Cleary's Smith and UM-Dearborn's Byrd win Player of the Week Honors

The Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) has announced its Ice Hockey Player of the Week Awards, presented by PCC Sports, earlier today. Student-athletes are nominated by their host institutions' sports information department and selected via a vote by conference SID's.

This week, the WHAC SIDs have chosen UM-Dearborn's Bailey Byrd as the Offensive Player of the Week and Cleary's Wes Smith as the Defensive Player of the Week. Byrd had a big weekend against WHAC rival Indiana Tech, scoring five goals, two of which were game winners to help lead the Wolverines to a sweep. Byrd had a hat trick in Saturday's overtime thriller over the Warriors. Smith led Cleary to a two-win weekend over Rochester with three goals and seven assists. The hat trick was the second of his collegiate career. These are the first WHAC Player of the Week awards this season for both players. 

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2023-24 WHAC Hockey Players of the Week:

10/9:
Ty Barnhill (Indiana Tech) - Defensive Player of the Week
Brendan West (UM-Dearborn) - Offensive Player of the Week

10/16:
Drew Adams (UM-Dearborn) - Defensive Player of the Week
Avery Smith (Indiana Tech) - Offensive Player of the Week

10/23:
Derek Hebner (Concordia) - Defensive Player of the Week
Avery Smith (Indiana Tech) - Offensive Player of the Week

10/30:
Kyle Hebner (Concordia) - Offensive Player of the Week
McCarthy Clark (Concordia) - Defensive Player of the Week 

11/6:
Joey Cullinan (UM-Dearborn) - Offensive Player of the Week
Declan Flanagan (Um-Dearborn) - Defensive Player of the Week

11/13:
Bailey Byrd (UM-Dearborn) - Offensive Player of the Week
Wes Smith (Cleary) - Defensive Player of the Week