05/02/2023
SUNY Cortland seniors Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) and Glynis Curcione (Buffalo/Wilson Central) have been honored as 2022-23 State University of New York (SUNY) Scholar Athletes of the Year. Sassine is the SUNY system’s Division III honoree for men’s indoor track and field and Curcione, a women's gymnastics competitor, was recognized in the Division III winter at-large category.
Sassine is a communication studies major who entered the spring semester with a 3.90 cumulative grade point average. He was an NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field qualifier in the triple jump this past March, finishing 12th nationally, and he was the runner-up in the event at both the SUNYAC and All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships. He earned All-Niagara Region honors in the triple jump both this winter as well as during the 2022 outdoor season.
Curcione is an exercise science major who entered the spring with a 3.70 cumulative grade point average. She was the national runner-up and an All-American on uneven bars last month at the National Collegiate Gymnastics Association (NCGA) championships and earned NCGA All-East region honors with a fourth-place finish. Curcione set a school record on uneven bars with a 9.875 during her junior year, and she was an All-American in the event, based on her Seasonal Average Score, during the 2020 COVID-shortened season.
The Winter SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards recognized 22 student athletes from SUNY colleges and universities sponsoring intercollegiate athletics at the four-year and two-year levels who were nominated and voted upon by representatives of their respective institutions. Nominating information includes cumulative grade point average, current and career statistics, and athletic and academic honors.
More than 14,000 student-athletes compete at SUNY institutions representing 53 different colleges and universities at the NCAA Division I, NCAA Division III/USCAA and NJCAA levels and are eligible for the awards. The 19 Division III institutions in the SUNY system are: Alfred State, Brockport, Buffalo State, Canton, Cobleskill, Cortland, Delhi, Farmingdale, Fredonia, Geneseo, Maritime, Morrisville, New Paltz, Old Westbury, Oneonta, Oswego, Plattsburgh, Potsdam and SUNY Poly. SUNY-ESF, the lone four-year SUNY institution sponsoring intercollegiate athletics that is a member of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) instead of the NCAA, participates in the program with the 19 NCAA Division III members for a total of 20 colleges and universities.
The SUNY Scholar Athlete Awards, which originated last fall, recognized outstanding academic and athletic success in 29 different sports and are presented three times a year to coincide with the specific sports contested in the fall, winter and spring seasons. The Scholar Athletes of the Year in each sport will then be nominated for an overall Scholar Athlete of the Year for men's sports and women's sports in each category that will be announced in mid-July.
Because sport sponsorship varies among institutions, a minimum sponsorship formula has been developed for award selections. At least three (3) institutions must sponsor the sport in the Division I category, while at least five (5) institutions must sponsor the sport in the SUNY Division III/USCAA and SUNY NJCAA categories. For sports that do not meet the minimum threshold to be a viable award, an At-Large Category has been developed for each level and each season.