Courtesy: Ohio State Athletics
COLUMBUS, Ohio – World record holder and Big Ten Champion Hunter Armstrong (men’s swimming) and NCAA and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) champion Sophie Jaques (women’s hockey) are Ohio State’s 2022 Male and Female Athletes of the Year. Both will now be placed on the ballots for Big Ten Athlete of the Year awards, with the winners to be announced by the conference in late June.
Armstrong is the first men’s swimmer to win Ohio State’s Male Athlete of the Year award. He is only the second swimmer to collect the accolade, following Susan Gottlieb’s 1989-90 Female Athlete of the Year nod. Jaques becomes the second women’s hockey player to be named Ohio State’s Female Athlete of the Year after teammate and fellow defenseman Jincy Dunne won in 2020.
A 2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, Armstrong continued his winning ways in the short course pool during his junior season for the Buckeyes. He earned four event wins during the regular season, including a 100 backstroke victory in the Buckeyes’ first dual win over rival Michigan in more than 30 years.
At the Big Ten Championship meet, Armstrong picked up five gold medals. Individually, he won the 50 and 100 freestyle titles, helping the Buckeyes to a historic 1-2-3 finish in the 100 freestyle. He added wins in the 200 and 400 freestyle relay and 200 medley relay.
Armstrong earned the Buckeyes’ highest finish at the 2022 NCAA Championship meet, placing fifth in the 100 backstroke for First Team All-America honors. He also helped the 200 freestyle relay to a seventh-place, All-American result. The Dover, Ohio native went on to add four honorable mention All-American honors – 100 freestyle, 200 and 400 medley relay and 400 freestyle relay. By the end of the season, he had a hand in setting seven of the 11 short course school records established this year.
Following the NCAA season, Armstrong made waves on the international level at the Phillips 66 International Team Trials. He set the 50 backstroke world record in a time of 23.71 to secure his spot on the Team USA World Championship roster. He went on to break four Ohio State long course records at the meet.
Armstrong is currently in Budapest, Hungary and set to compete at the 2022 FINA World Championships for the United States.
Jaques, who helped guide Ohio State to its first national championship in program history this year, had one of the best seasons by a women’s hockey player not just at Ohio State, but in the history of the NCAA.
The 2022 First Team AHCA/CCM All-American and First Team All-WCHA honoree totaled a team-high 59 points on the year, good for third-most in the nation despite being a defender. She set the Ohio State record for points in a single season by a defender and finished tied for the most single season points by any Buckeye skater. Jaques also recorded the second-most points in a season by a true defenseman in NCAA history as she doubled her career point total in just one year.
The Toronto, Ontario native proved to be a clutch player for the Buckeyes, especially in the postseason. With the WCHA Final Faceoff title on the line, Jaques scored both the game-tying and game-winning goals in the championship game against Minnesota to secure Ohio State’s second conference tournament title. The feat earned her MVP honors of the tournament and she went on to be named to the Frozen Four All-Tournament Team. She finished the season with a team-best 11 power play goals, 44 blocked shots and +51 on-ice.
Jaques, who was named Ohio State’s first Arthur Ashe Jr. Sport Scholar of the Year award winner, was named Ohio State’s first top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. She also became the third Buckeye to earn WCHA Defender of the Year honors after winning four of the conference’s five monthly defenseman awards and eight weekly honors on the year.
A 2022 Ohio State civil engineering graduate, Jaques returns to the Buckeye roster for the 2022-23 season for her final year of eligibility. She will be pursuing a graduate degree in civil engineering.
