08/14/2026
SUNY Cortland women’s soccer and women’s ice hockey player Katie Diem ’26 and men’s track and field athlete Isaiah Brunache ’26 have been named the overall SUNY Division III Scholar Athletes of the Year for the 2025-26 school year. Diem is the top scholar athlete among all Division III women’s sports in the SUNY system, while Brunache is the top scholar athlete among all SUNY Division III men’s sports.
Diem was a defender on Cortland’s women’s soccer team and a forward on the Red Dragons’ women’s ice hockey team. A biology major with a 3.98 overall GPA, she became Cortland’s first-ever women's soccer Academic All-American with her selection last fall on the CSC Academic All-America first team. She also was named both the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and SUNY Women’s Soccer Scholar Athlete of the Year.
Diem earned United Soccer Coaches first-team all-region honors, was the SUNYAC Defensive Player of the Year, and was tabbed to the SUNYAC women’s soccer all-tournament team as she helped the Red Dragons win the conference title. She finished the season with four goals and three assists in 21 games, and in 39 games had career totals of five goals and five assists.
During the women’s ice hockey season, Diem played in 22 games and registered five goals, seven assists and a plus-17 rating. She helped Cortland advance to the SUNYAC tournament championship game. Her hockey career totals were eight goals and nine assists in 39 games.
Diem was named the 2025-26 SUNYAC’s Dr. Dolores Bogard Award winner as the conference’s top senior women’s student-athlete. She was the SUNYAC Elite 20 Award winner, given to the athlete with the highest GPA among teams at each conference championship site, for both soccer and hockey, and she was also selected as the SUNY Cortland Athletics Women’s Senior Athlete of the Year.
Brunache, an exercise science major with a 3.91 overall GPA, was a seven-time All-American as a thrower on the men’s track and field team. He was the national runner-up in the shot put at both the 2023 and 2025 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, in addition to finishing fifth in the weight throw and seventh in the shot put indoors in 2026, seventh in the weight throw indoors in 2025, eighth in the discus outdoors in 2026, and eighth in the shot put indoors in 2025. He also qualified for nationals in events on six other occasions.
He is the school record-holder in the indoor weight throw (19.85 meters/65’ 1.5"), the indoor shot put (17.57 meters/57’ 7.75”) and the outdoor shot put (18.21 meters/59’ 9”). Brunache was a three-time USTFCCCA Niagara Region Field Athlete of the Year (2025 outdoors, 2026 indoors, 2026 outdoors) and an 18-time All-Niagara Region honoree (indoor shot put four times, indoor weight throw four times, outdoor discus four times, outdoor hammer throw twice, outdoor shot put four times). Brunache also was a five-time All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) champion and two-time runner-up (plus six other AARTFC top-8 finishes).
In Brunache’s time at Cortland he won eight SUNYAC titles, finished as a runner-up six times and placed third twice for a total of 16 All-SUNYAC honors. He was voted as the SUNYAC Field Athlete of the Year three times (2025 outdoors, 2026 indoors, 2026 outdoors), was the 2024 and 2025 SUNYAC Outdoor Championship and 2026 SUNYAC Indoor Championship Most Valuable Performer of the Meet, and was named the 2023 SUNYAC Rookie of the Year
Among his other honors he was both a 2026 and 2025 CSC First Team Academic All-American and a three-time (2024-26) CSC Academic All-District selection. He’s a six-time SUNY Scholar Athlete of the Year (three indoor, three outdoor) and five-time SUNYAC Scholar Athlete of the Year (two indoor, three outdoor), was the 2025-26 SUNYAC Dr. Sam Molnar Award winner as the conference’s top senior men's student-athlete, and he was chosen as the SUNY Cortland Athletics Men's Senior Athlete of the Year.