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Six Inducted Into Athletics Hall of Fame
A Return to the Hilltop for Reunion 2023
Donald E. McCready Event Space Dedication
A Journey Through Prose and Poetry: Chris Morgan, Ph.D. '86
In Memoriam: Professor Emerita Denise Theresa Askin, Ph.D.
Six Inducted Into Athletics Hall of Fame
Saint Anselm College honored a six-member group of distinguished former student-athletes at an induction ceremony and banquet held February 18, 2023.
Established in 1980, the Saint Anselm College Athletics Hall of Fame recognizes student-athletes, coaches, and athletics administrators that have brought recognition to themselves and the college through their efforts on and off the playing surface. The Hall of Fame was reinstated in 2017 when the Class of 2007 was finally inducted along with two additional candidates.
Four women and two men made up the Class of 2023 and Rachel Jackson ’85, a 1990 Athletics Hall of Fame inductee at Saint Anselm, was formally entered into the Northeast-10 Conference’s Hall of Fame as part of the ceremony. Other inductees included the first women’s cross-country student-athlete to earn the honor since 1998 and the first women’s tennis student-athlete to enter the Hall since 2006.
“We are thrilled to honor our former student-athletes at what has become a signature event for the College,” says Director of Athletics Daron Montgomery. “Furthermore, as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Title IX and its passage into law, it is fitting that we will recognize not only four female inductees, but also the first female student-athlete from Saint Anselm to enter the NE10 Hall of Fame.”
Warren Burgess ’94, a two-time captain of the Saint Anselm men’s basketball team, averaged 5.7 assists per game in a standout career for the Hawks. Scoring 1,260 career points at Saint Anselm in 117 career games, Burgess presently ranks third all-time in career assists (662), fourth in steals (188), and eighth in minutes played (3,533).
As a junior, Burgess racked up 234 assists, 62 steals, and played in more than 1,100 minutes for the Hawks, a single-season program record at the time, as the team sprinted out to a 20-11 record and the team’s third NE10 Championship title in program history. During his freshman season, he equaled the team’s single-game record for free throws made (17 vs. Quinnipiac, 02/09/91).
An All-Conference performer for Saint Anselm, Burgess helped Saint Anselm to 38 victories in his final two seasons and scored a career-high 27 points in his final game, which happened to be in the NCAA postseason. Burgess remains the only student-athlete in team history with more than 600 career assists and more than 175 career steals.
Lance Flagg ’03 was a four-year member of the first modern-day Saint Anselm football team. In just 29 career games across three seasons, Flagg racked up 194 total tackles (6.69/game) and compiled 62 tackles for a combined loss of 219 yards, departing as the program’s all-time leader in the latter metric despite missing a full season due to injury.
After not taking the field as a junior, Flagg rebounded in a big way by leading the NE10 in tackles for a loss (24 takedowns for 93 total yards), adding 9.5 sacks for 61 yards in 2002. He also led the Hawks roster with 16 quarterback hurries and was third on the team in total tackles (66). Flagg earned his second First Team All-NE10 accolade following the season and captured First Team All-ECAC honors.
Also receiving First Team All-America distinction from Hansen’s Gazette as a senior, Flagg presently ranks in the top-30 all-time in NE10 history with 21.5 career sacks and remains the only student-athlete in team annals to record at least four-and-a-half tackles for a loss in a game on three occasions. His 2.40 tackles for a loss per game in 2002 stands today ranks in the top-25 seasons in NCAA Division II history.
Kristina Katsikis ’13 became the first student-athlete in the history of the Hawks field hockey team to be inducted. Scoring 74 points with 28 goals and 18 assists (28-18=74) in a 69-game career, Katsikis graduated as the all-time leading point, goal and assist-getter in team history and set many of the team’s statistical records that lasted for many years.
As a junior in 2011, Katsikis had a historic season by scoring 16 goals with 10 assists for 42 points (16-10=42), becoming the program’s all-time leader in each category through just three seasons on the Hilltop. To this day, she still holds the single-season record for points per game (2.33) and her season records of 16 goals and 42 points were eclipsed for the first time in 2022.
Just the second NE10 First Team All-Conference pick in program history, Katsikis holds a share of the all-time record for assists in a game (four). She also earned ECAC Division II All-Star honor accolades or her performance in 2011.
Kirsten Lawrence ’96 was a four-year participant on the Saint Anselm women’s tennis program, and the lone NE10 Player of the Year in Saint Anselm history. Lawrence posted 38 singles and 28 doubles victories for the Hawks, including a 31-10 singles record across her final three seasons of play.
