ON THE SHORTLIST: Princeton University baseball player Danny Hoy takes a swing in recent action. Senior infielder Hoy, who helped Princeton go from last to first in the Ivy League this spring, was one of five seniors named as a finalist for the William Winston Roper Trophy, given to Princeton’s top senior male athlete. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)

With commencement fast approaching, it is awards season for the Princeton University athletes and the finalists for the two top senior sports honors were revealed last week.

Martin Barakso, Adam Bragg, Teo D’Alessandro, Danny Hoy, and Thomas Sanner were named as the five finalists for the William Winston Roper Trophy, given to Princeton’s top senior male athlete. The winner of the award will be announced at the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Awards Banquet on May 26.

Barakso, history major from Nanaimo, British Columbia, is the captain of the third-ranked Princeton heavyweights, and he is a three-year starter in the first varsity 8. Barakso has medaled in every Eastern Sprints competition he has been in, and he led the first varsity to its first IRA medal in nine years at the 2015 championships. This season, Barakso led the Tigers to an 8-1 record, with its lone loss coming by two seconds to the top-ranked boat in the country. Princeton finished second in the 2016 Eastern Sprints.

Within the last 12 months, Barakso helped the heavyweights win their first Rowe Cup title since 2005, and was part of the first varsity boat that competed at the Henley Royal Regatta. He earned gold with the M8+ for Canada at the 2015 Pan-Am Games, and went on to compete for Canada at the 2015 Senior World Championships, the top rowing competition in a non-Olympic year.

Bragg, a history major from El Toro, Calif., will leave Princeton as the best pole vaulter in school history, if not the Ivy League. At the 2016 Outdoor Heps Bragg cleared an Ivy League record of 5.53 (18-1.75) to win his second consecutive outdoor title and break a league record that stood for 23 years. Bragg also owns the school indoor pole vault record of 5.41 (17-9), which ranks him second all-time in the league. Bragg owns a personal best of 5.65 (18-6.50) which was set at the Fasttrack National Invitational this past February.

A second-team All-America in the pole vault, Bragg finished 12th at the 2014 NCAAs and has qualified for the NCAA Regionals in both 2014 and 2015 and again this year. A three-time Ivy League champion in the event, he was second outdoors in 2012 and fourth indoors in 2012.

D’Alessandro, a history major from Stuart, Fla., served as tri-captain for the Princeton men’s swimming team, which completed a dramatic final-session comeback this season to repeat as Ivy League champion. D’Alessandro leaves Princeton as both a three-time Ivy League individual and team champion; he won the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Ivy titles in the 200 IM, and he finished second to the Ivy record-holder during his 2013 freshman season. He also helped Princeton win the 2013, 2015, and 2016 team championships.

The Princeton record holder in the 200 IM, D’Alessandro holds all-time Top 10 times in six of the 14 individual events in program history. He also completed his career by qualifying for the 2016 NCAA Championships, where he posted Top-35 finishes in three events, including 28th in the 200 IM. He will compete this summer at the Olympic Trials in both the 100 fly and 200 IM.

Hoy, a politics major from Sellersville, Penn., was a key cog of a Princeton baseball team that improved its win total by 15 games from last year, as the Tigers went from last place in its division in 2015 to the 2016 Ivy League champion. The senior infielder was a first-team All-Ivy selection and ranked in the league’s top ten runs, hits, doubles, home runs, RBI, total bases, steals, batting average, and slugging percentage.

Hoy was a first-team All-Ivy League selection as a junior after leading the Tigers in batting averages, home runs, triples, doubles, slugging percentage, RBI and multi-RBI games. Hoy also led the team in doubles, home runs, and runs as a sophomore. The second baseman will finish his career ranked in the program’s all-time top five in doubles, extra base hits; and in the top ten in total bases, runs, hits, and steals.

Sanner, a politics major from Indianapolis, Ind., was the unanimous selection for 2015 Ivy League Offensive Player of the Year. The 2012 Ivy League Rookie of Year earned three All-Ivy League honors during this career, including two on the first team. He is just the second Tiger to have earned Rookie of the Year honors and Player of the Year honors in his career. The only other Princeton player to do so is Princeton head coach Jim Barlow. A first-team all-region selection in 2015, Sanner led the Ivy League in both points, with 31, and goals with 13. Sanner ranked fourth in the NCAA in points per game (1.82), fourth in goals per game (0.76) and was 10th nationally in shots per game (4.06).

He finished his Princeton career with 32 goals, 13 of which were game-winning goals, and 15 assists for 79 points in 64 games. He ranks third in scoring all-time at Princeton, ahead of former assistant coach and MLS Head Coach of the Year Jesse Marsch ’96 and current Montreal Impact player Cameron Porter ’15 who finished with 75 points apiece. Sanner is fourth all-time in goals and tied for fifth in assists.

In January he was invited to the MLS Player Combine in Florida and was later selected by Vancouver as 16th pick in round 2 by the Whitecaps in the MLS SuperDraft.

As for the women,  Liz Bannantine, Cecilia Barowski, Michelle Miller, Kendall Peterkin, Gracie Stone, and Alex Wheatley have been named the finalists for the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award, given annually to the top senior female athlete. The winner of the award will also be announced at the May 26 banquet.

