WTRACK: Nadeau Takes Home Track Athlete Of The Year; Major Award Winners Announced
WINTHROP, Mass. - The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) announced its 2025-26 Women’s Outdoor Track & Field major award winners on Tuesday afternoon.
The winners were recognized for their performance throughout the entire indoor season, including the 2026 GNAC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The honorees were selected by a vote conducted by the league’s six indoor track & field head coaches.
Adriana Nadeau of Colby-Sawyer College was voted Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year while Emmanuels’ Ava Fisher was selected as Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year and Alisha Gomes was named Rookie of the Year. Emmanuel College won coaching staff of the year as well while Regis was the recipient of this year's institutional sportsmanship award.
In addition to this year’s award winners, the medalists in each event at the 2026 GNAC Championships were recognized as All-Conference performers (see below) and one student-athlete from each team was selected to the All-Sportsmanship Team.
TRACK ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Adriana Nadeau, Colby-Sawyer
Adriana Nadeau paced herself atop GNAC leaderboards throughout the Outdoor season in distance events on the track as the Londonderry, NH native led in both the 5k and 10k meters leaderboards to conclude the season. Nadeau added two first-place finishes in the two events at the Outdoor Conference Championships in which she ran a 19:15 in the 5K and 42:14 in the 10K.
FIELD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Ava Fisher, Emmanuel
Ava Fisher set marks at the Outdoor Championships that placed her in great spots on the field as the Abington, Mass. native finished in the top-five in four field events. Fisher was runner-up in both the Shot Put (11.13m, DIII New England mark) and the Hammer Throw (38.90m) as well as setting a 29.51 mark in the Discus Throw for a fifth-place finish. The highlight of her impressive weekend came in the Javelin Throw in which the Junior took home first-place and not only led the conference leaderboards but ranked 24th in DIII as a result.
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
Alisha Gomes, Emmanuel
Freshman Alisha Gomes continued her strong freshman campaign in the outdoor season as the Bridgewater, Mass. native won two events individually on the track in the 100 meters (12.61) and the 200 at 26.39, which both times were DIII New England times. Gomes was also a crucial part to Emmanuel's winning 4x400 relay as well as their runner-up 4x100 relay team.
Women’s Major Award Winners
Women’s Track Athlete of the Year: Adriana Nadeau, Colby-Sawyer College
Women’s Field Athlete of the Year: Ava Fisher, Emmanuel College
Women’s Rookie of the Year: Alisha Gomes, Emmanuel College
Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year: Emmanuel College
Women’s Institutional Sportsmanship of the Year: Regis College
ALL-CONFERENCE (Top-Three Finishers in Each Event at Championships)
Women's Discus: Isabelle LaPlume (Colby-Sawyer), Lauren MacDonald (Colby-Sawyer), Ellie Leech (SJC)
Women's Javelin: Ava Fisher (Emmanuel), Ellie Leech (SJC), Elyza Mitchell (Colby-Sawyer)
Women's Long Jump: Alexis Cowan (SJC), Ella Labrie (SJC), Kayoni Jordan (Lasell)
Women's High Jump: Kason Huynh (Emmanuel), Zoe Kirk (Regis), Olivea Miller (SJC)
Women's 4x800 Relay: Emmanuel (Kendall Newton, Sydney Gonzalez, Molly Hough, Aida Davis), SJC (Amber Pendleton, Alexia Young, Cheri Willems, Bella Koepsell), Colby-Sawyer (Jacklyn Anderson, Leah O'Neill, Maisy Hill, Payton Dugan)
Women's 10K Run: Adriana Nadeau (Colby-Sawyer), Meghan Cyr (SJC), Julia Kurthy (Emmanuel)
Women's 100 Hurdles Finals: Zoe Kirk (Regis), Audrey Bilodeau (SJC), Donna Gauvin (Emmanuel)
Women's 100m Dash: Alisha Gomes (Emmanuel), Kayoni Jordan (Lasell), Isatu Fofanah (Simmons)
Women's Hammer Throw: Teddy Pollack (Colby-Sawyer), Ava Fisher (Emmanuel), Madison Reilly (Emmanuel)
Women's Pole Vault: Julianna Huckans (Lasell), Grace Micron (Regis), Sydney Post (Lasell)
Women's Triple Jump: Ella Labrie (SJC), Olivia Bean (SJC), Sophia Anderson (Regis)
Women's 3k meter steeplechase: Leah O'Neill (Colby-Sawyer), Molly Hough (Emmanuel), Julia Kurthy (Emmanuel)
Women's 4 X 100 meter relay: Simmons (Isatu Fofanah, Talya Mendez-DeGraw, Carolyn Dorman, Jayla James), Emmanuel (Donna Gauvin, Eliana Jackson, Olivia Costa, Alisha Gomes), SJC (Ava Smart, Audrey Bilodeau, Ellie Leech, Olivea Miller)
Women's 1500 meter run: Kendall Newton (Emmanuel), Bella Koepsell (Emmanuel), Sydney Gonzalez (Emmanuel)
Women's 100 meter hurdles: Zoe Kirk (Regis), Audrey Biloeau (SJC), Donna Gauvin (Emmanuel)
Women's 400 meter run: Ava Smart (SJC), Olivia Costa (Emmanuel), Amber Pendleton (SJC)
Women's 100 meter dash: Alisha Gomez (Emmanuel), Kayoing Jordan (Lasell), Isatu Fofanah (Simmons)
Women's 800 meter run: Aida Davis (Emmanuel), Bella Koepsell (SJC), Katherine Kohtala (Lasell)
Women's 400 meter Hurdles: Olivia Costa (Emmanuel), Audrey Bilodeau (SJC), Eliana Jackson (Emmanuel)
Women's 200 meter dash: Alisha Gomes (Emmanuel), Talya Mendez-DeGraw (Simmons), Aleyo Amasa-Titus (Regis)
Women's 5000 meter run: Adriana Nadeau (Colby-Sawyer), Kendall Newton (Emmanuel), Leah O'Neill (Colby-Sawyer)
Women's 4 X 400 meter relay: Emmanuel (Aida Davis, Sofia Rowen, Olivia Costa, Alisha Gomes), SJC (Ava Smart, Bella Koepsell, Amber Pendleton, Audrey Bilodeau), Regis (Olivya Bush, Hannah Griffin, Julia Benvegnu, Aleyo Amasa-Titus)
Women’s All-Sportsmanship Team
Colby-Sawyer: Teddy Pollack
Emmanuel: Avery Fama
Lasell: Madilyn Ebbinghaus
Regis: Grace Micklon
Saint Joseph’s College (Maine): Alexia Young
Simmons: Charlotte Shaw
ABOUT THE GREAT NORTHEAST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE
The Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) is an NCAA Division III association made up of 14 member institutions and over 4000 student-athletes across the New England region. Founded in 1995, the GNAC annually sponsors and administers 20 championships, while balancing academic integrity, athletic opportunity and community involvement in an effort to enhance the student-athlete experience.
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