Engineering Students Shine on Successful UMass Athletic Teams

Content

During the fall semester, the College of Engineering (CoE) was not without its share of Renaissance women and men participating on athletic teams that variously made the NCAA Final Four, the NCAA Elite Eight, and a high-end finish in the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships. In addition, a CoE student was a twirler in the UMass Minutemen Marching Band, which performed in the prestigious Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and at various athletic events.

One major highlight of the fall semester was the UMass women’s field-hockey team making it to the NCAA Final Four for the first time since 1992, more than a decade before most current team members were born. One member of this outstanding team was Neva Eisenga – a sophomore civil-engineering major from Rotterdam in the Netherlands – who played defense/midfield and scored a goal against Maine, with assists against Dartmouth, Quinnipiac, and Boston College. Another member of the team was junior mechanical-engineering major Isabelle Larimore from Fredericksburg, Virginia. In addition to her excellent play, she has made the National Field Hockey Coaches Association National Academic Squad and Scholars of Distinction.

The UMass men’s soccer team, aided and abetted by five CoE students, made it to the NCAA Elite Eight for the first time since 2007. Among many other awards, electrical-engineering graduate student Alec Hughes from Glastonbury, Connecticut, was named to the All-America Third Team by College Soccer News, and was selected as the Atlantic-10 Offensive Player of the Year and Eastern College Athletic Conference Offensive Player of the Year. Senior biomedical-engineering major Matt Fordham from Groton, Massachusetts, has been an Atlantic 10 All-Academic selection. Other CoE members of the team were junior mechanical-engineering major Aaron O'Malley from Germantown, Tennessee, sophomore mechanical-engineering major Shane Velez from Perkasie, Pennsylvania, and sophomore electrical-engineering major Ivan Vrh from Greer, South Carolina.

Four CoE athletes also helped the men’s cross-country team to a 7th-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championships – the team’s best placement since 2008. Sophomore mechanical-engineering major Collin Catherwood from Central Valley, New York, scored in all six meets he raced in this fall and finished fifth at the Atlantic-10 Cross-Country Championships. Other CoE members of the team were freshman civil-engineering major Parker Broderick from Fairfield, Connecticut, sophomore mechanical-engineering major Erik Unger from Selwyn, Ontario, and junior civil-engineering major Riley Cole from Northampton.

In addition to all those outstanding CoE athletes, senior biomedical-engineering major Mia Bennett from Middleboro, Massachusetts, is one of the UMass Minuteman Marching Band Feature Twirlers, who are chosen by audition, incorporated fully into the band, and perform both individually and with the band throughout the fall and spring semesters. Her signature twirl is the “variety cache.” (March 2025)