Ian Holbrook, a native of Las Vegas Nevada has been recognized as a recipient of the United Nations Model Program. The 21-year old Cadet Sergeant has made the dean's list during each semester at the academy. He currently is a junior, where he carries a double major in French and Legal Studies with a track in Nuclear Engineering. Model United Nations is an authentic simulation of the UN Security Council, UN General Assembly or other multilateral body. It introduces students to the world of diplomacy, negotiation and decision-making.

CENTER VALLEY, PA - Lee Bares of the Army West Point men's track and field team received Field Athlete of the Week honors from the Patriot League following a record setting pole vault performance at the Penn State Relays, the conference announced Monday. "Lee has consistently jumped at high marks since last spring, and I expect him to continue that trend this winter and spring," said Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Mike Smith. "He has not yet jumped from a full approach run, so there is clearly more room for him to improve. He is a great competitor, and I am looking forward to seeing him compete to win most of the meets that we go to."

Bares won pole vault on Saturday with a height of 5.15 meters, breaking his personal best for the second time this season. The Lakeville, Minn., native continues to improve upon his second-best program mark, edging his way closer to Darrin Hinman's mark of 5.24 meters that was set in 1997 in a tri-meet versus St. John's and Columbia. Read More

CENTER VALLEY, PA - Senior Kelsey Minato earned Patriot League Player of the Week honors after helping lead Army West Point to a 2-0 record last week, the conference office announced Monday. The Patriot League Player of the Week honor is Minato's fourth of the season and the 15th of her career. Minato averaged 26.5 points in a pair of contests last week and shot over 50.0 percent overall and from three-point range. She was successful on 21-of-32 (65.6 percent) on field goals and made 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) shots from long range.

The Huntington Beach, Calif., native tallied 30 points on 12-of-15 shooting and 5-of-7 three-point shooting in Army's 78-45 win at Lafayette on Jan. 6. Minato also added seven rebounds and seven assists in the victory to earn NCAA Women's Basketball's Top Performer of the day. She led all scorers with 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting, to include a 5-of-11 showing from deep, during a 70-37 home win over Loyola on Jan. 9. Read More

The West Point Glee Club traveled to Baton Rouge, Louisiana yesterday as they were invited to sing at the Inauguration of Governor John Bel Edwards ’88.

Governor Edwards in his speech said, "My experience at West Point and my service as an army officer have molded the way I look at the world. Ever since Athens defeated Sparta over 2,500 years ago, and the history of that war was written, military officers have been trained to look at every challenging task in a three step process. The first step is gathering all the information you can about the job at hand." Read More

WEST POINT, NY - Sabrina Mortell of the Army West Point women's swimming and diving team has been named this week's Army Athletic Association Athlete of the Week after winning all of her events this past weekend. The sophomore distance swimmer placed first in four events for the Black Knights in back-to-back dual-meets with Lehigh and Bucknell. Mortell tallied 36 critical points which helped lead Army to defeat the Mountain Hawks and Bison. Click here to watch the video.

Against Lehigh, the Mechanicsburg, Pa., native, out-touched the competition in the 1,000 free by six seconds with a time of 10:25.19. Later in the meet she won the 500 free (5:05.20) by just over three seconds. The next day against Bucknell, Mortell pulled out two more first-place finishes. She clocked a 10:26.29 in the 1,000 free and a 5:05.79 in the 500 free. Army's win over the Bison was the fifth in the all-time series marking the first time in over 20 seasons that a Black Knight team accomplished that feat. Read More

WEST POINT, NY - Chris Szekely of the Army West Point men's swimming and diving team has been named the CollegeSwimming.com Conference Swimmer of the Week for the Patriot League after racking up 45 points in back-to-back dual-meets. "Chris is wrapping up a stellar career for Army West Point swimming and diving," said head coach Mickey Wender. "He has been an integral part of the development of our program in and out of the pool for the past four years. He and the team are working very hard in preparation for the conference championships and beyond. The best is yet to come."

The Black Knights improved to 6-1 overall and 2-1 in the Patriot League with convincing wins over Lehigh, 191-91, and Bucknell, 174-117, at Crandall Pool. The Doylestown, Pa., native, won the 50 free and 100 free events on both days of competition. Against Bucknell, his 20.55 leg of the 200 medley relay helped Army start the meet with a first-place finish and was also the fastest 50 free time recorded at Crandall Pool throughout the weekend. Read More

It began with four mechanical engineering cadets in 2014 for a service project done for the West Point Cadet Chapel on behalf of the Department of Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Class of 2014 Cadets Christina Cox, Michael Deschene, Richard Glover and Mark Hesford began the tall order of creating keys to replace the keys for the historic and antique door locks of the cadet chapel. The chaplains have been using makeshift keys according to Class of 2016 Cadet Jeremy Matsumoto, who took the project over as an independent study.

