Fajardo headlines All-SCIAC team with top honors
ORANGE, Calif. – Senior Jaryn Fajardo headlined the SCIAC women's basketball conference awards as the Chapman University women's basketball team's second consecutive Athlete of the Year. Junior Lucy Criswell also earned All-SCIAC Second Team recognition.
Fajardo dominated on the court in her final season as a Panther. The captain helped lead her team to a 16-9 overall record and an 11-5 mark in SCIAC play. Fajardo led Chapman and ranked second in the SCIAC with 17.4 points per game. She led the conference with 72 assists and 42 steals this season and ranked sixth with 7.3 rebounds per game.
The Torrance native scored at least 10 points in every game she played in this season, scoring a career and season-high 30 points against Pomona-Pitzer earlier this month. She ranked fifth in the SCIAC with 91 made shots and a 45.5 shooting percentage, fourth with a 42.2 percentage beyond the three-point arc, and second with 78 made free throws as well as a 79.6 free throw percentage. The 5-foot-5 point guard also recorded three double-doubles, highlighted by a season-high 12 rebounds in her senior game against La Verne.
Earlier this season, Fajardo became just the ninth women's basketball player in the Panthers' Division III history to reach 1,000 career points and currently ranks fifth all-time at Chapman with 1,112 points. She also ranks third all-time with 209 steals, is tied for second all-time with 396 assists and ranks fourth all-time with 518 rebounds. With just four more assists, Fajardo would be the first Panther in history to reach over 1,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 200 steals in a career.
Criswell landed a spot on the All-SCIAC list for the second year in a row after earning SCIAC Athlete of the Year honors as a sophomore. The Portland, Ore. native ranked fifth in the conference rankings with 15.1 points per game. She led the SCIAC with 50 made three-pointers this conference season, making 37.3 percent of her three-point attempts to rank seventh in the SCIAC.
Criswell led Chapman and ranked fifth in the conference with 1.5 blocks per game this season. She tallied a career-high 37 blocks this season, breaking her own single-season Chapman record while also breaking the all-time career record with 90 total blocks in just her junior season.
The Panthers square off against Pomona-Pitzer tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at the Raines Center in Pomona, Calif. in the SCIAC Postseason semifinals.
by Katie Bell
Sports Information Assistant
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