Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 6/12/17
From Press Release
Gwynedd Mercy university senior Marc Bushong (Washington Township-NJ) was selected as the winner of the 2016-17 Colonial States Athletic Conference Male Scholar Athlete of the Year announced by the conference today.
He becomes the fourth Griffin to be bestowed the award and the second male since its inception. He joins Mark Mattes (2008), Alycia (Tranchitella) Geary (2010), and Rachel (Fein) Herring (2014) to take home the top academic award from the conference.
The CSAC Scholar Athlete Award recognizes student-athletes for their academic, athletic and community service achievements. Each institution may nominate one male and one female for inclusion on the ballot produced by the conference office. The ballot is voted on by each Athletics and Sports Information Directors, for a total of two votes per institution per gender.
Bushong also was recently named a USILA Scholar All-American.
In order to be eligible for the award, the student-athlete must be a junior or senior with at least one year in residence prior to his/her nomination; have demonstrated athletic success, earned a varsity letter, and been a key contribution to the team; have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20; and compete in a NCAA sanctioned sport.
On the field, Bushong was a four-time first team All-CSAC selection in men’s lacrosse, including the 2017 CSAC Men’s Lacrosse Defensive Player of the Year Honor and the 2014 CSAC Men’s Lacrosse Rookie of the Year Award. He was a starter over the last three seasons, while being named by his teammates as captain during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
He graduated as the program’s all-time leader in caused turnovers with 110 and caused turnovers in a season with 39, netting those in his senior year. He ranked second all-time in groundballs with 283. During his career, he played in all 59 games with 52 starts. Despite being a defender, he did get one goal and one assist in his career.
During his senior season, he led the CSAC in caused turnovers per game at 2.79, which ranked eighth in Division III. He anchored a defense that ranked 21st in Division III scoring defense at 7.86 GAA.
Off the field, Bushong participated in the annual Mr. Griffin contest at Gwynedd Mercy. The contest helps support The Sunshine Foundation, whose purpose is to answer the dreams of chronically ill, seriously ill, physically challenged and abused children ages three to 18, whose families can’t fulfill their requests. Through the efforts of this event, the Gwynedd Mercy SAAC have fully funded a trip to Walt Disney World for a child or more in each of the last six years.
He graduated in May with a degree in Radiologic Technology, and had a 3.83 GPA going into the Spring Semester.