Dartmouth running back Nick Schwieger '12 relinquished the Asa S. Bushnell Cup Ivy League Player of the Year title on Monday, losing out to Cornell University sophomore quarterback Jeff Matthews. Despite leading the League in rushing yards for the second consecutive season, Schwieger faced a difficult challenge in upending Matthews for Offensive Player of the Year, as Matthews set the conference's single-season record for passing yards and was named national player of the week twice.
Schwieger was the runner-up for the award, placing second in the voting process.
Schwieger was named co-winner of the Bushnell Cup which, for the first time in League history, distinguished between offensive and defensive players and named two sets of nominees last season, when he rushed for 1,133 yards to lead Dartmouth to its first winning record in more than a decade. He continued to dominate this season, racking up 1,310 rushing yards and finishing eight games with at least 100 yards on the ground. Schwieger also scored 10 touchdowns and set Dartmouth's single-game rushing record with 257 yards in the Big Green's win over Cornell on Nov. 5
During a four-year career in which the Big Green ascended from the League's bottom tier to a second-place League tie in its 2011 season, Schwieger consistently shined, being named All-Ivy First Team his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. He became the first Dartmouth running back to rush for over 3,000 career yards in the Big Green's win over Princeton University on Nov. 18, which gave Dartmouth its first winning League record since 2003.
Harvard University senior defensive tackle Josue Ortiz was named the League's Defensive Player of the Year, beating out University of Pennsylvania senior linebacker Erik Rask.
