The 2023 SUNY Cortland C-Club Athletic Awards Ceremony, held May 2 at the College's Brown Auditorium in Old Main, honored the top student-athletes from among the 800-plus who competed on Cortland's 25 men's and women's intercollegiate teams during the past academic year. 
 

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Photo Gallery
List of Past Ceremony Award Winners
List of Past Red Letter Award Winners

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Unlike previous years, the SUNY Cortland C-Club Male and Female Senior Athlete of the Year and Rookie Athlete of the Year winners were not announced at the ceremony. Instead, the winners will be selected early this summer after the completion of the spring sports season. The finalists for those awards are:
(click headers to read details on the finalists)
 
Senior Male Athlete of the Year Finalists:

Ian Blugh (Staten Island/Curtis), Soccer
Joshua Cordero (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury), Football
Luca Durante (Brampton, ON/St. Marguerite d'Youville), Ice Hockey
Austin Grunder (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson), Basketball
Zach Nyhart (Hamburg), Track and Field
Dante Yacavone (Homer), Lacrosse 
 
Senior Female Athlete of the Year Finalists:

Glynis Curcione (Buffalo/Wilson Central), Gymnastics
Lily Fox (Northport), Field Hockey
Jaden Galluzzo (Commack), Soccer
Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood), Basketball
Grace Schnorr (Camillus/West Genesee), Ice Hockey
Bryn Thompson (Hopewell Junction/Arlington), Soccer 
 
Male Rookie Athlete of the Year Finalists:

Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union), Track and Field
Angelo Centrone (Mahopac), Wrestling
Aaron Coston (Kerhonkson/Rondout Valley), Basketball
Tommy Lynch (West Seneca/Canisius), Baseball
Colby Seitz (Eden), Ice Hockey
Nicholas Serio (Bayville/Locust Valley), Ice Hockey 
 
Female Rookie Athlete of the Year Finalists:

Mackenzie Beck (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue), Lacrosse
Ainsley Delacourt (Stoney Creek, ON/T.A. Blakelock), Ice Hockey
Gianna Mirigliano (Springfield, PA), Gymnastics
Emma Reilly (Massapequa Park/Massapequa), Volleyball
Kimberly Westenberg (Massapequa Park/Massapequa), Softball
Sarah Wiggins (Carson City, NV/Carson), Golf 
 
 
Yacavone received the Carl "Chugger" Davis Award, which is given to a senior male athlete for strong leadership skills and athletic achievement. Yacavone is a two-time honorable mention All-America men's lacrosse attack who currently is tied for fifth in school history with 232 career points (142 goals, 90 assists). Davis was Cortland's head football coach from 1932 to 1962 and also coached baseball, basketball and golf. 
 
Amanda Gaffney (Williamsville/Williamsville East) received the M. Louise Moseley Award, which goes to a senior female athlete who has demonstrated both strong leadership skills and athletic achievement. A two-sport athlete, Gaffney played on the women's ice hockey team for four seasons and recorded 25 goals and 35 assists, and as a member of the women's golf team for five seasons she earned All-Northeast Women's Golf Conference honors three times, including this spring when she won the league title. Moseley was Cortland's Director of Women's Athletics from 1966-78. A pioneer for women's athletics, she played an integral role in the start of women's intercollegiate athletics at Cortland in the late 1960s. 
 
Jayden Kelley (East Berne/Voorheesville) earned the Whitney T. Corey '43 Award, which is presented to the senior female student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average. A member of both the women's soccer and women's ice hockey teams, Kelley is a graduate student who finished her undergraduate work as an exercise science major with a 3.95 GPA and currently has a 4.0 GPA as a graduate student majoring in community health. Corey coached men's basketball at Cortland in the 1950s and early 1960s and also served as the school's vice president for academic affairs. The main gymnasium in Cortland's Park Center bears his name. 
 
Ryan Cory (Beacon) received the Robert J. Weber Award as the senior male student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade point average. Cory was a member of the Red Dragon men's cross country and track and field squads and graduated this past December with a 3.93 GPA in sport management. Weber was Cortland's director of athletics for 12 years and the Chairman of the Men's Physical Education department for 15 years. He worked at Cortland from 1952-85. 
  
Flo Hunte (Elmont/Sewanhaka) of the women's basketball team won the Peter J. Cahill '66 Award. The award, named for Cortland's former swimming and diving and women's tennis head coach, is presented to either a current student-athlete or non-athlete student for involvement in activities outside of sports and/or contributions to the Athletics Department. Hunte served as president of Cortland's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and recently earned a SUNY Chancellor's Award for Student Excellence - one of only three students from the entire SUNY Cortland campus to earn the award this school year. She also was the vice president of community engagement for the State University of New York Athletic Conference's (SUNYAC) SAAC. 
 