The group developed three potential techniques for reverse engineering the key, 3D scanning, using a point grabber tool and taking measurements with calipers to manually build a 3D CAD model. The mission of the project was the West Point Cadet Capstone team getting involved in reverse engineering, fabricating, testing and reproducing an antique Cadet Chapel key by May 2015 in order to replenish the diminishing supply of those historic artifacts. Full Story»

Half the Player Pool Off Limits, But Black Knights Are Finding Ways

WEST POINT, NY - Recruiting isn’t easy across the board in college hockey. For the staff at Army West Point, it’s an even tougher challenge, and that’s without even considering the unique person it takes to join the U.S. Military Academy. According to College Hockey, Inc., 32 percent of college hockey players are not American citizens, either coming from Canada (30 percent) or Europe (2 percent). Those players are entirely off limits for Army, unless they hold dual citizenship.

It’s a unique situation for sure but it’s something Army head coach Brian Riley and his coaching staff embrace. “We all realize that this is a special place,” said Riley, whose father Jack led the program for 36 years and his older brother, Rob Riley, then coached the team for 18 years before Brian took over in 2004. Riley continued, “We need attract a special type of young man. It’s easy to go find who the good hockey players are. We need to find good kidd who have strong character, good academics and great leadership. The army part of it, once we get them here, I know our guys will do fine in the army because the army is the ultimate team and hockey is the ultimate team sport.” Read More

Passion and a desire to improve is what fuels most athletes and drives them to success. For Leslie Frankland, that passion and drive translates not only into tennis, but being a cadet at the United States Military Academy and reaching her goals, even from thousands of miles away. Now in her second year at the Academy, Frankland took a less than conventional pass to join the Long Gray Line. With a lineage of West Point graduates in her family, she knew her goal from an early age and set along a path to success. Frankland's father, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Wally Frankland ’97, and grandfather, Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Walter Frankland, Jr. ’46 inspired her early interest in the Academy, and when the family relocated to Paris prior to her second birthday, she was quickly immersed in the French culture, but never let go of her roots. Read More

WEST POINT, NY - The Army hockey team erased a first period deficit with C.J. Reuschlein scoring early in the second period, but that was it as the Black Knights settled for a 1-1 tie against Air Force in front of a sellout crowd at Tate Rink on Saturday. Army (5-11-6, 3-9-6 AHA) went to overtime for the ninth time this season and the fifth time in the last seven games. Reuschlein had the lone tally for the Black Knights, while Andrle tallied an assist for his 13th of the season. Parker Gahagen made 27 saves between the pipes in the tie and concluded the weekend with only two goals allowed. Click here to watch the video.

Air Force (10-9-3, 8-5-3 AHA) finished the weekend with three points as Ben Kucera collected his second point of the weekend and his seventh goal of the season. Tyler Ledford was given an assist on the goal. Shane Starrett pushed aside 26 shots by the Black Knights and allowed just one goal in 120 minutes this weekend. The Black Knights evened the game up early in the second period with Reuschlein scoring in the slot for his fourth of the year. He dumped the puck into the zone and Andrle picked it up in the corner. Reuschlein continued to follow the play and was fed by Andrle in the slot. The junior fired a shot on net that Starrett got a piece of, but the puck trickled across the line to tie the game with 16:23 left in the middle frame. Read More

WEST POINT, NY  - A 20-2 run midway through the second half catapulted the Army West Point men's basketball team to a 65-45 victory over American on Sunday afternoon at Christl Arena. Army moved to 3-3 in the Patriot League and 12-5 overall with the result, while American fell to 2-15 on the season with its 10th consecutive loss. The Eagles dipped to 0-6 in conference play. "I thought we had a really solid effort on the defensive end in today's game," head coach Zach Spiker said. "To come out and have that kind of defensive performance and respond to Wednesday's game like we did was very encouraging and gives us confidence going forward." Click here to watch the video.

The Black Knights limited American to a season low in scoring for an opponent and outrebounded the Eagles 42-27. Kyle Wilson, Dylan Cox and Larry Toomey each scored in double figures with Toomey leading the way with 13 points. Wilson and Cox each scored 12 as Army connected on 40 percent of its attempts (22-for-55). The Black Knights were solid at the line as well, going 15-for-19. Cox hauled in a game-high nine rebounds. Delante Jones led the Eagles with 14 points while playing all 40 minutes and as a team, American shot 36.2 percent from the field (17-of-47). <a href="http://www.goarmywestpoint.com/news/2016/1/1

Congratulations to the Class of 2017 for celebrating 500th night last night. General Joseph L. Votel ’80 spoke to the Cows about their last 500 nights as cadets. "One and a butt West Point winters, a first-class summer, another round of Army/Navy Football, three semesters, and three more sets of term-end exams, a "Sosh" paper, Branch and Post selection, etcetera, etcetera. So a lot to do, but also a lot to look forward to... a lot can happen in 500 days." -Gen. Votel

Photo: Courtesy of Michelle Eberhart/ Pointer View

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Three cadets from the Class of 2016 are among the 111 students worldwide to be accepted into the first ever class of Schwarzman Scholars. Joseph Broderick, Regina Parker, and Alex Parra will attend the master’s degree program at Tsinghua University in Beijing and have the opportunity to travel throughout China to explore themes related to their academic concentrations and professional interests. With an acceptance rate of 3.7 percent, making it one of the most selective in the world, the Schwarzman Scholars Program is designed to prepare the next generation of leaders for the unique challenges of the 21st century. Learn more about the program and its curriculum and to see a video highlighting the process of selecting the first class of Schwarzman Scholars.

