JERSEY CITY, N.J. (NJCUGothicKnights.com) | Senior left fielder/designated hitter Bill Feehan (Point Pleasant, NJ/Point Pleasant Boro) of the baseball team and senior setup Kayla Clarke (East Rutherford, NJ/Becton Regional) of the women's bowling team have been named the 2020 recipients of the New Jersey City University Presidential Individual Academic Achievement Awards. Feehan wins the award for the second consecutive year. Meanwhile, the women's bowling team was honored as the Presidential Team Academic Achievement Award winner for the sixth year in a row and the 15th time in 16 years. The NJCU Athletics Department announced the awards on day 16 of The 2020 Gothics on May 26, during the Gothic Knights' virtual month-long awards series.
 
Despite the award not being based on athletic ability, both of this year's individual winners were leaders on their respective teams, on and off the competition surface. Feehan's 3.947 GPA is the third highest grade point average of any eligible male student-athlete since 1999 and became just the fourth men's student-athlete to win the award in back-to-back years. He led a baseball team that academically produced the highest GPA in school history for a program with 10 or more members and placed 10 on the Dean's List in the Fall 2019 semester.
 
Clarke, who played four sports during her NJCU career, produced a 3.879 GPA. She helped highlight the women's bowling team's combined 3.501 GPA, which edged out men's golf (3.441 GPA) and baseball (3.282 among 30 players) for the 2019-20 accolade. This year, for the first time, five different teams were in contention with a team GPA of 3.00 or better, including women's indoor track and field (3.108) and women's cross country (3.075).
 
ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL INDIVIDUAL ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: 
Presented annually since 1999 to the male and female student-athlete with the highest overall grade point average. The criteria are:

• A minimum of 36 cumulative college level credits earned at NJCU that will be used towards their degree;
• Individuals must have participated and completed their season in the academic year that the award is being granted;
• The award is not based on athletic ability; rather it is strictly based on academic performance.

 
KAYLA CLARKE
Clarke, who owns a 3.879 GPA with a double major in Criminal Justice and Fire Science, was a four-sport athlete in her career in women's bowling (2018-20), women's volleyball (2016-17), women's basketball (2016-18) and softball (2017-18). She was the 2019-20 winner of the NJCU Most Improved Award for the sport of women's bowling.
 
A three-time Academic All-Conference selection between two conferences, she was a two-time Academic All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) and a one-time Academic All-NJAC Honorable Mention pick. Clarke is an eight-time NJCU Dean's List recipient dating to Spring 2016. She has enjoyed two perfect 4.00 GPAs in Spring 2019 and Fall 2019. She was a 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District nominee and was a one-time NJAC Softball Rookie of the Week in 2017.
 
Clarke became the fourth different member of the women's bowling team to win the award a total of five times, joining Amieé deNeuf (2005 and 2007), Nicole Baginsky (2011-12) and two-sport athlete Rachel McIntyre (Drexel Hill, PA/Upper Darby) (2017-18).

 
BILL FEEHAN
Feehan repeats as the Male Presidential Academic Achievement Award Winner courtesy of a 3.947 GPA while majoring in Fire Science with a minor in General Business. He improved his GPA from 3.934 last year.
 
A four-year starting left fielder and designated hitter for head coach Jerry Smith, in 90 career games (including 87 starts), he finished his career with 87 hits, a .286 batting average and a .424 on-base percentage, including 61 walks and 17 hit by pitch. He scored 58 runs and drove in 48 RBIs, adding 19 extra-base hits—15 doubles, one triple and three home runs. Feehan missed most of his junior season with a hamstring injury and his senior season was cut short after six games due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He played the first two games of NJCU's Texas spring trip before returning early to New Jersey to take a fire department placement exam.
 
He would have easily surpassed 100 career hits if not for these setbacks and he finished his career with an average of one hit for every game started. Feehan is among NJCU's all-time leaders in walks. 
 
Feehan became just the fourth male to win the award in consecutive years, joining Jonathan Bilbao of men's soccer (2006 and 2007), Kenny Lisk of men's volleyball (2009-10 and 2010-11) and Daniel Carapezzi of men's cross country (2016-17 and 2017-18). He becomes the first baseball player to repeat as the award winner and it's the fourth overall time a baseball player has won the award; Patrick Moore won in 2003 and Rob Roman was honored in 2011-12.
 
A three-time Academic All-NJAC selection, he will be named First-Team Academic All-NJAC in 2020 after being chosen Second-Team Academic All-NJAC in 2018 and 2019. He was a 2020 CoSIDA Academic All-District nominee. A seven-time Dean's List recipient in seven total semesters, he earned a perfect 4.00 GPA in four semesters (Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018 and Fall 2019). Feehan is a two-year SAAC representative (2018-19 and 2019-20).


 
ABOUT THE PRESIDENTIAL TEAM ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: 
First presented beginning in 2003, it is awarded annually to the NJCU athletic team with the highest cumulative GPA while participating in intercollegiate athletics. 
 
TEAM PRESIDENTIAL ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: 
In the 16 years the award has been presented, only two teams have won the award, and that streak continues in 2020. The women's bowling team won the award for the first nine consecutive years from 2003 through 2011-12 before having its streak snapped by the women's soccer team in the 2011-12 season.
 
Since then, the women's bowling team has now won the award in six consecutive seasons (2014-15 thru 2019-20). The bowling team has produced the four highest GPAs in the award's history—all in each of the last four years including an all-time NJCU record 3.767 GPA in 2018-19—and each time the result was better than a combined 3.5.
 
Coached by new head coach Rusty Thomsen and associate head coach Frank Parisi, an NJCU Hall of Famer—who returned after being at the helm of the program during the first nine years it won this award—the team included Clarke, juniors Valerie Moore (Old Bridge, NJ/Old Bridge) and Kelly McKenna (Watchung, NJ/Watchung Hills Regional), and freshmen Nicole Espinoza (Secaucus, NJ/Memorial) and Arielle Wallace (Hackensack, NJ/Hackensack).
 
This year the average GPA of an active student athlete was a program-record 2.926 and 49 different student-athletes earned Dean's List recognition in the Fall 2019 semester.
 
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