Bannantine, a history major from Baltimore, Md., is a two-year captain and four-year starter on defense for Princeton’s women’s lacrosse team. She will leave Princeton having earned All-Ivy League honors all four years of her career. Bannantine earned two first-team All-Ivy and two second-team All-Ivy honors, and she was an ILWCA first-team all-region selection this year and a second-team All-Region selection last year. A member of the 2016 Tewaaraton Trophy Watch List, Bannantine was on the 2014 Ivy League all-tournament team. During her career, Bannantine started in 68 games and played in 70. She has three assists, 86 ground balls, 40 draw controls, and 77 caused turnovers.

The Tigers reached the NCAA Tournament in all of her four years, reaching the first round during her freshman and senior years, second round her sophomore year, and quarterfinal round her junior year while winning six NCAA tournament games. Princeton won three Ivy League titles and in four years has posted a 49-24 overall record and a 25-3 record in the Ivy League.

Though her days at Princeton are coming to an end, Barowski, a molecular biology major from Amherst, N.H., has plenty to look forward to in her track career. In April she ran the Olympic qualifying time in the 800 at 2:02.62 and will run to make Team USA in July. She has competed in two NCAA Championships, finishing sixth to earn first-team All-America honors in the 800 this past indoor season. Last spring she finished 19th to earn honorable mention All-America honors. Barowski has twice earned her way to the NCAA Regionals in the 800 and will do so again this spring as she owns the fourth best 800 time in the country. She is a six-time Ivy League Heps champion, winning the indoor 500 and 800 and the outdoor 800, 4×400 and the 400 twice. Barowski has been a runner-up four times in 400 and 4×400 relays and has scored in an incredible six other events. In all, she has scored 118 total points for her team at Heps, including relays, and 68 singlehandedly.

Barowski holds 11 Princeton records, including both the indoor and outdoor 400, indoor 500, indoor and outdoor 800, indoor 1000, indoor and outdoor 4×400 relay, outdoor distance medley and sprint medley relay and the 4×800 relay, also an Ivy League record at 8:27.26. She has personal bests of 52.97 in the 400 and a 2:02.14 in the 800.

Miller, a chemistry major from Pasadena, Calif., was a major factor in helping the women’s basketball team go 97-23 (.808) overall and 50-6 (.892) in Ivy League play in her four seasons as a Tiger. During her time at Princeton, Miller helped the Tigers win two Ivy League championships and become the first team in Ivy League history to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Miller is also a quality academic student as she has back-to-back CoSIDA Academic All-American honors, the Princeton Shapiro for Academic Excellence Award, and was named a finalist for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship.

Miller finished her career with 1,314 points, the eighth highest among all Princeton players. She is the team’s all-time leader in free throw percentage (.831), ranks second in three-point field goal percentage (.419) and third in three-pointers made (213). She also was the team’s leading scorer (13.7 points per game) and was named first-team All-Ivy League as a senior.

Peterkin, an ecology and evolutionary biology major from San Diego, Calif. is a three-time first-team All-Ivy League honoree, as well as a member of the AVCA All-Region team, and she helped Princeton to an unprecedented Ivy League championship during her senior season. The Tigers became the first team in any sport in Ivy history to win the title after losing their first three matches, and Peterkin led them as both captain and one of the league’s top hitters. She ranked in the Ivy League top three in kills every year of her career, and she finished ninth in Princeton history with 1,255 kills.

A unanimous first-team All-Ivy League selection in both 2014 and 2015, Peterkin recorded more than 700 kills and 450 digs over her final two seasons. She earned All-ECAC honors during her senior season, and she ranked in the Top 15 in the NCAA as a junior in both kills and points.

Stone, a politics major from Lisle, Ill., is a four-time first-team All-America in saber, the women’s fencing program’s second four-time All-America in her weapon alongside her sister, Eliza Stone, from the Class of 2013. In three of her four trips to the NCAA Championships, she advanced to the individual national championship semifinals, making the final this year for a second-place finish, her highest of four top-eight finishes at the NCAA finals. Stone is also an NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional champion, winning that honor as a sophomore. While her individual accomplishments are outstanding, she has also helped the fencing program bring home an NCAA top-four trophy in each of her four seasons, including a national title in 2013, the program’s first in the combined men’s/women’s title era.

Within the Ivy League, Stone is a two-time first-team All-Ivy honoree, with one of those coming in her freshman year when she earned Most Outstanding Rookie honors at the Ivy League round-robin, and she earned Academic All-Ivy League recognition this year.

Wheatley, an ecology and evolutionary biology major from Upper Holland, Pa., was part of a senior class that was one of the most successful in Ivy women’s basketball history. She helped the program go 97-23 (.808) overall and 50-6 (.892) in Ivy League play. During her time at Princeton, the Tigers won two Ivy League championships and became the first team in conference history to receive an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. Off the court, Wheatley was instrumental in orchestrating Athletes Helping Athletes events, a non-profit organization used to connect local special needs athletes with mainstream student-athletes in a spirit of friendship for their mutual benefit and inspiration.

After a stellar senior season, Wheatley became just one of six players in program history to be named to the All-Ivy first team in back-to-back years. She also nabbed All-Ivy League honorable mention as a sophomore. The senior became a 1,000-point scorer, finishing with 1,137 in her career, the 24th player all-time to reach the mark. Wheatley boasts the third highest field goal percentage (56.1) in women’s basketball history and also showed off a great all-around game as well, finishing with over 500 rebounds, 100 assists, 100 blocks, and 100 steals in her career.