Hamilton College men’s hockey standout Evan Buitenhuis ’18 (Burlington, Ontario/Nelson HS) has been named to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Division III Men’s At-Large Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Buitenhuis, a third-team selection, was one of 30 student-athletes named to the Academic All-America Team. He is the first Continental men’s hockey player to ever earn academic all-America honors.
An environmental studies major with a grade-point average of 3.57, Buitenhuis was named to the academic all-America team after earning first-team honors on the District 3 All-Academic Team.
CoSIDA’s men’s at-large Academic All-America teams honor student-athletes from the sports of fencing, golf, ice hockey, lacrosse, swimming & diving, tennis, men’s volleyball, water polo and wrestling. Buitenhuis was the only ice hockey player named to the team and was one of two selections from the NESCAC.
Buitenhuis won this year’s Sid Watson Award as the Division III Men’s Player of the Year awarded by the American Hockey Coaches Association. A first-team All-American, he helped the Continentals to the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Division III Championship in their first appearance in the NCAA playoffs.
Buitenhuis ranked third in Division III with a .941 save percentage and sixth with a 1.78 goals against average while playing 1,581 minutes (fifth nationally). He started 26 of the team’s 29 games and posted a 17-5-4 record with two shutouts. Buitenhuis allowed three goals or less in 24 of his 26 starts. He helped the Continentals rank third nationally in scoring defense with 1.86 goals allowed per game and fourth on the penalty kill at 88.7 percent.
The 2017 NESCAC Player of the Year started all 18 conference games during the regular season and led the conference with a 1.47 goals against average and .948 save percentage. Hamilton was the top seed for the NESCAC championship after finishing in first place in the conference standings with a record of 11-3-4.
Buitenhuis has a 1.77 goals against average and .942 save percentage with a 31-13-9 record and six shutouts in 53 career starts. His career total of 1,550 saves puts him in fifth place on the team’s all-time list; his goals-against and save percentage better the program’s career record (2.72 and .911, respectively).
Hamilton (20-5-4 overall) celebrated its first NCAA postseason appearance with a 3-1 victory at SUNY Oswego in the first round on March 11. Buitenhuis made 34 saves in that game against the Lakers. The Continentals advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA championship and set a program record for wins in a season. Hamilton started the season by going unbeaten in its first 13 games (11-0-2) and was ranked in the top 10 for most of 2017, including as high as fifth in the D3hockey.com Top 15 poll on Jan. 9.
A two-time first-team selection to the All-NESCAC Team, Buitenhuis has been named to the NESCAC’s Winter All-Academic Team twice as well. He was recently awarded Hamilton’s Renwick Prize in biology, a scholarship awarded annually to a junior or senior for the study of biology during the summer.
The Academic All-America Team is chosen by members of CoSIDA and honors student-athletes who have maintained a cumulative grade-point average of at least 3.30. Buitenhuis’ selection marks the 15th time a Continental has earned academic all-America recognition.
