2016 ‘M’ Club Dean Smith Award winners announced

The University of Maine has named cross country and track athlete Jesse Orach of Gorham and women’s basketball player Sigi Koizar of Vienna, Austria the recipients of the 2016 “M” Club Dean Smith Awards. The awards are presented annually to the top male and female student-athlete with outstanding academic and athletic achievement along with citizenship and community service.

Orach, a senior captain, was awarded a gold medallion at the annual Scholar-Athlete Recognition Ceremony, recognizing him as a four-time scholar-athlete. He holds a 3.95 GPA, majoring in chemical engineering with a mathematics minor and also is pursuing the fifth-year master’s in business administration degree.

Orach, a Presidential Scholar and a National AP Scholar with Distinction, received the America East Elite 18 award for highest academic achievement of all cross country participants in the America East Championships. Orach is a Pulp & Paper Foundation Scholarship recipient and last spring completed a seven month co-op with Verso Corp. He is a six-time Dean’s List honoree and a three-time America East All-Academic team selection.

The senior distance runner volunteers at middle and high school cross country practices and meets. He s involved in Student-Athlete Advisory Committee events on campus, has been an organic chemistry tutor at UMaine and also volunteered his time through his church and local soup kitchens.

Koizar, a junior guard for the UMaine women’s basketball team, was awarded a silver medallion at the ceremony. She majors in biology with a premedical concentration and a chemistry minor with a 3.957 GPA. She has been selected to the America East Commissioner’s Honor Roll three consecutive years and also earned a spot on the America East All-Academic team. Koizar, a Presidential Scholar and five-time Dean’s List honoree, is a two-time member of Team Maine which is awarded to the highest GPA on each individual team at UMaine.

In the community, Koizar has volunteered in several roles including delivering turkeys for Manna Ministries, wrapping presents for Ronald McDonald House and working at many UMaine summer camps. She helped organize a youth clinic in Millinocket where she spent part of her high school career. She also has spent the past three years as a volunteer at Asa C. Adams Elementary School in Orono and participated in the UMaine “Maine Hello” program, welcoming incoming students.

Also at the awards ceremony, the UMaine Athletics Department named its eighth annual “Team Maine” representing the top sophomore, junior or senior achieving the highest grade point average for the calendar year 2015.

More information about Orach and Koizar, as well as a full list of Team Maine student-athletes, is online.

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