Cincinnati Student-Athletes Celebrated at Annual One Team Honors – University of Cincinnati Athletics

CINCINNATI — The University of Cincinnati Department of Athletics celebrated the 2025-26 athletics season at its annual One Team Honors Thursday evening.
 
One Team Honors is an annual end-of-year occasion which celebrates the perfect of Bearcats Athletics. The award present is led by the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Bearcat scholar athletes and employees presenting the next classes.
 
BEN FLICK MEMORIAL AWARD
When former UC Football participant Ben Flick handed away in 2013, teammates Grant Coleman and Mark Wilson created the award in his honor. This award is granted to a freshman that has made an impression on the Bearcats Community and embodies the identical traits of charisma, ardour and dedication that Ben displayed.
 
Female Nominees: Caliyah Devillasee (basketball), AJ Hendrick (soccer), Haley Mario (lacrosse), Tara Kurepa (tennis), Izzy Busignani (volleyball)
Male Nominees: Brayden Miller (golf), Keyshuan Tillery (basketball), Cray Paich (soccer), Isaiah Dudley (cheer, Miller Mabury (monitor and area and cross nation)

Female Winner: AJ Hendrick – Soccer
Male Winner: Brayden Miller – Golf
 
FRESHMAN OF THE YEAR
Awarded to a female and male student-athlete of their first 12 months as a Bearcat who has made the most important impression on their respective staff.

Female Winner: Abby Sewell – Track and Field and Cross Country
Male Winner: Nickson Kogei – Track and Field and Cross Country
 
TRANSFER OF THE YEAR
Awarded to a female and male student-athlete of their first 12 months as a Bearcat who transferred in from one other establishment.

Female Winner: Mya Perry – Basketball
Male Winner: Cyrus Allen – Football

COMMUNITY CATS AWARD
This award is introduced to a Cincinnati student-athlete that goes above and past with regards to serving the University and Cincinnati neighborhood.
 
Female Nominees: Yu-Wei Chiang (golf), Gabby Guenther (tennis), Thea Work (lacrosse), Macaylee Nelson (cheer)
Male Nominees: Marin De Villard (swimming and diving), Grant Darbyshire (basketball), Adam Buczkowski (baseball), Tiger Bartlett (monitor and area and cross nation)

Female Winner: Thea Work – Lacrosse
Male Winner: Tiger Bartlett – Track and Field and Cross Country

ZACK TOBLER ONE TEAM STUDENT-ATHLETE AWARD 
This particular person could be seen because the unsung hero of the staff. Someone who might not all the time obtain exterior recognition, however is all the time searching for the perfect curiosity of the staff and all the time maintains a constructive perspective. This award is for a student-athlete who lives the One Team tradition each day and greatest represents the C-Paw. The award is called after Zack Tobler, a walk-on for males’s basketball staff 2013-17.

Female Nominees: Thea Work (lacrosse), Yu-Wei Chiang (golf), Sophie Schuetze (swimming and diving), Lauren Ann Barnes (monitor and area and cross nation), Ligia Williams (volleyball)
Male Nominees: Brenden Garula (baseball), Grant Darbyshire (basketball), George Leibold (soccer), Marin De Villard (swimming and diving), Bobby Ganser (monitor and area and cross nation)

Female Winner: Yu-Wei Chiang – Golf
Male Winner: Brenden Garula – Baseball
 
PRIDE IN THE PAW AWARD 
This award is introduced to the varsity staff that greatest embodies the One Team spirit and helps their fellow Bearcats.
 
Winner: Men’s Swimming and Diving
 
NANCY HAMANT SCHOLAR ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD
Awarded to the senior female and male student-athlete with the highest cumulative GPA.
 
Female Winners: Claire Curtsinger – Track and Field and Cross Country; Mia Hensley – Swimming and Diving
Male Winner: Seth Elking – Track and Field and Cross Country

TED CORBITT BREAKING BARRIERS AWARD
Ted Corbitt was a four-year letterwinner at UC from 1938-1942, when alternatives to compete have been restricted due to racial limitations and discrimination. The grandson of slaves and a World War II veteran went on to amass probably the most prolific careers within the historical past of distance operating. Known because the “Father of Ultramarathoning” within the United States, he completed greater than 223 marathons and ultramarathons and was the primary Black marathoner in U.S. Olympic historical past.

This award is given to a student-athlete who has demonstrated a dedication to breaking limitations and advancing the UC student-athlete expertise. 

Nominees: Dontay Corleone (soccer), Tyler McKinley (basketball), Paige Counts (lacrosse), Annika Kinley (monitor and area and cross nation), Thea Work (lacrosse), Hampton Gucky (swimming and diving), Juliette Laracuente-Huebner (monitor and area and cross nation), Kali Barrett (basketball), Ligia Williams (volleyball)

Winner: Ligia Williams – Volleyball
 
HELEN NORMAN SMITH AWARD 
Helen Norman Smith got here to UC in 1922 as an teacher in well being and bodily training and rose to the rank of assistant professor in 1923 and affiliate professor in 1926. For a lot of her tenure, she served basically because the athletics director for girls’s sports activities, which operated on a philosophy of broad-based participation. She organized the primary licensed well being training course of research at UC and was elected to UC’s James P. Kelly Athletics Hall of Fame in 1979.
 
The Helen Norman Smith Award is given to a ladies’s sport senior student-athlete who has demonstrated tutorial achievement, excellent contributions and/or excellence in athletic efficiency of their sport, and documented neighborhood service.

Nominees: Mya Perry (basketball), Yu-Wei Chiang (golf), Coley Sidloski (soccer), Joleigh Crye (swimming and diving), Carly Glendinning (volleyball), Claire Curtsinger (monitor and area and cross nation)
 
Award Winner: Joleigh Crye – Swimming and Diving

JIMMY NIPPERT AWARD
Jimmy Nippert was a middle on the 1922 and 1923 UC soccer staff and is the namesake of UC’s historic house facility. During the season-ending conflict with rival Miami (Ohio) in 1923, Nippert sustained a spike-wound harm and died a month later from blood poisoning. His grandfather, James N. Gamble of Procter and Gamble, supplied the funds wanted to finish the horseshoe-shaped construction, and the James Gamble Nippert Memorial Stadium was devoted on Nov. 8, 1924.
 
The Jimmy Nippert Award is given to a males’s sport senior student-athlete who has demonstrated tutorial achievement, excellent contributions and/or excellence in athletic efficiency of their sport, and documented neighborhood service.

Nominees: Jalen Celestine (basketball), Ben Blevins (soccer), Gavin Gerhardt (soccer)
 
Award Winner: Gavin Gerhardt – Football
 
DR. SIMON ANDERSON FACILITY RECOGNITION AWARD
This award honors Dr. Simon Anderson, who labored as a professor in UC’s College- Conservatory od Music for 41 years. This award is introduced to a college member who demonstrates continued help of the academic development of UC Student-Athletes.
 
Award Winner: Dr. Julia Buchanan