Oklahoma gymnast Anastasia Webb and Baylor men’s basketball player Jared Butler were named the 2020-21 Big 12 Athletes of the Year. Webb is the seventh Sooner female and third consecutive to win the accolade. Butler is the third Baylor male to win the award and first since 2014.
Nominees are submitted by Big 12 institutions and selected, based on athletic performance, academic achievement and citizenship, by a media panel as well as fan voting conducted through Big12Sports.com.
Webb won three individual NCAA Championships with triumphs in the vault, floor exercise and all-around. She became just the ninth gymnast in NCAA history to accomplish the feat of winning three titles in one championship. Additionally, she placed third on the balance beam and seventh on bars to lead OU to a runner-up finish.
A native of Morton Grove, Illinois, Webb was named the 2021 Honda Sport Award for women’s gymnastics. She was selected as the 2021 Big 12 Co-Gymnast of the Year and was the WCGA Region 4 Gymnast of the Year. Also, she was selected as a finalist for the AAI Award.
The senior won Big 12 titles in the balance beam and vault. Webb collected five All-America honors and was the only gymnast nationally to earn first-team recognition on all four events and the all-around.
In 2021, she collected 33 event titles and scored four perfect 10s. Webb finished her career with 67 event titles to rank second in school history.
A May graduate with a degree in Health, Medicine and Society, Webb was a four-time Academic All-Big 12 selection from 2018 to 2021. Additionally, she volunteered with various organizations including Team Impact, Mercy Hospital, J.D. McCarty Center and the Boys and Girls Club of Norman. While with Team Impact, Webb communicated regularly with an 11-year-old girl who battles aplastic anemia. She helped her experience the happiness and togetherness of being on a sport team as well as provided emotional support.
With his leadership and determination, Butler led Baylor men’s basketball to its first NCAA National Championship. The three-year letterwinner became the program’s first consensus First Team All-American in program history. He led the Big 12 with a .416 three-point field goal percentage and 2.0 steals per contest. The Reserve, Louisiana, native was named the Associated Press Big 12 Player of the Year and the United States Basketball Writers Association District VII Player of the Year.
In the NCAA National Championship game, Butler scored 22 points, dished out seven assists and grabbed three rebounds en route to being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four.
Butler graduated from Baylor in three years with a BBA in management. Earlier this season, he was tabbed the Big 12 Men’s Basketball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and Big 12 Male Sportsperson of the Year, and he is a three-time Academic All-Big 12 selection.
Off the court, Butler served as a speaker at Baylor’s student-athlete unity walk last summer. During his speech, he encouraged his fellow student-athletes to strive for equality and racial justice. He also served as a Sunday School teacher for second and third graders at Waco’s Harris Creek Baptist Church and was a student-athlete representative for the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Oversight Committee.
Other female candidates for Big 12 Athlete of the Year included Aaliyah Miller (Baylor), Sami Williams (Iowa State), Jenny Mosser (Kansas), Ayoka Lee (Kansas State), Maja Stark (Oklahoma State), Emily Alvarado (TCU), Tara Davis (Texas), Ruth Usoro (Texas Tech) and Ceili McCabe (West Virginia).
Male nominees were David Carr (Iowa State), Marcus Garrett (Kansas), Tejaswin Shankar (Kansas State), Isaiah Levingston (Oklahoma), Cade Cunningham (Oklahoma State), Tre’von Moehrig (TCU), Jordan Windle (Texas), Jace Jung (Texas Tech) and Darius Stills (West Virginia).