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Cassi Calamunci and Alex Phillip Clyde Lamb

Alex Phillip and Cassi Calamunci Selected as JCU's 2022-23 Clyde Lamb Award Winners

| By: JCUSID
Both Phillip and Calamunci made a large impact on their respective programs. 
Two very deserving Blue Streaks have been selected as the winners of the 2022-23 Clyde Lamb Award for John Carroll University.

Cassie Calamunci is JCU's Female Clyde Lamb Award winner after her unbelievable, culture-changing efforts with the Volleyball program. Alex Phillip is JCU's Male Clyde Lamb Award winner as he completes a career with Cross Country and Track & Field that can only be described as legendary.

Calamunci and Phillip join a who's who list of some of the most outstanding student-athletes in the lengthy history of John Carroll Athletics. For JCU, Phillip is the fourth-ever men's runner to win (the second in a row), and Calamunci is the fourth-ever volleyball player to win. 

The Clyde Lamb Awards are presented to the top male and female scholar-athletes at each of the 10 Ohio Athletic Conference institutions. Calamunci and Phillip were honored on Monday, May 15 at the OAC banquet. 

Cassi Calamunci

Without question, Cassi Calamunci can say she left the John Carroll Volleyball program better than when she found it. 

In the season before her freshman year, John Carroll finished with a 6-26. In her final JCU campaign, the Blue Streaks notched a 21-8 record en route to the OAC Tournament Championship game.

Immediately as a freshman, Calamunci showed promise as an All-OAC Honorable Mention selection in 2018. She garnered Second Team All-OAC honors in 2019, and then COVID-19 struck, forcing her junior year to become a spring sport. She helped to guide the team wonderfully, again as a Second Team All-OAC selection. In the fall, she upped her recognition level to First Team status.

With an extra year of eligibility thanks to the COVID waiver, Calamunci returned for her fifth year to pursue her MBA (after acquiring her Bachelor's in Marketing from the Boler School of Business. The team captain would lead the Blue Streaks to new heights.

With teammate Ally Bartolone by her side, Calamunci steered the team to historic wins and back to the OAC Tournament Championship for the first time in nearly a decade. The Sylvania, Ohio native was rewarded as the OAC Sheila Wallace-Kovalchik Player-of-the-Year, the program's first OAC Player of the Year since Katy Perrone in 1996 and just fourth overall (Stacey Mullally won in 1992 and 1993). Calamunci also became the program's fifth two-time First Team All-OAC honoree. 

Following the season, the honors continued to roll in. Calamunci earned First Team All-Region (the third player in program history to earn the accolade) and AVCA All-American Honorable Mention (just the second player in program history to do so).

Looking at her career stats, Calamunci finished top five in a number of categories, including second in sets played (485), third in kills (1,602), and fifth in kills per set (3.30). She led the OAC with 373 kills in 2022 and finished second in the conference with 360 kills in 2021. 

A Leadership Scholar at JCU, Calamunci showcased her leadership on and off the court for the Blue Streaks under the direction of head coach Michele Benoit. The Toledo Notre Dame Academy grad is also a member of JCU's Women in Business organization.

Calamunci's impact on the program will not soon be forgotten. 

Alex Phillip

There may never be another Alex Phillip at John Carroll University.

The depth and breadth of his accomplishments are beyond the accolades perhaps of any other student-athlete to walk the halls in University Heights. And for that matter, Phillip's resume certainly stacks up well as compared to other greats in NCAA Division III running history.

But Phillip is the embodiment of a D-III star: Humble, quick to credit his teammates and coaches, and always willing to help. 

Phillip's career began in 2019 before the pandemic, as he showed promise as the OAC's Freshman of the Year at the OAC Cross Country Championships and later as an All-American. But his career very much took off after the pandemic. In the spring of 2021, he gave a prelude of what was to come, winning two All-American honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. 

The Akron native became a star in the fall of 2021. Phillip captured the OAC Cross Country Championship while JCU also earned the team title, as he became the program's first OAC Runner-of-the-Year award. And in November 2021, he made history as the conference's first NCAA Cross Country Individual National Champion. Phillip repeated as the OAC and NCAA Champion in the fall of 2022.

Phillip's track & field career has been defined by championships and records. Phillip captured the 3000m and 5000m titles at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships, 5k and 10k crowns at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships and then earned runner-up honors at the 2023 NCAA Indoor Championships. JCU has finished top six at the last three NCAA track championships, including a historic second-place finish last spring under the direction of head coach Kyle Basista.

