Aug. 27, 2010
FAIRFAX, Va. - Lindsay Czarniak, NBC Sports broadcaster, will serve as special guest and keynote speaker for the second annual Patriot Club Champions Dinner, to be held on Saturday, October 2, at the new Mason Inn Conference Center and Hotel on the campus of George Mason University.
Chaired by Patriot Club Advisory Board member Kathleen McKay, the event will celebrate Mason's Athletics Champions of the 2009-10 season and honor the 25th Anniversary of the 1985 NCAA National Championship Women's Soccer team. Patriot Club donors, Mason student-athletes and coaches will also be recognized for their contributions to Mason Athletics. The reception will begin at 7 p.m. with the dinner and awards program to follow at 8 p.m.
Czarniak joined News4 as a sports anchor and reporter in June 2005. She is host on Daily Connection and co-hosts Redskins Postgame Report, Redskins Showtime, and Redskins Gameplan during football season. Her interviews with sports elite all over the country are featured weekly on her Lunch with Lindsay segment that airs Tuesdays on News4 at 5.
Aside from her work at NBC 4, she is also a pit reporter for TNT's coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup series. NBC Sports has recognized Czarniak's talents and tapped her to join NBC's Olympic coverage in 2006 from Turino and 2008 from Beijing. During the Games, she reported live on the NBC Networks and kept News4 viewers in the loop with her video diaries. From Beijing, Czarniak hosted the first-ever Olympic coverage on the Oxygen network.
Czarniak grew up in Northern Virginia and graduated from Centreville High School. She attended college at James Madison University, then began her broadcasting career as a CNN production assistant. She has also worked for WAWS-TV/WTEV-TV, in Jacksonville, Florida and WTVJ-TV in Miami as a sports reporter.‬
Twenty-five years ago this November, something historic happened in Fairfax. Just four years after having played it's first-ever varsity match, the George Mason women's soccer team claimed the school's first National Championship. The Patriots denied North Carolina its fourth-straight NCAA women's soccer title. The Tar Heels entered the match 10-0 all-time in the NCAA Tournament while Mason was 4-3. Accompanying Mason out on to the field were the bad memories of two years earlier, when Mason had lost to UNC in the national finals, 4-0.
That string of dominance in the finals ended less than 30 minutes into the 1985 championship match. Pam Baughman, a senior from Fairfax, scored the biggest goal in George Mason history, a 10-yard blast from the left corner past goalie Kathleen O'Dell. Mason's Lisa Gmitter iced the game on a pass from Baughman with fewer than five minutes to play, sealing the national title with a 2-0 win.
Tickets to the Champions Dinner are now on sale through the Patriot Club. For more event information contact the Patriot Club at 703-993-4147 or brupe@gmu.edu.
Award Winners Scheduled to be Honored
Most Outstanding Donor Award - Kathleen McKay
Patriot Club Service Award - Brion Sumser
Gordon Bradley Coach of the Year - Andrew Gerard
Dr. Frank Pettrone Male Student-Athlete of the Year - Ryan Soares
Dr. Frank Pettrone Female Student-Athlete of the Year - Ashley Danner
Aimee Willard Award - Ryan Kwiatkowski
