David Falk (far left) speaks with students from the sport analytics program during their capstone poster presentations.
“I think the Rolls-Royce of Falk College, undoubtedly, is the analytics program,” said David Falk, benefactor of the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, to a room of senior sport analytics students and their families during their capstone poster presentations. “We’ve won virtually every analytics competition for the last few years.”
That was certainly true during the Spring 2025 semester, when sport analytics students were victorious at multiple analytics and research competitions and presented findings at several highly regarded conferences around the country. Below is a recap of the semester’s highlights.
Nathan Backman (left) won best student presentation at the SABR Analytics Conference.
Sport analytics students Owen St. Onge ’26, Payton Smith ’26, Andrew Diamond ’27, Jonah Soos ’25 and Jacob Kalamvokis ’27 won their room in the Diamond Dollars Case Competition, during which teams compete by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision similar to what a team’s general manager and staff would do in Major League Baseball.
Two students, Nathan Backman ’25 and Brett Cerenzio ’25, took part in the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference research competition, with Backman winning best student presentation for his research titled Baseball Cinematography: Using Open Source CV Algorithms to Track and Quantify Pitcher Mechanics.
Sport analytics students won every room of the Football Blitz competition, including one room of entirely first-year students, while also being named winners of the overall competition.
The Football Analytics Blitz tasks students with a current football analytics prompt. They are given a week to put together a presentation for football analytics professionals. The competition brought together students from 25 different universities and judges from eight NFL teams.
The winning Falk College students were:
Research conducted by sport management major Alivia “Ava” Uribe ’25, a member of the University’s women’s soccer team, with sport analytics professors Justin Ehrlich and Shane Sanders about the location of penalty kicks won the Research Paper Competition at the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Their paper won over thousands of entrants and six other finalists, and Uribe became the first female lead author in the conference’s 19-year history to capture the competition.
From left, students Dan Griffiths, Danielle Napierski, Brett Cerenzio and Alivia Uribe at the Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium
Sport analytics students Danielle Napierski ’26, Dan Griffiths ’26 and Brett Cerenzio ’25 were named runners-up in the Major League Baseball Data Challenge at the Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium (CSAS).
Alivia Uribe ’25 and Shane Sanders also presented their penalty kick research at CSAS.
Sport analytics students Sebastian Bush ’27 and Theo Schmidt ’26 presented their work, Dual Dependency: Analyzing the Winger and Wingback Relationship, at the American Soccer Insights Summit.
Sport analytics students Christopher Marfisi ’25, Evan Vassilovski ’25, Walker Oettl ’25 and Ryan Severe ’25 were named finalists for their work on the given prompt and traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings.
Jonah Soos holds his trophy for winning the individual/undergraduate division at the National Collegiate Sports Analytics Championships.
Falk College student Jonah Soos ’25 won the undergraduate division individual championship, while the undergraduate team of Soos, Hunter Geise ’25, Piper Evans ’25 and Maddy Forster ’25 finished second in the team competition. Two graduate students, Andrew Odnoralov G’25 and Owen Brown G’25 , also competed—a first for representatives from the Falk College’s graduate programs.
At this event, students gave five-minute presentations based on analysis of provided data related to brands, teams and athletes. Judges chose a winner based on statistical analysis, data visualization, actionable insights, communication and integrity.
Teams were tasked with modeling a projection system that predicted total plate appearances and batters faced for Major League Baseball players in the 2024 season based on their past data. Sport analytics students Dan Griffiths ’26, Ben Resnic ’26, Hunter Cordes ’26, Jared Weber ’27 and Josh Davis’27 won the Hackathon, with two other teams from the Falk College being named finalists.
To learn more about the college’s academic programs, experiential learning and career opportunities in sport analytics and sport management, visit the Falk College website.
