Orangeburg, N.Y. (5/4/19)  Dominican College men's lacrosse player Kyle Souza and softball player Shelby Smith were recipients of the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Top XVI Award as was announced by commissioner Dan Mara this past Wednesday at the men's lacrosse and softball banquet.

The CACC Top XVI Award is modeled after the NCAA Elite 90 Award and is a direct product of the CACC Strategic Plan. The Top XVI Award is presented to the student-athlete with the highest cumulative grade-point average participating at the finals site for each of the CACC championships. In order to be considered, the student-athlete must be at least a sophomore in academic and athletics standing as well as a member of the active roster. In the event of a tie, it is broken by the total number of credit hours earned.

The award debuted in the 2013-14 season, and was named the Top XIV Award after the 14 championship sports the CACC offered. The award changed to the Top XV in 2014-15, as the conference expanded its championship offerings to 15 sports with the addition of men's track & field. And beginning with the 2017-18 year, the honor was changed to the Top XVI Award to recognize the 16 league championships as men's lacrosse was added as a title sport this spring. Prior to the 2016-17 season, the CACC commissioned Royal Rooster Design to create a logo specific to the Top XV Award. The new logo appears to the right of the article. The logo appears on all promotional materials and the glass award presented to each winner at the respective CACC Championship banquets.