Senior Spotlight: Athletes

Posted on by Darian Johannsen

by Larissa Gamble, Editor-in-Chief

After a difficult year and a half, many college athletes were excited to return to their sport this year and to play in front of a crowd. For the Seniors, this year has been bittersweet as it is their last chance to play the sport they love in college after a very different and difficult Junior year . This story highlights some of those Seniors and their experiences playing their sport in college.

Xavier Maxwell
Xavier Maxwell is a Public Health major with a history minor. He has played football for 17 years with 4 of those years in college. His proudest moment in college was catching his first collegiate touchdown in front of his mom.
Hailey Woodard
Hailey Woodard is a Psychology major and a Education minor. She has played soccer for 19 years, 2 of those years have been at Austin College. Her proudest moment at Austin College was a slide tackle against Southwestern and scoring against Letourneau.
Valery Piachonkina
Valery Piachonkina is a History major minoring in Spanish She has played Water Polo for 8 years. Her proudest collegiate moment was winning Conference Championships last year.
Sydney Padget
Sydney Padget is a Business Administration major and a Biology minor. She has been playing soccer for 15 years and has played all 4 years at Austin College. Her proudest moment was in her Junior year when she was nominated for Second Team All-SCAC.
Maximo Saenz Jr
Maximo Saenz Jr. is a Business Finance major and an Accounting minor. He has been swimming for 16 years with 4 of those years at Austin College. His proudest moment was breaking the school’s record in the 100 m Butterfly.
Shannon Berry
Shannon Berry is a Political Science major and a Psychology minor. She has been playing Water Polo for about 7 years and her proudest moment came when she was a sophomore. At a tournament in Illinois she was on defense and the team won all 4 games and defeated the previous years champions.
Jonathan Voos
Jonathan Voos is double majoring in Political Science and Economics. He has played baseball since he was 4 years old. His proudest moment was recording a 5 pitch inning against Trinity last year.
Mari Prazak
Mari Prazak is doing a combined major of Biology and Exercise Sports Studies and getting her minor in Business Studies. She had played volleyball since she was in the 4th grade. Her proudest collegiate athlete moment was beating Southwestern in the conference tournament for 3rd place as well as earning 2nd-team all conference.
Aaron Rideaux
Aaron Rideaux is a Business Administration major with his minor in Kinesiology. He has played football for 18 years and his proudest moment in college was beating #12 ranked Centre at home.
Andrew Pope
Andrew Pope is a Business Administration major with a minor in Communications. He has played Water Polo for 8 years and his proudest collegiate moment came when his team earned all American and took 3rd at the DIII Easterns.
Sophie Oliver
Sophie Oliver is a Communications major and an Education minor. She has played Water Polo for 10 years and her proudest moment was winning the Gene Day Award and making 1st team All-American.
Ben Rafalski
Ben Rafalski is a Computer Science and Data Science major. He has been swimming and diving for 15 years. He is technically a tri sport athlete playing Water Polo as well as swimming. He is also on the Esports team.
Pablo Macias
Pablo Macias is a Business Administration major with a minor in Communications. He has played soccer all 4 years at Austin College. His proudest moments were defeating Trinity at their home field 2-1 in 2019 and making the SCAC tournament because of it.
Liberty Chanin
Liberty Chanin is double majoring in History and French and is triple minoring in Psychology, Education and Leadership. She has been swimming since she first moved to Dallas at age 7. Her best moment in college was placing first in the 1000 m Freestyle.
Tyler Hanes
Tyler Hanes is getting his degree in Business Administration. He has been playing football since he was in the 3rd grade. His proudest moment was getting to play in the War Memorial stadium after waiting all year to play because of COVID.
Chloe Towler
Chloe Towler is a Public Health major and double minoring in Biology and Psychology. She has played soccer for 18 years and her proudest moment in college was scoring off a free kick from 30 yards out.
Caitlin Perry
Caitlin Perry is double majoring in Psychology and Sociology. She has been cheerleading for 6 years and 4 of those years have been in college. She is incredibly proud of learning how to stunt.
Chanston Goodman
Chanston Goodman is majoring in Finance and minoring in Accounting. He has played all 4 years at Austin College and his proudest moment was scoring his first official college points and realized that he achieved his dream of playing the game he loved at the collegiate level.
Brooke Le
Brooke Le is double majoring in Biology and Business with a minor in Communications. She has played Water Polo for 9 years. She is most proud of being the first, first year program in the history of all sports and divisions within the NCAA to make a conference championship game.
Lexi Wong
Lexi Wong is majoring in Business Administration with a minor in Sociology. She has played Water Polo for 8 years and her proudest moment was making it to the conference championship game in the team’s inaugural season with mostly freshman.
Lilly Garza
Lilly Garza is majoring in History and minoring in Education and Sociology. She has been dancing for 4 years and her proudest moment was when President O’Day came up to the Aussies after a performance and said that he liked the dance and loved the song.
Sylvia Sit
Sylvia Sit is majoring in Psychology and minoring in Accounting. She has been dancing for 4 years and is most proud of the Spring Show the Aussies pulled off during COVID.
Allie Straeck
Allie Straeck is double majoring in Psychology and Communications and minoring in Environmental Studies. She has been dancing for 6 years and this is her 4th year on the Aussies. She is most proud of the dance they performed at the homecoming game this year.

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