Northwestern University Athletics
Ritter named Senior CLASS Award Candidate
8/21/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Aug 21, 2013
EVANSTON, Ill.-Northwestern senior midfielder Chris Ritter has been named a candidate for the 2013 Senior CLASS Award.
The award, which is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, honors the attributes of senior student-athletes in four areas: community, classroom, character and competition. It focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Ritter is one of 30 Senior CLASS Award candidates and one of just three from the Big Ten, joining Michigan State's Kevin Cope and Indiana's A.J. Corrado.
The list will be narrowed to 10 finalists midway through the regular season, and those 10 names will be placed on the official ballot. Ballots will be distributed through a nationwide voting system to media, coaches and fans, who will select one male candidate and one female candidate who best exemplify excellence in the four Cs of community, classroom, character and competition.
Fans can vote at seniorCLASSaward.com.
Winners will be announced during the 2013 NCAA Men's and Women's College Cup championships in December.
Always active in the community, Ritter took part in numerous Northwestern community service events such as a skills training workshop for the Evanston American Youth Soccer Organization, regularly participates in Cycle for Survival for cancer research. He's also visited local schools to read to students. The Wildcats soccer team also hosted the Futsal Tournament with the International Students Association. He's worked with Northwestern's marketing department in Meet and Greet events with fans, signing autographs and coaching clinics.
Ritter was named Academic All Big-Ten in 2012 and helped the NU men's soccer team achieve the school's highest GPA out of the eight men's varsity sports during the 2012-13 season.
A starter for the Wildcats since the third match of his freshman season, Ritter has played in 65 games (63 starts), helping guide Northwestern to back-to-back Big Ten regular season titles from 2011-12.
The 2012 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, First Team All-Big Ten and All-Great Lakes Second-Team honoree finished second on the team with five goals, six assists and 16 points a year ago. He was named the MVP of the NIU adidias Invite and was also an Academic All-Big Ten selection, in 2012. He also received Second Team All-Big Ten consideration in 2011.
In his Northwestern career, Ritter has 10 goals, nine assists and 29 points. He was also chosen as a finalist for the 2012 Soccer News Net College Boot award and made the 2013 Preseason All-American Third Team by College Soccer News.
For more information on all the candidates, visit seniorCLASSaward.com.
2013 Men's Soccer Senior CLASS Award Candidates
Nick Alers, Yale
Adam Bedell, Detroit Mercy
James Beeston, Siena
John Berner, So. Illinois-Edwardsville
Reinaldo Brenes, Akron
Franklin Castellanos, Iona
Bryan Ciesiulka, Marquette
Kevin Cope, Michigan State
A.J. Corrado, Indiana
Mamadou Doudou Diof, Connecticut
Stephen Dooley, Loyola (Maryland)
Kevin Dzierzawsk, Dartmouth
Itode Fubara, East Tennessee State
Tyler Gibson, Charlotte
Nick Hagglund, Xavier
JJ Koval, Stanford
Nick Kristock, Oakland
Rob Lovejoy, North Carolina
Steve Neumann, Georgetown
Mackenzie Pridham, Cal Poly
Spencer Richey, Washington
Tyler Riggs, Kentucky
Chris Ritter, Northwestern
Colin Seigfreid, American
Mark Sherrod, Memphis
Harrison Shipp, Notre Dame
Patrick Slogic, Cornell
Joe Sofia, UCLA
Bernardo Ulmo, Radford
Kyle Venter, New Mexico
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