The 2025-26 Big 12 Athlete of the Year nominees will be featured in alphabetical order by school starting Monday, July 13, through Wednesday, July 22, at 11 a.m. CT and 2 p.m. CT.
Each institution nominated one male and one female athlete of any classification who competed for their institution during the 2025-26 school year. Student-athletes were required to be in good academic standing and must have participated in a league-sponsored sport.
The 16 full-member institutions that competed during the 2025-26 academic year are eligible.
The winners will be announced Thursday, July 23. Stay tuned to Big12Sports.com and the league’s social media platforms to see the remaining candidates.
This morning’s featured candidates are Colorado’s Maddie Shoup and Hunter Swanson.
The full list of nominees for each school can be found below.
Colorado Female Athlete of the Year Candidate
Maddie Shoup, Women’s Lacrosse
Sr., Lafayette Hill, Pa.
Accomplishments
- Third Team All-American who helped lead Colorado to a No. 5 final national ranking and within one win of the program’s first Final Four appearance.
- Led the Buffaloes with 47 goals, 24 assists and 71 points, which ranked seventh in a season in program history, while finishing her career among Colorado’s top 10 all-time scorers with 142 points.
- Named Big 12 Tournament Most Outstanding Player and earned first-team All-Big 12 honors for the second consecutive season.
- Maintained a 3.6 GPA while helping Colorado win the Big 12 postseason title and served on the leadership team for Team IMPACT.
Colorado Male Athlete of the Year Candidate
Hunter Swanson, Men’s Golf
Sr., Denver, Colo.
Accomplishments
- Set the Colorado career record for most pars (1,706) and played in the second-most tournaments in CU history (50) while ranking among the program’s top three all-time in scoring average (71.67), birdies (502) and rounds in the 60s (44).
- Finished his senior season with a 70.54 stroke average and 32-under-par overall, including a 69.73 scoring average during the fall campaign.
- Recorded one top-five finish, three top-10 finishes and seven top-20 finishes while counting toward team scoring in 33 of 39 rounds.
- Graduated with a spring GPA of 3.6, participated in the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and helped Colorado post the best team GPA in program history during the spring 2026 semester.
The full list of nominees for each school can be found below.
2025-26 Big 12 Athletes of the Year Nominees
Arizona - Sydney Stewart and Jay Friend
Arizona State - Kenzie Brown and Jonny Kulow
Baylor - Tyler Isgrig and Devin Badenhorst
BYU - Jane Hedengren and AJ Dybantsa
UCF - Sierra Humphreys and Themus Fulks
Cincinnati - Juliette Laracuente-Huebner and Quinton Coats
Colorado - Maddie Shoup and Hunter Swanson