The 2023 class of Northwestern Lehigh athletes is a group that experienced the highs and lows of high school sports.

This year’s graduates had their first year of high school interrupted by a pandemic that also impacted sports seasons for the next year. The spring 2020 season was canceled before it started while the following fall and winter seasons were also shortened because of COVID19.

But when this group was finally able to get on the playing fields, it proved to be one of the most successful in the history of Tiger athletics.

Over the past three years Northwestern teams won 12 Colonial League titles and 13 District 11 crowns in team sports. To put a cherry on top, the Tiger boys soccer team earned a state title in fall and senior Faith Yost picked up a state gold in spring track to cap another successful year for the Tigers.

Athletes in the Class of 2023 set a new standard at Northwestern and a large number of them are planning to move on to college athletics next year. At a ceremony last month 23 Tiger seniors announced their intentions to compete at the next level.

Among that group are three athletes headed to Division I teams, five that are going to the Division II level, 13 on their way to Division III programs and one to community college. They all hope to find the same things in their college programs that they had in high school. It’s not just about the success of the teams, but also about the experiences along the way.

“All the relationships I’ve built,” Eastern Michigan field hockey commit Brooke Page said of her best memories from high school sports at Northwestern. “All the girls in my class and in other classes have become some of my best friends.”

Page is one of four Tiger field hockey players that will compete in college and one of two that are going to Division I programs.

“To get to all sign together is special,” she said.

Gabrielle Gober (Fairfield University), Daniella Lister (Adelphi University) and Brinley Rex (Kutztown University) helped the Tigers win field hockey district titles in 2022 and 2021, along with a Colonial League title in 2021 under head coach Lissa Opolsky.

“I had two older sisters who went through the program,” said Page. “When (Opolsky) first started the team was 0-18. There wasn’t a district championship in sight. I’ve won districts three of my four years and now it’s a bad year if we don’t do that. She’s really helped this program and gotten it to the point where it’s at.”

Gober, the starting goal keeper for the past four seasons, agreed that this year’s district title was more special for her and her classmates.

“Winning a district championship this year was amazing,” said Gober. “Going from my freshman and sophomore year where we had that massive class of seniors - they were amazing leaders. When they left after my sophomore year, we kind of hit a valley instead of a peak. Coming back up to the peak of that mountain was amazing.”

The Tiger girls soccer team is sending three athletes to college programs as Samantha Bardonner (Misericordia University), Quinn Conrey (Susquehanna University) and Naomi Glassberg (Cornell University).

That group has won a district title in every year of high school and picked up a league title in 2021 an 2020. Glassberg, who will play at the Division I level with the Big Red, was a big part of each of those titles. She recorded 14 shutouts and allowed just 17 goals last season, allowing an average of 0.68 goals per game while making 87 saves.

As a junior she stopped 76 shots and posted 18 shut outs while allowing just six goals all season for a 0.26 goals per game average.

“The program is losing the backbone of the team for the past four years, so it’s going to be tough to try and replace her,” said Northwestern girls soccer head coach Jordan Smith. “Cornell is getting a player who doesn’t know what the word quit means and works hard each and every day. Not only will she excel on the field for them, but she’ll excel in the classroom having one of Northwestern’s top GPAs in the graduating class.”

Another sport that will see a handful of players heading to the next level is lacrosse, a relatively new sport at Northwestern. Two boys and three girls are moving on to play in college.

Ty Meck (Susquehanna University), Austin Sosnovik (Wilkes University), Ava Collins (Shippensburg University), Kiersten Shupp (DeSales University) and Alexis Vennera (Washington College) have been part of the five-year old Tiger lacrosse program. Meck and Sosnovik helped the boys team to its first district title in 2023.

Paige Sevrain and the Northwestern girls basketball team earned Colonial League titles in each of the past three seasons. Next year she will take the court for the Bloomsburg University Huskies.

Angelina Klein was part of a District 11 cross country team championship team in her senior season. She’ll return to the school that hosts that championship race each year as she committed to DeSales University.

Matt Santana, who was part of boys cross country league titles the past three seasons and district titles the previous two, is headed to Lebanon Valley College, while pole vaulter Cayden Kuhns is headed to Ithaca College.

Cade Christopher helped the Tigers to a 10-0 football season and a district title in 2022 and was part of the lacrosse team that won one in spring. He is headed to East Stroudsburg University to continue his education and football career.

Josey Wehr became the first Northwestern Lehigh girls athlete to commit to college for wrestling. She was also part of a softball team that won a league title in 2020 and played in a few championship games over the past three seasons. She plans to continue playing both sports in college.

Wesley George, who helped the Tigers win a baseball league title in 2021, will play at Ursinus College the next four years.

Lucas Miller, a wrestler who was also part of the Tigers’ championship football team, is headed to Wilkes University to continue his education and wrestling career.

Jenna Breininger was a standout volleyball player in high school and is headed to Ohio Northern University.

Josh Zellner, the only member of the Tigers’ state championship soccer team to commit to a college team, is headed down the road to Lehigh County Community College to continue his career.