WESTFIELD, Mass. – Westfield State football players earned two more weekly honors, as safety Christian Julian (Hingham, Mass.) and running back Jordan Smith (Coventry, Conn.) were both named to the D3football.com national team of the week, as presented by Scoutware.

This is the 25th season that D3football.com has selected the Team of the Week, which honors the player with the top performance nationally at each position from the previous week

Julian had three interceptions in the Owls 49-0 win over Fitchburg State, tying a school record for interceptions in a game.  His 94 return yards on those three picks set a school record, with one more yard then the 38-year old school record, set by Robert Ogden in 1985.

Smith provided the lions' share of the Owls points in that game, as he ran for five touchdowns in the game, which set WSU marks for both touchdowns and points (30) scored in a game.  He ran for 223 yards on 25 carries, with his 8.92 yards-per-carry average also setting a school standard for players with more than 20 carries in a game.

Smith finishes the year with 1,076 yards and 10 rushing touchdowns this season.  He was previously named as the MASCAC offensive player of the week, and the New England Football Writers DII/DIII weekly gold helmet award winner as the top performer in New England.

Julian wraps up his year 44 tackles, and five interceptions and 148 interception return yards in eight games played.  The versatile Julian was the Owls kicker on kickoffs, and as a return man had eight punt returns for 45 yards, and 10 kick returns for 229 yards.

Smith and Julian are the first Owls to be named to the team since current Westfield State coach Tyler Robbins was selected as a linebacker during the 2017 season.

Westfield State football finished the year with a  3-5 mark in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference, and a 3-7 mark overall.  The Owls won their final two games of the 2023 campaign and will take the winning streak into the 2024 season.