Cormac Madigan of Ripon College Named Midwest Conference Male Athlete of the Year

Cormac Madigan of the Ripon College football and baseball programs added one more accomplishment to his lengthy collegiate resume on Monday as he was named the 2023 Midwest Conference Male Athlete of the Year.

Awarded to one student-athlete representing women’s sports and one student-athlete representing men’s and mixed sports, the MWC Athletes of the Year award honors graduating student-athletes for their exceptional achievements in athletics, academics, leadership and community service.

In the third installation of this award for men’s and mixed sports, this is the first such honor for a Red Hawk male student-athlete.

One of the most decorated athletes in school history, Madigan (Rosendale, Wisconsin/Laconia High School) recently wrapped up his career with his name littered throughout the school’s record books. On the gridiron, Madigan holds six school records (career rushing yards, career points, career rushing touchdowns, career all-purpose yards, rushing touchdowns in one game and pass completions in one game).

He helped lead Ripon to a 9-1 season in 2022 and a share of the Midwest Conference championship for the first time since 2001. Madigan was the 2022 Midwest Conference Offensive Skill MVP, the 2018 Midwest Conference North Division Newcomer of the Year and was named to the postseason All-Midwest Conference team in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022.

On the baseball diamond, Madigan was a standout performer for the Red Hawks in 2022 and 2023. He was an All-Midwest Conference second-team outfielder in 2022 and is the school record holder in single-season games played (43 in 2023) and single-season at-bats (186 in 2022). His 65 hits in 2022, his first season playing collegiate baseball, rank fifth in program history for single-season hits.

More impressive than his accolades on the field are his contributions to Ripon in the classroom and in the community. Madigan was named the 2022 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Division III Football Team Member of the Year. A chemistry-biology major, Madigan graduated with a perfect 4.00 cumulative grade point average. He was also the 2022 MWC Football Elite 20 award winner, signifying the student-athlete with the highest GPA in their sport throughout the conference. In 2022 and 2023, Madigan was named to the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Division III Academic All-American Third Team for baseball. Three times he was selected as a CoSIDA/CSC Academic All-District honoree – twice in baseball and once in football. Four times he was named to the Academic All-Midwest Conference team.

Other academic awards include the 2019-20 Clifford Crump Phi Beta Kappa Award, the 2020-21 Red Hawk Award, the 2020-21 Jeff A. Thompson Award, the 2021-22 Midwest Conference Roy W. LeClere Award and the 2021-22 Samuel N. Pickard Award.

In the community, Madigan was a member of the Ripon College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was a member of the Orientation Committee on campus. He also volunteered in a variety of ways with the Ripon Food Pantry, Murray Park Elementary, the Ripon Fire Department and the Salvation Army. Throughout the majority of his college career, he helped tutor students on Ripon’s campus. In addition, he helped move Ripon College employees out of and into their homes while assisting in football and baseball camps on campus. Madigan was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, serving as the vice president and philanthropy and community service chair during the 2019-20 school year.

Madigan has been accepted into the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. He will begin schooling this fall.