GRADUATING WITH HONORS: Princeton University women’s water polo goalie Ashleigh Johnson clears the ball in a game this season. Last Thursday, Johnson was named as the 2017 winner of the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award as Princeton’s top senior female athlete. Princeton men’s hoops star Spencer Weisz received the 2017 William Winston Roper Trophy as the school’s outstanding senior male athlete. (Photo by Frank Wojciechowski)
It didn’t take long for Ashleigh Johnson and Spencer Weisz to make an impact in their Princeton University athletic careers.
Women’s water polo goalie Johnson made a program record 19 saves in her debut on February 8, 2013 as Princeton fell 7-5 to No. 4 Cal.
Men’s basketball player Weisz had five points, six rebounds, and four assists in 31 minutes in his first appearance during a season opening 67-50 win over Florida Atlantic on November 10, 2013. He was in the starting lineup that day, making him the first Princeton freshman to start a season opener since Douglas Davis ’12 and Patrick Saunders ’12 in 2008-09.
Building on those promising starts, Johnson and Weisz went on to make an indelible impact on their programs over the next four years.
Last Thursday, their excellence was recognized as the pair were the top award winners at the Gary Walters ’67 Princeton Varsity Club Banquet Thursday night. Johnson was named as the 2017 winner of the C. Otto von Kienbusch Award as Princeton’s top senior female athlete while Weisz received the 2017 William Winston Roper Trophy as Princeton’s outstanding senior male athlete.
Johnson, who has twice been named the top women’s water polo player in the world, is one of two Princeton athletes ever to win an Olympic gold medal and then return to compete as a Tiger, along with Bill Bradley ’65. Johnson was the goalie on the United States team that won gold at last summer’s Rio Olympics.
As Princeton’s goalie, Johnson, a native of Miami, Fla., finished her career with a 100-17 record, along with a school-record 1,362 saves and a .693 save percentage. She is a 19-time Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Defensive Player of the Week award winner, a four-time first-team all-conference player and the CWPA Player of the Year.
Internationally, she allowed just 28 goals, made 51 saves and was named the tournament’s top goalkeeper in Rio. Johnson was also the first-ever African-American to make the U.S. national team.
A finalist for the 2017 AAU Sullivan Award as the nation’s top amateur athlete, Johnson was also named an espnW IMPACT25 honoree for the Woman of the Year and the Swimming World Magazine’s Female Water Polo Player of the Year for the second straight season. She became the first water polo player to ever win the Women’s Sports Foundation SportsWoman of the Year award. Johnson was also was the female winner of the Peter Cutino award this year, which honors the most outstanding female and male collegiate water polo players.
The other finalists for the von Kienbusch Award were field hockey player Cat Caro, lacrosse player Ellie DeGarmo, fencer Katharine Holmes, lacrosse player Olivia Hompe, hockey player Kelsey Koelzer, soccer player Tyler Lussi, volleyball player Cara Mattaliano, track and field athlete Julia Ratcliffe, and fencer Anna van Brummen.
Weisz, a native of Florham Park, N.J., was the Ivy League Player of the Year this past winner and a leader of the first Ivy League basketball team to go 16-0 in a season.
The 6’4, 210-pound forward is the first player in Princeton men’s basketball history to have 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 300 assists and 200 3-pointers. His play this winter helped lead Princeton to a 14-0 Ivy League season, the program’s first since 1998; a 19-game winning streak, the second-longest in program history; the first championship of the first-ever Ivy League tournament and within two points of fifth-seeded and 14th-ranked Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament as the Tigers fell 60-58 to end the winter at 23-7.
No player in program history has recorded a triple-double, but Weisz came close on a few occasions during his senior season. Against Saint Joseph’s in mid-December, he had 10 points, 11 rebounds, and eight assists, just two shy of the statistical milestone. Against Cal Poly on New Year’s Eve, it was nine points, eight rebounds, and seven assists. At Yale in mid-February, he had nine points, seven rebounds, and eight assists. Weisz also tied a program record with 13 assists in a single game in a win over Liberty in early December.
Weisz ended his career as the program’s 12th-leading all-time scorer with 1,241 career points, fifth in 3-pointers made with 209, eighth in rebounds with 605, and second in assists with 383. The eighth player in Ivy League history to win both the Ivy League Rookie and Player of the Year honors during his career, Weisz was a three-time All-Ivy League honoree, earning second-team recognition both as a sophomore and a junior.
The other finalists for the Roper Trophy were basketball player Steven Cook, lacrosse player Zach Currier, fencer Alexander House, hockey player Colton Phinney, and football player Dorian Williams.