Army West Point women's basketball senior guard Kelsey Minato was one of 30 NCAA women's basketball student-athletes named as a candidate for the 2015-16 Senior CLASS Award in collegiate basketball. To be eligible for the award, a student-athlete must be classified as an NCAA Division I senior and have notable achievements in four areas of excellence: community, classroom, character and competition.

One of four team captains this season, Minato has played and started in all 111 games since arriving at the Academy prior to the 2012-13 season. She is a three-time All-Patriot League first-team selection and has twice collected Patriot League Player of the Year honors. This season, she leads the conference with 23.3 points per game and ranks seventh nationally in scoring. She broke the program's career points record earlier this year and became just the fourth player in Patriot League women's history to reach the 2,000-point plateau. Minato currently has 2,185 points for her career. Read More

WEST POINT, NY - Army West Point senior wrestler Brian Harvey has been recognized as the Army Athletic Association's Athlete of the Week after a 2-0 performance in his final two home matches, including beating the No. 15 174-pounder in the nation. "We had a good week of training heading into our two dual meets this weekend," said Harvey. "I felt pretty confident coming into the match against Penn after getting a major decision over someone I beat by only one or two points earlier in the year. Rolling into Penn, I knew if I wrestled to my ability that I would be able to win." Click here to watch the video.

Harvey took down Hofstra's Frank Affronti with a 13-3 major decision giving him some momentum into his match the next day against Casey Kent of Penn, who was ranked 15th by InterMat heading into the meet. Harvey battled his way to a 10-7 upset victory over Kent for his 25th-career dual victory after being recognized with the other eight seniors of the team prior to facing the Quakers. A few weeks back at the Southern Scuffle, Kent defeated the then-top-ranked Brian Realbuto, making his presence felt. Harvey's upset did not go unrecognized as the senior from New Palestine, Ind., found his name 17th in the most recent InterMat rankings. Read More

The West Point Cadet Gospel Choir kicked off 2016 with a performance at the Antioch Baptist Church of Bedford Hills’ 28th Annual MLK Scholarship and Awards Banquet in Tarrytown, NY. Twenty-five members of the choir sang selections that uplifted the young scholars, the honoree, and their families. The Cadet Gospel Choir was accompanied by Mr. Chuck Taylor on the piano, and were warmly accepted by all in attendance. The group looks forward to more events with the Antioch Baptist Church in the future.

Four cadets, one faculty member, and four FOCUS missionaries from the Most Holy Trinity Catholic Chapel in West Point attended the Student Leadership Summit in Dallas, TX. This event was hosted by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), and brought together 3,000 college students from across the county for faith-based discussions on leadership, resiliency, and integrity among others. One of the highlights of the conference was an inter-service academy gathering of over 70 cadets and midshipmen from West Point, the Naval Academy, the Air Force Academy, and other ROTC programs. Testimonies were shared about the challenges of faith on college campuses and while being an officer in the military. The group also had the privilege of meeting Deacon Chip Jones ’82.

The West Point Ski Patrol travelled to Highmount, NY. There they conducted training for twenty-five patrol candidates, led by a group of ten cadet patrollers at Belleayre Ski Are. Dr. Bruce Hottum invited the group to train at Belleayre, as well as facilitated an outstanding day of ski and board training. The day culminated with a few runs with the Young Adult Patrollers from the area.

Army West Point Alpine Ski Team conducted a PIAD at Sunday River, Maine. This was an opportunity for the Army Alpiners to tune up for their league competition in the Atlantic Highland’s Conference. The team enjoyed three days of rigorous on-snow training under the Direction of Gould Academy, Coach Bob Harkins, and Robert McIntee (Head Coach of the Army Alpine Ski Team). The Army Ski team got a glimpse of, as well as educated the new members, to the art of downhill racing. New members of the team include CDTs Blaise Paulo ’18, Sophia Grohs ’19, Galvin Felch ’19, Will Mueser ’19 and Jack Young ’19. Veteran racers CDTs Aryne Riley ’16, Patrick Kearney ’17, Sawyer Harkins ’18, Richard Trust ’18, and Team Captain CDT Joach Ische ’16, led the way for the new recruits and fine-tuned their own skills for the season. The team met with several of the Maine Adaptive Snow Sports athletes and their staff on the final day of training, exchanged gifts and shared their experiences in the joy of skiing and downhill racing. They recently conducted training at the Windham Ski Resort in Windham, NY, in preparation for their first Atlantic Highlands Conference Race. Windham Alpine Ski Director, Steven Mergenthaler set up a great training venue for the cadets and Coach Bob McIntee to take advantage of and hone in on their technical skills, primarily the Giant Slalom event. A full day of training Saturday unfortunately was followed by a complete washout Sunday. However, cold weather has ensued and the cadets continue their preparation and hope to get on the home hill soon.