For­mer T&T in­door and out­door na­tion­al women’s hock­ey play­er Yese­nia Luces is among 14 for­mer Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty who will be in­duct­ed in­to the school’s Ath­let­ics Hall of Fame Class of 2023

The group will be of­fi­cial­ly in­duct­ed dur­ing a din­ner on Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 6 in the Cov­el­li Cen­ter and rec­og­nized at Ohio Sta­di­um when the Buck­eye foot­ball team hosts Mary­land on Sat­ur­day, Oc­to­ber 7.

The 13 oth­er in­ductees com­prise the for­mer out­stand­ing in Mau­reen Co­gan (women’s cross coun­try/track & field), Mal­colm Jenk­ins (foot­ball), Mi­ho Kowase (women’s ten­nis), Nick Man­gold (foot­ball), Sean Melton (men’s gym­nas­tics), Rick Mid­dle­ton (foot­ball), Kelsey Mitchell (women’s bas­ket­ball), Steven Mon­eke (men’s ten­nis), Re­nee Pow­ell (women’s golf), Joe Roberts (men’s bas­ket­ball), Tom Ryan (wrestling coach), Tay­lor Sand­bothe (women’s vol­ley­ball) and Nico­las Sz­er­szen (men’s vol­ley­ball).

Dur­ing her four years at Ohio State Uni­ver­si­ty (2004-2007), Luces was one of on­ly two play­ers in pro­gramme his­to­ry (all-time lead­ing scor­er Sue Mar­cel­lus is the oth­er) to be a First Team All-Amer­i­can more than once in her ca­reer, and in the record books, she cur­rent­ly ranks fifth in ca­reer points (123), sev­enth in goals scored (44) and fourth in as­sists (35).

A First Team All-Amer­i­can in 2005 and 2007 and sec­ond-team choice in 2006, Luces was twice the Big Ten Of­fen­sive Play­er of the Year (2006 and 2007) and was a mem­ber of the 2006 Buck­eye team that won the Big Ten reg­u­lar sea­son ti­tle.

The mod­el of con­sis­ten­cy, Luces led the Buck­eyes in scor­ing in each of her four sea­sons.

Com­ment­ing on be­ing among the Class of 2023 in­ductees a very hum­ble Luces, 41, said, “Ob­vi­ous­ly there is a sense of grat­i­tude and ac­com­plish­ment that comes with re­ceiv­ing such an ho­n­our like this, but at the same time I feel like a lot of peo­ple here at home don’t re­al­ly know what the award re­al­ly means and what it stands for.”

A long-serv­ing mem­ber of Ven­tures Hock­ey Club lo­cal­ly, Luces added, ‘With the award, I think I’m con­grat­u­lat­ing my­self more than any­thing else. So, I’m very ex­cit­ed to be re­turn­ing to Ohio in a few months and be­ing back on my old stomp­ing ground, see­ing my old friends and re­al­ly get­ting a good idea of what it’s like to feel ac­com­plished.

“It’s a re­ward for re­al­ly do­ing some­thing great in the sport, and the tru­ly best part of it all for me is not about me, but re­al­ly re­ward­ed for my dad who has wait­ed a long time to see this ac­com­plish­ment.

“He was the first per­son that I told when I was in­formed about be­ing in­duct­ed, and I guess he is the per­son who’s most ex­cit­ed by my achieve­ment as well as be­ing the one per­son who would al­ways check up on all my sta­tis­tics dur­ing my col­le­giate ca­reer and com­pare them with oth­er ath­letes.

“So, dur­ing my play­ing ca­reer that was a re­al­ly ex­cit­ing time for me to see that some­body was so ex­cit­ed about what I did, and I know it re­al­ly means a lot to him, and for me, I’m hap­py to say that be­ing in­duct­ed in­to the Hall of Fame is my ho­n­our to him.”

An emo­tion­al Luces who rep­re­sent­ed T&T for over 20 years added, “I’m even hap­pi­er that the per­son (my dad) that has been be­hind me from day one sup­port­ing me is still here to see it hap­pen.”

The Ohio State Ath­let­ics Hall of Fame was cre­at­ed in 1977 and has in­duct­ed 473 ath­letes, coach­es, and ad­min­is­tra­tors through 2022. With the ad­di­tion of Jenk­ins, Man­gold, and Mid­dle­ton, the num­ber of foot­ball let­ter win­ners in­duct­ed will move to 135, while Roberts will push the num­ber of men’s bas­ket­ball in­ductees to 48. Co­gan will be the 15th mem­ber of the women’s cross coun­try/track and field pro­gram to en­ter the hall and Kowase will be the sixth women’s ten­nis stand­out en­shrined. Luces will be the eighth mem­ber of the field hock­ey pro­gram to be in­duct­ed and Pow­ell will bring the women’s golf num­ber to nine. Ryan will be the 32nd head coach en­shrined. For vol­ley­ball, Sz­er­szen will be the sixth mem­ber of the men’s team in­duct­ed and Sand­bothe will move the women’s num­ber to 11. Mitchell is the 15th women’s bas­ket­ball play­er se­lect­ed and for men’s gym­nas­tics, Melton will be the 14th Buck­eye to be en­shrined.