At No. 1 singles for the Hawks, Lawrence won 25 career matches and held the top spot in that category until the last decade. She was voted as the league’s top player in 1995 and finished her senior campaign as the runner-up at the NE10 Championship in the No. 1 singles flight.
As a two-time team captain, Lawrence guided the Hawks to two of its finest back-to-back seasons in team history—in 1994 and 1995, the team won 19 out of a possible 22 matches as she was a finalist for Student-Athlete of the Year honors as a senior. In total, Saint Anselm compiled a 34-12 (.739) record with Lawrence on the team.
Erin Thorpe ’04, a four-year member of the Saint Anselm women’s cross-country team, is the only three-time First Team All-Conference selection in program history (2000, 2001, 2002). Additionally, Thorpe remains the lone student-athlete from the women’s team to receive the NE10 Rookie of the Year award.
The three-time team captain was also one of a select few to represent Saint Anselm at the NCAA Division II National Championship, doing so as an individual in 2001. Due to strong finishes at the NCAA regional championship races, Thorpe was also a two-time All-Region recipient after placing third in 2001 and 13th in 2002.
Thorpe burst onto the scene as a freshman, earning the conference’s top rookie honor after finishing second at the league championship race, just two seconds away from capturing first place. Additionally, she was also voted as the Saint Anselm Female Student-Athlete of the Year as a freshman in recognition of her athletic performance.
Kathleen Twomey ’09 is the all-time leading goal scorer for the Saint Anselm women’s ice hockey team. Scoring 75 times in 102 career games for the Hawks, Twomey was an offensive force that also established the program’s record for game-winning goals with 15 to her credit.
On the way to ECAC East Player of the Year honors in 2006-07, Twomey logged 42 points to forge a team record that stood until the 2010-11 campaign. Her 25 goals that season are the second-most ever scored in single-season team history and 10 of those were scored on the power play.
Twomey burst onto the scene as the ECAC East’s Rookie of the Year in 2005-06 by scoring 24 goals and 33 points in just 27 games and presently ranks third all-time in team history with 124 career points via 75 goals and 49 assists. The native of Londonderry, N.H., was inducted into the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey in 2012.
For more information on the Athletics Hall of Fame or to make a nomination for the Class of 2024, visit SaintAnselmHawks.com/HOF.
A Return to the Hilltop for Reunion 2023
This June, Saint Anselm College welcomed nearly 1,000 alumni and their guests home to the Hilltop for their reunion weekend.
“It was wonderful seeing so many alumni, family, and friends back on the Hilltop this weekend,” said Joseph Emmons ’04, assistant vice president of alumni relations and engagement. “Their support and love for the college are part of what makes the Anselmian experience so unique.”
Over the course of the weekend, attendees reconnected, celebrated, and attended a variety of seminars including a presentation on beekeeping and the Benedictine tradition and another on transformation through dialogue. They also relaxed and played cornhole, threw an ax during the alumni barbecue, gathered by the decades for dinner, danced the night away under the tent on the campus green, and listened to live music at the Pub.
Alumni also spent time honoring classmates who were no longer with them at the Golden Anselmian Memorial Mass, the Military Tribute, and the Alumni Memorial Mass.
The college honored the many reunion class volunteers who helped to make the event successful.
“Volunteers are an essential part of every reunion weekend,” stated Joseph A. Favazza, Ph.D., president of Saint Anselm College, at the thank you reception. “The success and enjoyment of this weekend is only possible by the tireless commitment and hard work of many people. I want to thank everyone for exceeding expectations and going above and beyond to make this year’s reunion a great success.”
By Anna Brennan-Curry
Photos by Kevin Harkins and Debbie LaFrance
Donald E. McCready Event Space Dedication
On June 14, 2023, Saint Anselm College dedicated the Donald E. McCready Event Space in the Roger and Francine Jean Student Center in memory of his longtime support. During his life, and after his passing, McCready supported first generation students through an endowed scholarship, the Alva de Mars Megan Chapel Art Center, and many other aspects of Saint Anselm College.
A Journey Through Prose and Poetry: Chris Morgan, Ph.D. ’86
“What is it you were meant for? What is it you were made for? What is it you really want to do? What is your journey, and what is your mission?” These were questions posed by Fr. David W. Cotter, O.S.B., during a mass in the Abbey Church in the mid-1980s—and for then-student Chris Morgan, Ph.D. ’86, they framed his own journey as a writer seeking direction within himself and a way to connect with the wider world.
An active writer during his time at the college, Morgan has since published multiple works of fiction and nonfiction, and has just released a new book of poetry, Beast of the World (Finishing Line Press, 2023). According to Morgan, the book attempts to give voice to an escalating environmental grief and the mystical lives of animals and landscapes, while also probing human intimacies, distilling all of it down into what he calls “a super intense little packet.”
