Taking a moment in the calm before the storm that is Marauder Weekend, the McMaster Department of Athletics and Recreation honoured the outstanding academic performance of their Marauder Scholars in a ceremony Friday morning.
 
The Marauder Scholar award is given to student athletes who achieve a minimum sessional average of 9.5 on at least 24 units of work.
 
In 2015-16, a total of 290 McMaster student athletes achieved that standard, an increase of 30 from the previous year. 91 of those achieved CIS Academic All-Canadian status, while 115 were OUA Academic Achievement award winners.
 


Honouring two of the top student athletes the University has to offer, the Department also awarded the Dr. Mary E. Keyes and Dr. Jack Kennedy Awards on Friday.
 
The Dr. Mary E. Keyes and Dr. Jack Kennedy awards are presented annually in honor of Dr. Keyes and Dr. Kennedy to a female and male undergraduate student-athlete who best combines outstanding academic achievement and athletic excellence. Candidates exemplify the high ideals of Dr. Keyes and Dr. Kennedy, including the qualities of excellence, integrity, community involvement and the development of the whole student-athlete.
 
For 2015-16, the winner of the Dr. Jack Kennedy Award is wrestler Joban Phulka.
 
A two-time Academic All-Canadian and Marauder Scholar, Joban is currently in his third year in the specialized Biomedical Discovery & Commercialization program. A member of the Dean's Honour List last year, Joban's team won the poster competition at the Biomedical Discovery & Commercialization research symposium last year. Within has academic program, he is also a mentor to younger students.
 
Back home in Abbotsford, BC, Joban is a volunteer wrestling coach as well as the athlete representative on the Miri Piri Wrestling Club executive council.
 
Athletically, Joban helped the men's wrestling team to a national and provincial silver medal last year. Individually, he was third in the country in the 82kg weight class and claimed silver at the OUA championship.
 
Meanwhile, the winner of the Dr. Mary Keyes Award is a recent graduate very familiar to Marauder fans and the McMaster community: rugby star Cindy Nelles.
 
A two-time CIS Academic All-Canadian and three-time Dean's Honour List, the recent civil engineering graduate was also the recipient of the Ronald V. Joyce Award for Combining Outstanding Athletic and Academic Performance in 2016 and a three-time Marauder Scholar. Cindy was also an active member in the McMaster Athletes Care Program, volunteering at community centres within Hamilton. She also served as head coach for the Westdale High school senior girl's rugby team throughout their spring season.
 
On the field, Cindy earned player of the year honours, captaining the Marauders to gold medals at the both the OUA and CIS Rugby Championship, where she was later named championship final most valuable player.
 
For her outstanding accomplishments on the pitch and in the classroom, Cindy was named a CIS Top 8 Academic – the prestigious CIS scholar-athlete award. She was just the first Marauder since 2004 to receive this honour.

FULL LIST OF MARAUDER SCHOLARS