June 6, 2006 - Rider Places Three on MAAC Top 25 Performers including Track's Fenlator

June 6, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Rider Places Three on MAAC Top 25 Performers
Track’s Fenlator, Swimmers Michalov, O’Reilly

LAWRENCEVILLE—Three Rider University athletes have been selected by fans as being among the Top 25 Performers in the 25-year history of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference.

Junior Jazmine Fenlator, and Rider graduates Melissa Michalov ’04 and Jennifer O’Reilly ’01 are among the 25 non-basketball Top Performers in MAAC history.

Fenlator ranked 53rd in the nation in the shot put and 71st in the nation in the discus this year, setting Rider records in both events along with the hammer and the 20 pound weight throw.  Fenlator qualified for the NCAA Regional in both the shot and discus, after winning the MAAC championship in both events (shot put indoor and outdoor).  At the indoor and outdoor ECAC Championships, she earned All-East honors in the weight throw, shot put and discus.

Michalov was the Rider female Athlete of the Year in 2002-03. That year she was named the MAAC’s Most Outstanding Swimmer, winning seven gold medals in seven events, while setting four MAAC and five Rider records. Michalov graduated with 20 MAAC gold medals, four Rider pool records, nine team records and eight MAAC records.

O’Reilly was the Rider female Athlete of the Year as a freshman (1998) and as a sophomore (1999) and was a three-time Andrew J. Rider Scholar. O’Reilly won the 100 freestyle four consecutive years at the MAAC Championships, and finished her career with 24 MAAC gold medals, most ever by a Bronc, including five as a senior. She graduated with eight Rider team records and helped set Rider pool records in four relay events. O’Reilly helped set two MAAC Championship relay records and was Rider’s first-ever Barry Goldwater Scholarship Award recipient, a national academic honor.

-RU-