ANNVILLE, Pa. – Senior Thimmy Garbenius (Nykvarn, Sweden/Sodertalje SK (SWE)) of the Manhattanville College men’s hockey team received one of the highest honors bestowed by the Middle Atlantic Conference today, as he was announced as the MAC Men’s Hockey Senior Scholar-Athlete of the Year, the conference announced on Tuesday.
The MAC selects one player in each sport to receive the exclusive award, which recognizes an outstanding senior between the MAC Freedom and MAC Commonwealth schools who best combines excellence in competition and in the classroom. To be nominated for the award, a senior must have a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.20 (on a 4.00 scale) and must provide a meaningful contribution to his or her team. The winner is determined based half on academic record and half on athletic achievements.
Garbenius is the sixth Manhattanville student-athlete (from the sixth different sport) to earn the prestigious honor and the first since 2015. He also makes Manhattanville only the second MAC Freedom school to earn a Senior Scholar-Athlete award so far in 2017-18.
On the ice, Garbenius served as an assistant captain for the second straight year and appeared in all 26 games on the Valiant blue line, earning All-MAC second-team honors after scoring twice and adding 15 assists for a career-best 17 points. He tied for the most points among MAC defensemen both overall and in conference games, while his 17 points also ranked 10th in the conference overall. In 90 career games as a Valiant, Garbenius scored eight goals with 31 assists for 39 points.
Off the ice, Garbenius is a six-time Dean’s List honoree who has achieved a 3.96 GPA over the last five semesters and a 3.79 GPA overall through seven semesters as a biology major and business management minor. He serves as the secretary of Manhattanville’s chapter of the Beta Beta Beta (Tribeta) Biological National Honor Society and received a grant from Tribeta for a research project focused on the effects of rifampicin and D-limonene on biofilm formation of the bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidis RP62A.
Garbenius and the conference’s other Senior Scholar-Athletes will be recognized by the MAC Presidents and Athletic Directors with a special reception and lunch at the MAC’s annual meeting on May 1 at Misericordia University.
