Seton Hall Honors and Celebrates Class of 2026 at Annual Senior Banquet

Maplewood, N.J. – Seton Hall Athletics celebrated and toasted its 2026 graduating class with its annual Senior Banquet, held May 12 at Maplewood Country Club.

The event is designed to honor the graduating class in front of their coaches, peers and family members. At the start of the evening, the seniors were given student-athlete graduation stoles to wear at commencement, and many of them were recognized with the department's Academic Merit Award, given to seniors who graduate with at least a 3.3 GPA.

As is tradition, each head coach delivered remarks about their respective graduates and handed out their senior gifts. Associate Athletics Director Matt Sweeney served as emcee and was assisted by Director of Athletics Bryan Felt in handing out the major awards.

Four major awards were handed out during the marquee event. The Senior Most Valuable Pirate award was given to two recipients. Swimming & diving senior Kevin Cary, who is a seven-time BIG EAST champion, a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and beloved member of the campus community, was one recipient. The other was senior Michael Carswell, who is the first non-athlete recipient of this award since John Fanta in 2017. Since coming to campus as a freshman in Fall 2022, Carswell has been volunteering his time to multiple departments, helping Seton Hall student-athletes have a first-class experience behind the scenes.

Men's Soccer's Agustin Resch was named Seton Hall's Senior Male Athlete of the Year. The 2025 BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Year became only the third player in Seton Hall history to be named an All-American, Academic All-American and Scholar-Athlete All-American, all in the same year. He became the first Seton Hall player to be selected in the MLS Draft in 20 years. Mariana Valenzuela of the women's basketball team earned Seton Hall's Female Athlete of the Year honors. The Mexico native was a unanimous First Team All-BIG EAST selection and saw nearly all of her offensive metrics triple in 32 starts for the Pirates last season.

Named Senior Scholar-Athletes of the Year are Axel Berglund of men's soccer and Lara Todorovic of women's golf. Berglund has earned Dean's List honors every semester and has been named to the BIG EAST All-Academic team three times, with a fourth selection forthcoming. Axel is also a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, the student-athlete honor society. He will graduate this spring with a double major in Finance and Information Technology and will begin his professional career with Deloitte following graduation. Todorovic has earned Dean's List recognition every semester, is a Chi Alpha Sigma inductee and is a three-time BIG EAST All-Academic team selection, with a fourth coming this summer. She will graduate with a bachelor's degree in Financial Mathematics and will begin her master's degree in Finance at MIT this summer.

Gallery: (5-14-2026) 2026 Seton Hall Senior Banquet