He says, “The poetry piece was surprising to me, as a young person I always thought I was a fiction guy, and I still feel that way. But in my later 20s, the pull of poetry became intense.”
Folding his passion for prose and poetry into his life was no easy feat, but when he felt stuck, “it was the people who stepped in at that time, and in those places that really helped.”
For Morgan, one of those people was Abbot Aidan Shea, O.S.B., of Saint Anselm’s Abbey in Washington, D.C. During a silent retreat at the Abbey, Morgan struck up a lifelong friendship with Abbot Shea, and Morgan credits him with helping him to realize his deeper identity and true path forward in life.
Another friend and mentor helped guide him toward the next step in his life. When debating whether to travel to Wales for his Ph.D. in poetry, Professor David Townsend, a faculty member from Saint John’s College in Annapolis, Md., where Morgan earned his master’s in great books, encouraged him to go for it. With a wife and two young children, moving to Wales seemed impossible, but Townsend encouraged Morgan, saying, “It’s OK to take a risk sometimes for the things you love.”
After three years of deferments, Morgan succeeded in securing funding for his research on the Welsh poet, R.S. Thomas. He published a book about Thomas that analyzed his work.
“You look back on those risks, and you go, ‘That was the trigger to an existence that was richer than I ever could have imagined,’” Morgan says.
In his role as assistant principal for academics at St. Mary’s High School in Annapolis, Md., Morgan hopes he can provide that same guidance and mentorship to his students. Initially reticent toward the idea of work as an administrator, he quickly realized how rich the work was at St. Mary’s. He hopes his students will be able to understand who they are as human beings by studying, and then make connections that are interdisciplinary—what he calls “the living web of the world.”
He says, “I like them not to just see academics in isolation but see it as an interrelated ecosystem that is rich, and not only rich but inclusive, expansive—a philosophy, and practice they can take with them on this journey of what turns out to be a short life on this stunning blue planet.”
By Jason Burns ’22
Photo Courtesy of Chris Morgan ’86
In Memoriam: Denise Theresa Askin, Ph.D.
Denise Theresa Askin, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Saint Anselm College, entered Eternal Life on June 6, 2023, after a courageous battle with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), previously known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. She is survived by her husband, Walter Noyalis of Bedford, son Joe and his wife Molly Williams Noyalis of Goffstown, cousins, niece, and nephews.
Denise was a member of the campus community from 1972 to 2009. She taught for and served as the chairperson of the English department, was the executive vice president of the college, and upon retirement, was appointed as a trustee. Denise received the American Association of University Professors’ Faculty Member of the Year Award and an Honorary Doctorate from Saint Anselm College.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on December 1, 1946, she was the daughter of Joseph and Rita (Devaney) Askin. She was educated at Visitation Academy (Valedictorian) and Fontbonne Academy (Valedictorian) in Brooklyn, and graduated from Marymount Manhattan College in 1968. She holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from the University of Notre Dame, and an honorary doctorate from Saint Anselm College. She loved teaching American literature, poetry, and Native American literature. To this day she has kept in contact with many former students.
Her research interests and publishing included the poetry of Walt Whitman, Henry James, T.S. Eliot, Flannery O'Connor, and Samson Occom, an 18th century minister and member of the Mohegan nation (for which she was honored by them). She has been a member of the board of trustees of the New Hampshire Humanities Council, for which she designed and led many seminars, especially for veterans who returned from war, and a literature and medicine program for doctors and other medical personnel. She was also a longtime Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) volunteer as well as a volunteer at VNA Hospice where she helped patients prepare their legacy writing and recordings.
She is remembered as hugely intelligent, an excellent teacher, a devoted and empathetic friend, a wise counselor, and a gentle peacemaker. Her love of conversation and her sense of humor echo to this day across the campus of St. Anselm College.
Among her fondest memories were growing up in Brooklyn and the many summers with her parents and later, with Walt and Joe, on the beaches of Eastern Long Island. The ocean was iconic for her, and she jumped at any chance to be in or near it.
Her longtime friend and colleague, Bindu Malieckal, Ph.D., chair of the English department shared the following reflection with the Saint Anselm community:
“She is full of the most blessed condition,” states one character about another in Shakespeare’s great play Othello. No truer words can be said about Denise Askin. She was a woman of strong faith whose actions always came from a place of love. She radiated warmth and happiness, grace and elegance, a zest for life, and her laugh was infectious. Our loss is Heaven’s gain, for Denise is no doubt among the angels, in the presence of the magnificence that is our God.