The St. Vincent-St. Mary grad helped to lead the Distance Medley Relay team to an NCAA Division III record before tallying records of his own in the indoor 3k and 5k this winter, and then marking down the outdoor 5k and 10k D-III records this spring. 

For his career (heading into his last NCAA Division III Championships), Phillip stands as a 5x NCAA Division III National Champion, 10x NCAA Division III All-American, 15x OAC Champion
20x All-OAC performer, 6x OAC Most Outstanding Distance Runner, 12x OAC Runner of the Week, and 9x USTFCCCA Runner of the Week.

What the resume won't tell you is that Phillip, a Finance major, is also beloved by not just his teammates and coaches, but also his professors. He is an on-campus leader, recently winning SAAC's Mr. John Carroll award. 

And that's the story of Alex Phillip: A humble star with plenty of accolades to his name, and a leader who lifts up those around him, too. 

About the Clyde Lamb Award
The award was founded in 1985 and is named in honor of Clyde A. Lamb. Lamb organized the department of health and physical education at Ohio Northern University in 1929, and served as a coach, department chairman and athletics director at ONU from 1929-64. He continued to teach full-time until his death in 1969.

Lamb, who received his bachelor's degree from Coe College in 1923 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1929, coached numerous sports at Ohio Northern during his tenure. In 1959, he was elected to the NAIA Helms Hall of Fame. He was honored as Ada's Distinguished Citizen in 1956 and was inducted into Ohio Northern's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1969.

John Carroll's All-Time List of Clyde Lamb Award Winners
1990: Shawn Robertson, Football / Diane Orban, Cross Country
1991: Joe Runkel, Track & Field / Heather Peltier, Cross Country and Track & Field
1992: Dan Single, Wrestling / Christie Palumbo, Diving
1993: Eric Graf, Soccer / Karen D'Angelo, Volleyball and Track & Field
1994: Brad Eungard, Football / Julie Koscinski, Cross Country and Track & Field
1995: Aaron Sheets, Wrestling / Danielle Sluga, Soccer, Cross Country and Track & Field
1996: Brian Unk, Golf / Thea Consler, Soccer and Track & Field
1997: Frank D'Angelo, Diving / Amy Fenske, Cross Country and Track & Field
1998: Nate Samblanet, Wrestling / Carrie McVicker, Softball
1999: Mark Heidorf, Basketball / Jen Wolke, Softball
2000: David Ziegler, Football / Shannon Murphy, Swimming
2001: Craig Recko, Baseball / Carrie Scherger, Swimming
2002: Mike Markovic, Wrestling / Jen Sturm, Track & Field
2003: Chris Cubero, Football / Beth Grzybowski, Volleyball and Track & Field
2004: Ryan Ficco, Wrestling / Sara Bryan, Soccer
2005: Mark Hawald, Wrestling / Bridget Knazek, Softball
2006: Doug Phillips, Football / Ellie Fernandez, Cross Country and Track & Field
2007: Chris Kempf, Cross Country and Track & Field / Jenny Sopkovich, Soccer
2008: Paul Schroder, Golf / Kristen Kovach, Swimming
2009: James Steward, Tennis / Rachael Price, Basketball
2010: Ben Adams, Wrestling / Julie Marlowe, Softball
2011: Brian Benander, Baseball / Betsy Haigh, Soccer
2012: Eric Davis, Swimming / Brittany Danilov, Softball
2013: Lane Robilotto, Football / Mackenzie Griffin, Softball
2014: Matt Feeney, Football / Gabriella Kreuz, Cross Country and Track & Field
2015: Brian Potocnik, Soccer / Rachael Byrnes, Softball
2016: Jack MacLean, Lacrosse / Lindsey Fano, Swimming
2017: Jad Abdul-Aal, Tennis / Kit O'Shaughnessy, Volleyball
2018: Jesse Marinaro, Soccer /  Erin Kiley, Cross Country and Track & Field 
2019: Nick Colby, Track & Field / Lauren O'Malley, Tennis 
2020: Mason Beck, Swimming / Maddie Dolce, Swimming
2021: Sammy Gross, Wrestling / Gwyn Ledrick, Swimming  
2022: Jamie Dailey, Cross Country and Track & Field / Olivia Nagy, Women's Basketball
2023: Alex Phillip, Cross Country and Track & Field / Cassi Calamunci, Volleyball
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