Outstanding UK Athletes Recognized at 2025 CATSPY Awards

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The 23rd annual CATSPY Awards were held Monday inside Historic Memorial Coliseum to recognize athletic and academic performances during the 2024-25 year in the University of Kentucky Athletics Department. With multiple winners in some categories, 35 individuals were recognized as well as 15 teams. The 2025 CATSPY Awards cover accomplishments earned from April 2024 through April 2025.

Headlining the awards were the Teams of the Year – volleyball, rifle and baseball.

With a new look Southeastern Conference in 2024 and a renovated home, Kentucky volleyball’s reign as the standard of the SEC had many variables to deal with entering the year.  The reign atop the league continued, nonetheless. The Wildcats won their eighth-consecutive SEC Championship and advanced to the program's third NCAA Regional Final. UK had a successful season with a 23-8 overall record and a 14-2 record in league matches, winning 11 consecutive matches to end the regular season. The Wildcats hosted the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in newly renovated Historic Memorial Coliseum, winning both matches to put a cap on a fine season that electrified big crowds in the now state-of-the-art venue multiple times throughout the year.

Clara Strack

Kentucky had two All-Americans, in Brooklyn DeLeye and Emma Grome. DeLeye was SEC Player of the Year and a finalist for National Player of the Year while head coach Craig Skinner was SEC Coach of the Year for the second year in a row and sixth time in the last seven seasons. In addition, Molly Tuozzo joined DeLeye and Grome on the All-SEC team, while Asia Thigpen and Brooke Bultema were on the SEC All-Freshman Team.

In his 37 years as the head coach, one thing has always remained the same about Harry Mullins’ UK rifle team – when the lights get bright, it rises to the occasion. That proved true again for the 2024-25 version of the Wildcats, who put together an impressive season that culminated with a second-place finish at the 2025 NCAA Rifle National Championships in Historic Memorial Coliseum.

Led by unanimous first-team All-Americans Braden Peiser and Sofia Ceccarello, UK finished second nationally in smallbore, third nationally in air rifle and were national runners-up overall. The performance marked the seventh time in program history UK has been national runners-up, while it was the program’s 24th top-five finish at the national championships. Individually, Peiser took home the national silver medal in air rifle, while UK was the only team in the nation to place three athletes in the smallbore national final in Peiser, Ceccarello and freshman Liz Probst, who claimed the silver medal in smallbore at the Great America Rifle Conference Championships.

Throughout the season, UK made history on the range as both Ceccarello and Peiser set the NCAA record air rifle score with a perfect 600-59x mark. Peiser also tied the smallbore school record with a 597 score. All told, Peiser, Ceccarello, Probst, Sam Adkins and Martin Voss earned All-America status.

Head coach Nick Mingione and the Kentucky baseball team talk about doing things that have never been done before. They did plenty of that in 2024. The Cats were the first Kentucky team to make the Men’s College World Series in Omaha.  They broke the program record with 46 wins and were SEC Champions and earned the No. 2-overall seed in the NCAA Baseball Tournament.  

They energized the Big Blue Nation throughout the season, and swept through the Lexington Regional and Super Regional, in front of record crowds at Kentucky Proud Park.  Ryan Waldschmidt and Emilien Pitre were named All-Americans, while Mingione was SEC Coach of the Year and Nick Lopez was named First-Team All-SEC. Waldschmidt earned All-SEC Second-Team honors, while Mitchell Daly, Mason Moore and Pitre were named to the All-SEC Defensive Team. Daly and Pitre were also Academic All-America rounding out just some of the individual honors as part of a historic team season.  

The Mr. And Miss Wildcat awards – dedicated in honor of the late Bruno Agostinelli, a UK men’s tennis All-American and past Mr. Wildcat winner – are presented to Wildcats who have represented all-around excellence in athletics, academics, character and service during their Kentucky careers. Eli Cox from football, Devin Burkes from baseball and Lamont Butler were named Mr. Wildcat for 2024-25, while Miss Wildcat went to Isabella Magnelli from gymnastics and Brooklyn DeLeye and Emma Grome from volleyball. 

Men’s cross country and women’s golf were the Academic Teams of the Year. Seven Wildcats – Patrick Herrera and Evan Byers from baseball, Grant Darbyshire from men’s basketball, Alex Justus from men’s track and field/cross country, Ainsley Edwards and Phoebe McCowan from women’s track and field/cross country and Kaelan Daly from women's swimming & diving – earned Scholar-Athletes of the Year while maintaining impressive career grade-point averages. 

Kate Powers from women’s track and field and Eli Stephenson from men’s tennis earned the Blue Heart Award for overcoming injuries to return to action and make significant contributions to their teams. 

Clara Strack from women’s basketball and Collins Kiprop Kipngok from men’s track and field earned Newcomers of the Year, while Georgia Amoore from women’s basketball and DeLeye earned Female Athlete of the Year and Ryan Waldschmidt earned Male Athlete of the Year.

The Heart of a Wildcat Award was presented to UK President Dr. Eli Capilouto for his unwavering support and dedication to UK Athletics and its student-athletes. President Capilouto became UK’s 12th President in July 2011, leading the Commonwealth’s flagship and land grant research university to new heights.

Christi Thomas of the UK Sports Network was the host of this year’s event. A complete list of award winners is below.

2025 CATSPY AWARD WINNERS 

Female Newcomer of the Year

Clara Strack, Women's Basketball

Male Newcomer of the Year

Collins Kiprop Kipngok, Men's Track & Field

Male Supporting Role          

Octavious Oxendine, Football

Female Supporting Role

Annie Riegert, Gymnastics

Marta López Echevarría, Women’s Golf

Scratch Award

Logan Dorsey, Men’s Soccer

Sharon Lee, Gymnastics

Evan Byers, Baseball

Male Athlete of the Year      

Ryan Waldschmidt, Baseball

Female Athlete of the Year  

Georgia Amoore, Women's Basketball

Brooklyn DeLeye, Volleyball

Academic Teams of the Year

Men's Cross Country  

Women's Golf

Blue Heart Award     

Kate Powers, Women's Track & Field

Eli Stephenson, Men's Tennis

Community Service Award  

Ella Emmert, Softball

Lily DeLong, Women's Swimming & Diving

Josh Kattus, Football

Jackson Watts, Men's Track & Field/Cross Country

Teagan Wright , STUNT

Keightley Assist Award

Bronson Sullivan, Athletic Training

Sara Zawadzki, Softball

Marc Shewmaker, Baseball

Julia Durant, Volleyball

Zach Brangers, Sports Video

Mr. Wildcat

Devin Burkes, Baseball

Eli Cox, Football

Lamont Butler, Men's Basketball

Miss Wildcat

Isabella Magnelli, Gymnastics

Brooklyn DeLeye, Volleyball

Emma Grome, Volleyball

Heart of a Wildcat    

Dr. Eli Capilouto         

Scholar-Athlete of the Year  

Patrick Herrera, Baseball

Grant Darbyshire, Men's Basketball

Alex Justus, Men's Track & Field/Cross Country

Evan Byers, Baseball

Kaelan Daly, Women's Swimming & Diving

Ainsley Edwards, Women's Track & Field/Cross Country

Phoebe McCowan, Women's Track & Field/Cross Country

Team of the Year

Baseball         

Rifle    

Volleyball       

All photos by UK Athletics