The Unsung Hero Awards were presented to Fox and Cordero. The awards recognize accomplishments of student-athletes who led their team to success in ways that cannot always be measured in statistical categories and who exemplifies the characteristics of a true leader - excelling in the classroom, and demonstrating humility, work ethic and integrity at all times in both practice and competition.  
 
The C-Club Coach of the Year Award was presented to Tom Spanbauer, who retired this past spring after serving 28 years as Cortland's men's basketball head coach. He is the program's career victories leader with an overall record of 459-277 from 1995-2023, and he earned six SUNYAC Coach of the Year and four East Region Coach of the Year honors. Spanbauer has also coached the Red Dragon women's tennis team since 2006 and will remain in that position. 
 
Cortland alumnus and C-Club Hall of Famer Jim Codispoti '63 was announced as the winner of the Fraser Stokes Awards, given for dedication and service to Cortland Athletics. A C-Club Hall of Fame member, Codispoti has served on the C-Club Board of the Directors for more than 20 years, including a stretch as the organization's president. He was the driving force behind the creation of the C-Club Endowment that has raised more than $625,000 to help support programming for SUNY Cortland student-athletes and continue to preserve Cortland's rich athletic history. 
 
The Judson and Elise Taylor Team GPA Awards, named after the former SUNY Cortland president and his wife, were presented to the men's and women's athletic teams with the highest cumulative grade point averages. The men's cross country team, with a cumulative GPA of 3.43, repeated as the men's winner, and the women's award was won by the women's basketball team with a cumulative GPA of 3.55. The men's cross country team won the award for the seventh time overall. The women's basketball team won the award for the second time overall and first since 2010. 
 
The "Record Breaking Performance" award was presented to Grunder, who in three seasons set Cortland men's basketball career records with 1,700 points and 962 rebounds. 
 
A new award was presented this year - the Dragon Cup Champion award, given to a Cortland team based on their support of other Red Dragon teams as well as community service. The winner was the women's ice hockey team. 
 
Each year, the Cortland head coaches select a Red Letter Award winner in their respective sports.  The Red Letter may be given for outstanding athletic skills, team leadership, personal development as a player, or for any combination of reasons. The 2022-23 Red Letter Award winners, by sport, are as follows: 
 
Baseball: Matthew Krafft, Jr. (Cornwall) 
Men's Basketball: % Austin Grunder, Sr. (Trumansburg/Charles O. Dickerson) 
Women's Basketball: Nyia Longford, Sr. (Medford/Longwood) 
Men's Cross Country: Hunter Brignall, Sr. (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) 
Women's Cross Country: Khalifah Tracey, Jr. (Greenville) 
Field Hockey: Lily Fox, Sr. (Northport) 

Football: Joshua Cordero, Sr. (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) 
Women's Golf:  Alivia Waldron, Sr. (Plattsburgh/Saranac) 
Women's Gymnastics: Glynis Curcione, Sr. (Buffalo/Wilson Central) 
Men's Ice Hockey: Domenic Settimo, So. (East Meadow) 
Women's Ice Hockey: Dany Donegan, Sr. (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) 
Men's Lacrosse: Rich Finn, So. (LaGrange/Arlington) 

Women's Lacrosse: Amanda Squillini, Gr. (Stony Point/North Rockland) 
Men's Soccer: Alex Lessman, Jr. (Plainview/Plainview-Old Bethpage) 
Women's Soccer: Jaden Galluzzo, Gr. (Commack) 
Softball: Megan LaMont, Sr. (Amsterdam) 
Men's Swimming and Diving: # Hunter Bernhardt, Jr. (Groton) 
Women's Swimming and Diving: Ashley Zachgo, Sr. (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) 

Women's Tennis: $Abby Madigan, Sr. (Endicott/Union-Endicott) 
Men's Indoor Track and Field: Zach Nyhart, Sr. (Hamburg) 
Women's Indoor Track and Field: # Elizabeth Liriano, Sr. (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) 
Men's Outdoor Track and Field: Brett Morse, Sr. (Saratoga Springs) 
Women's Outdoor Track and Field: Alyssa LaBelle, Sr. (Poughquag/Arlington) 
Women's Volleyball: Giovanna Rossi, Sr. (Nichols/Tioga Central) 
Wrestling: & Demitreus Henry, Sr. (Brooklyn/Grand Street Campus) 
 
$ also won the award in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 
& also won the award in 2020-21 and 2021-22 
% also won the award in 2019-20 and 2021-22 
# also won the award in 2019-20