude (3.9+ GPA).
On a team level the 24 varsity sports have earned 49 national all-academic team awards in the past four years, while student-athletes have earned 51 selections to national all-academic teams. At the conference and university level, the Class of 2023 has made 345 appearances on conference all-academic teams and earned 545 selections to the Athletic Director's Honor Roll (semester GPA of 3.2 or higher).
The final tallies for the Villanova Athletics graduating Class of 2023 have yet to be written, with the baseball team along with the men's and women's track & field teams still competing through the end of their Spring seasons.
