Marlborough, Mass.- The NEWMAC has announced its Athlete of the Week honorees for the week ending 10/5/25, presented by SKYBOKX 109.  The full list of honorees can be found below.
 
Men's Cross Country  
 
Runner of the Week- Yichen Sun (Jr.), MIT
 
Junior Yichen Sun (Chapel Hill, N.C.) finished 19th overall in 24:53.3 to lead the Engineers in the Men's College White 8K race on Saturday at the Paul Short Run. Sun's effort helped MIT secure a seventh-place finish. Sun was near the front through the first mile but moved to 17th at the two-mile mark and held the position through the finish, ultimately taking 19th.
 
Women's Cross Country  
 
Runner of the Week- Kate Sanderson (Sr.), MIT
 
Senior Kate Sanderson (West Hartford, Conn.) helped lead MIT to a 22nd place finish in the Women's College Gold 6K at Paul Short Run. Sanderson finished the 6K course in 20:41.8 to earn 41st overall as the top Division III finisher in a predominantly Division I field. Sanderson navigated the 338-competitor field to move up from 152nd place at the first mile to her 41^st-place finish. From the 2-mile mark to the finish, Sanderson moved up over 50 spots.
 
Field Hockey
 
Offensive Athlete of the Week- Bailey McIntyre (Sr., M), MIT
 
Senior Bailey McIntyre (Concord, Mass.) scored two goals during regulation in MIT's only game of the week, a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime victory at Springfield on Saturday. Trailing 2-0, she put the Engineers on the scoreboard with only 3:45 left to play. Exactly 52 seconds later, McIntyre buried the equalizer to send the game into overtime.
 
Defensive Athlete of the Week- Marguerite Greene (Jr., D), Wellesley College
 
Junior Marguerite Greene (Boston, Mass.) helped anchor a Wellesley defense that didn't allow a goal this week with shutout wins over Nichols and Salve Regina. The Blue became just the third team this season to deny Salve a goal while also limiting Nichols to only two shots. Greene's work on defense propelled the Blue and limited chances for opponents.
 
Football
 
Offensive Athlete of the Week- Broock Desta (Sr., WR), U.S. Coast Guard Academy   
 
Senior Broock Desta (San Diego, Calif.) delivered an explosive performance to lead the Bears past SUNY Maritime, 28-26, on Saturday. The junior wide receiver totaled three touchdowns on the day, catching two passes for 115 yards and two scores while also completing his only pass attempt, a nine-yard strike, for a touchdown. 
 
Defensive Athlete of the Week- Tyler Sordillo (Jr., DL), Springfield College
 
Junior Tyler Sordillo (Hull, Mass.) guided the Pride defense with 2.5 sacks, 2.5 tackles for a loss, and nine total tackles en route to a 28-14 victory in a NEWMAC showdown against Salve Regina, the top-ranked team in New England.
 
Special Teams Athlete of the Week- Josh Castro, (Sr., WR/P), WPI
 
Graduate student Josh Castro (Pittsburgh, Pa.) boomed nine punts for an average of 48 yards, including a school record 94-yard boot, in WPI's 14-7 road victory at Norwich.  The graduate student, who entered the weekend fifth in Division III punting averaged, blasted three punts of 50 yards or more and deposited three kicks inside the opponent's 20.  Castro, a wide receiver by trade, also converted another muffed snap on a punt into a first down late in the game in a critical situation and then caught the game-winning touchdown with 48 seconds remaining to cap a day that he led all players with six receptions for 75 yards.
 
Men's Soccer
 
Offensive Athlete of the Week- Declan Rhatigan (Jr., F), Wheaton College
 
Junior Declan Rhatigan (Holderness, N.H.) tallied eight points with three goals and two assists for the Lyons in two matches. The junior netted a pair of goals and assisted on two others to factor into all four markers in a 4-0 win over visiting Anna Maria College on October 1. Rhatigan capped the week by scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win over visiting NEWMAC foe Emerson College on October 4.
 
Defensive Athlete of the Week- JB Montague (So., GK), Babson College
 
Sophomore JB Montague (Lutz, Fla.) posted a 0.50 goals against average while stopping seven of eight shots for a .875 save percentage to go along with one shutout in two starts last week. He finished with five saves, which included stopping a first-half penalty kick in Tuesday's 1-0 loss to No. 18 Tufts and followed it up with two saves while keeping his third clean sheet of the year in Saturday's 2-0 win over Clark. 
 
Women's Soccer
 
Offensive Athlete of the Week- Autumn Simon (Fy., F), Babson College
 
First year Autumn Simon (Sharon, Mass.) scored her first collegiate goal to lift Babson to a 1-0 win at WPI on Saturday afternoon. The first-year forward notched the go-ahead marker in the 42nd minute as the Beavers improved to 3-0 in conference play for the first time since 2016. 
 
Defensive Athlete of the Week- Riley McNair (Sr., GK), Wellesley College  
 
Senior Riley McNair (Cupertino, Calif.) collected a seventh career shutout in Wellesley's lone game this week, a 1-0 victory over Smith. The senior stopped all six shots on goal, improving the season save percentage to .891 while dropping the goals against average to 0.90 for the season.
 
Volleyball
 
Offensive Athlete of the Week- Ella Zhou (Fy., OH), MIT
 
 First year Ella Zhou (Beijing, China) averaged 4.22 kills and 2.22 digs per set while hitting .545 (38 kills on 66 attempts with two errors) in a 3-0 week for No. 16 MIT. She led all players in kills (16) and digs (12) as she hit .500 and added two blocks in a 25-21, 25-18, 25-14 win over Wheaton on Tuesday. Zhou paced the Engineers' balanced attack with eight kills (.533 hitting percentage) and posted four digs, two aces, and a block in a 25-9, 25-12, 25-13 sweep of Mount Holyoke on Saturday. Later in the day, she amassed a match-high 14 kills while hitting .619 and contributed four digs and three aces in a 25-13, 25-13, 25-12 victory over Worcester State.
 
Defensive Athlete of the Week- Victoria Escuer (Sr., L), WPI

Senior Victoria Escuer (Caracas, Venezuela) reached double figures in digs in all four of WPI's matches last week as the Engineers went 2-2 in four matches, including collecting their first two conference wins since 2023.  The senior captain led the Crimson and Gray defensive effort with 12 and 16 digs in straight set victories over Mount Holyoke and Clark, respectively, while compiling 27 in a four-set defeat to Smith and a career-best 32 in a tough five-set loss to Conn College.  Escuer also chipped in with five service aces on the week, including three in the victory over the Lyons, and equaled her season high total in assists in the conference wins against Mount Holyoke and Clark.
 
About the NEWMAC

The NEWMAC is an association of 12 selective academic institutions: Babson College, Clark University, U.S Coast Guard Academy, Emerson College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mount Holyoke College, Salve Regina University, Smith College, Springfield College, Wellesley College, Wheaton College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute, that are committed to providing high quality competitive athletic opportunities for student-athletes within an educational and respectful environment that embodies the NCAA Division III Philosophy. The conference also partners with eight Associate Members: Brandeis University (Women's Lacrosse, 2026-2027), New York University (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), Norwich University (Football), Simmons College (Rowing), SUNY Maritime College (Football), SUNY New Paltz (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), U.S. Merchant Marine Academy (Football), and Vassar College (Men's Volleyball, 2026-2027), while sponsoring 20 sports.