EDMONTON – UBC women's hockey defenceman
Mikayla Ogrodniczuk has been named the Canada West's Student-Athlete Community Service award winner for the 2017-18 season.
A tough defender who has become known for her hard work both on and off the ice, Ogrodniczuk is this year's recipient thanks to her outstanding performance in the classroom and the community.
Ogrodniczuk was an Academic All-Canadian in 2016-17, and posted a 3.75 GPA during the first semester of the 2017-18 season.
Along with her success in the classroom, the health sciences student has been leading the charge for student-athlete metal health on campus at UBC. With assistance from her dad John, who is a highly-regarded psychiatrist at UBC, she worked countless hours to help develop
UBC Athletes Hub – a website dedicated to providing mental health resources for student-athletes.
Along with her continued work on mental health issues, she is also part of UBC's access and diversity program, where she assists students with disabilities in taking notes, helping ensure that all students with a registered disability at UBC have equal access to course material.
"Helping build the
UBC Athletes Hub, the first mental health resource dedicated strictly for a student-athlete population, is incredible," said UBC head coach
Graham Thomas. "It's inspiring and hopefully something that will be built on for athletes across North America. We're really proud of Mikayla and the dedication and effort she's put into mental health awareness and support for student athletes everywhere."
Along with Ogrodniczuk's award, the Canada West announced the conference's Player of the Year, Coach of the Year, and Rookie of the Year winners.
Half the time this season Jessica Vance was unbeatable. In the other half, she was inches off perfection.
The second-year Saskatchewan Huskies netminder was named the Canada West Women's Hockey Player of the Year Wednesday, as the conference unveiled its major award winners ahead of this weekend's CW Final.
Vance claimed the conference's top individual honour after posting a 14-3-0-1 record over 18 games this season. The Prince Albert, Sask. product recorded a remarkable nine shutouts over that stretch and a GAA of 0.77.
Her shutout total finished tied for second-most in a single CW season behind Lindsey Post's record of 10, which for comparison sake, was set in 2014-15 when the Alberta goalie played in 27 games for the Pandas.
Taking home the CW Rookie of the Year honour was fellow goalie Lauren Taraschuk of the Manitoba Bisons. The Winnipeg native earned the award after posting a 10-2-0-0 record, .961 SV%, 0.71 GAA, and five shutouts.
Taraschuk's 0.71 GAA was tops in the conference, as the Bisons finished first during the regular season and are not set to host the Huskies this weekend in the best-of-three CW Final beginning Friday in Winnipeg.
Rounding out the major award winners is UBC's
Mikayla Ogrodniczuk as the Student-Athlete Community Service award winner, and Coach of the Year Jon Rempel of Manitoba.
Ogrodniczuk earned the honour thanks in large part to her extensive efforts to provide mental health support to student-athletes through the
UBC Athletes Hub, which is an online resource dedicated to mental health information targeted at student-athletes.
Rempel is the conference's top coach for the second consecutive season, after leading Manitoba to a first-place finish and home ice advantage throughout the conference playoffs.
All CW award winners now move forward as nominees for the U SPORTS national awards, which will be handed out at the national tournament March 15-18 at Western University in London, Ont.
NOTE: The CW awards were selected by the conference's eight women's hockey head coaches.
