Posted: Jul 02, 2018
WESTFIELD, Mass. - Westfield State University director of athletics Dick Lenfest was formally recognized as an Athletic Director of the Year at the 2018 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics convention at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center at National Harbor, Md. on Friday, June 29.
Lenfest was one of four NCAA Division III athletics directors honored at the luncheon event hosted by ESPN reporter and host Maria Taylor.
The massive event was part of the annual NACDA and affiliates convention, which brings together 17 affiliated organizations in college athletics with 7,000 participants.
Other honorees included Wisconsin's athletic director Barry Alvarez (a three-time Rose Bowl winning coach), Texas Tech's Kirby Hocutt, Oklahoma's Joe Castiglione, Virginia Tech's Whit Babcock and Yale's Thomas Becket. Norwich (Vt.) University AD Tony Mariano and Bryant's Bill Smith were other award winners from New England.
Lenfest, a Lee, Mass., native who resides in Westfield, led Westfield State athletics to its fourth straight Smith Cup title as the best overall athletics program in the MASCAC in 2018. Owls' student-athletes earned three All-America awards, two academic All-America awards, and the program's students earned an overall GPA of 3.07.
Westfield State is currently in the process of renovating the artificial turf Alumni Field, resurfacing the Jerry Gravel Track and the Woodward Center indoor track, and the Owl recently completed projects which improved the Bud and Jim Hagan Baseball Field and the Softball Field.
Lenfest will be one of the hosts for the 12th Annual Owl Club Golf tournament, the department's largest fund-raising event, which takes place on Thursday, August 2 at the Ranch Golf Club.
Lenfest's Owls will begin pursuit of a fifth straight Smith Cup when the Owls football team reports for fall training camp on August 10.