ATLANTA—Oglethorpe junior Ben Alram was named offensive player of the year, head coach Jon Akin earned coach of the year, and 12 Stormy Petrels landed a spot on the Southern Athletic Association All-Conference team, announced the league on Wednesday.
Alram, Daniel Amah, Adrian Levy and JR Cozine made the All-Conference first team; Luke Ferrari, Jake Locklear and Cristian Medina made the All-Conference second team; and Dylan Bapst, Carlos Cavallaro, Javier Martinez, Nicolas Mejia, Nicolas Sciarra made All-Conference honorable mention.
These 12 Petrels helped Oglethorpe win the SAA regular season for the sixth time in the last eight years. On top of that, they set two records: team shutouts in a season and individual shutouts in a season, the latter set by Mejia as a true freshman. Both records stand at 11 as the team heads into the semifinals of the conference tournament.
By winning the league, Oglethorpe earned home field advantage for the tournament and will host the semifinals (Nov. 3) and final (Nov. 5) with a chance to win their fourth postseason title and first since 2017. The team is 12-2-2 overall and finished the regular season 6-1 in the SAA.
Ben Alram
- Became the first Petrel since Topher Marshall in 2017 to win offensive player of the year.
- Led the SAA with 11 goals and ranked second behind Cozine in the SAA with seven assists.
- Led the SAA with 29 points and game-winning goals with four.
- Ranked in the top 50 in NCAA Division III in goals per game and in the top 35 in points per game.
Head Coach Jon Akin
- Named coach of the year for the ninth time. Seven of these honors have come during Oglethorpe's SAA era. Six have come in the last nine years.
- Led the team to its seventh regular-season conference title and 10th title overall.
- Led the team to a 12-2-2 overall record to mark the 10th season the team reached double digits in wins.
- Picked up his 200th career coaching win last week in the quarterfinals with a 5-0 win over Millsaps.
Team Statistical Notes | Season Numbers
- Mejia led the NCAA with 11 individual shutouts.
- Oglethorpe as a team ranked No. 4 in shutout percentage at 0.688 shutouts per game.
- Cozine ranked No. 30 in the NCAA with 0.50 assists per game.
- Oglethorpe took four of the top five spots in the SAA for goal scoring with Alram leading with 11 and Medina, Cozine and Levy ranking third with five each.
- Oglethorpe took five of the top eight spots in the SAA for assists. Cozine led with nine, Alram ranked second with seven, Levy ranked fourth with four, and Medina and Sciarra ranked seventh with three.
- Levy and Alram both tallied four game-winning goals to lead the SAA. Amah had two game winning goals which tied for fifth.
- Alram led the SAA by a longshot with 1.93 points per game. Cozine ranked second in that category with 1.19, then Medina and Levy ranked fourth with 1.00.
- Oglethorpe claimed eight athletes of the week this season to lead the SAA. Mejia (Sept. 5, Sept. 18) and Cozine (Sept. 18, Sept. 25) each won the award twice. Alram (Sept. 5), Locklear (Oct. 2), Medina (Oct. 9) and Amah (Oct. 23) also were winners.
Previous Honors
- Martinez earned a spot on the All-SAA list for the third consecutive time after being named second team in 2022 and honorable mention in 2021.
- Cavallaro also made the list for the third time in a row as he was honorable mention in 2022 and second team in 2021.
- Bapst and Locklear both were recognized for the second time as they were both honorable mention in 2022.
