Naso, Smith Honored as Duke Senior Student-Athletes of the Year

DURHAM, N.C. – The Blue Devil duo of Jake Naso and Brianna Smith have been selected as Duke’s senior male and female student-athletes of the year for the 2023-24 campaign.

The pair joins a storied past of Duke senior student-athletes who have been recognized by the university for pairing athletic success with excellence in the classroom. Naso is a record-breaking faceoff specialist with the men’s lacrosse team, while Smith was a multi-events medalist for the women’s track & field program.  

Duke’s faceoff leader for the past four years, Naso has cemented himself in both the Duke and the NCAA record books. Naso, Duke’s record holder in faceoff wins (1,001) and ground balls (554), has been incredibly consistent for the Blue Devils in winning 59.3 percent of his faceoffs. Earning USILA first-team All-America honors as a junior, Naso won a career-best 315 faceoffs to rank tied for fifth in NCAA Division I history. Playing in 69 career games, Naso’s 1,001 victories at the dot and 554 ground balls rank seventh in NCAA history, while his 1,660 faceoffs taken are the second most of any Division I player all-time.

Naso, a native of Holtsville, New York, recently graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science, finishing his undergraduate studies with a 3.54 GPA. The first men’s lacrosse player to garner an ACC Postgraduate Scholarship, Naso will pursue a Master of Management Studies degree from Duke’s Fuqua School of Business next year.

A multi-events athlete from Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, Smith closed out her Duke career with a stellar senior campaign that saw her earn her first-career USTFCCCA All-America honors in the indoor pentathlon and outdoor heptathlon, and capture the silver medal at the 2024 ACC Outdoor Championships en route to helping the Duke women garner its second straight ACC Outdoor Championship and third in the last four years. In four seasons as a member of the Duke track and field program, Smith was a part of four ACC track & field championship teams for the Blue Devil women – three outdoor (2021, ’23, ’24) and one indoor (2022). A 2022 ACC Indoor Champion in the women’s high jump, Smith has collected All-ACC honors six times and tallied seven ACC All-Academic Team selections during her Duke tenure.

Smith graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in biology and a 3.724 cumulative GPA. She was…