Throughout the year, multiple NSW teams improved their record from a season ago, including a few going from losing seasons to conference or regional champions. Justin Cornwell gives us the nominees for the Most Improved Team here on NSW. This segment is presented by Grow Wellness.

Naperville North boys golf

We tee off the Most Improved list with a fall sport where local boys golf teams like Neuqua Valley, Waubonsie Valley, Naperville Central and Metea Valley have taken turns at the top of the DVC standings in recent years, while Naperville North has struggled to rise above the middle of the pack. In the fall of 2024, a young Husky squad made a strong push to win the conference and make a postseason run. While seniors Will Nelson, Dylan Kaiman and JT Schmitt made key contributions throughout the season, the underclassmen were the key to the Huskies’ improvement this fall. North went 4-1 in the DVC, including a win over eventual conference champion Neuqua Valley, only falling to Waubonsie Valley in a head-to-head showdown. At the regional meet, four Husky sophomores, Trevor Schmitt, Henry Haumesser, Lincoln Schultz and Colin Mills qualified for sectionals with fellow sophomore Zach Zafar and freshman Jack Fleury just missing the cut. With the entire regional roster returning for multiple seasons, Naperville North could soon emerge as the local team to beat.

Waubonsie Valley girls cross country

Waubonsie Valley girls cross country had essentially become a one-person show in recent seasons with Lily Baibak being the lone Warrior you would see running near the leaders of the pack. This fall, the rest of the green and gold running roster made major strides throughout the season. Seniors Katie Beyers, Marissa Martin and Emely Galvez helped raise the floor while junior Katherine Heap, freshman Dhanya Shanmugasundaram and sophomore Mia Bertolini developed into forces to be reckoned with. Playing host at the regional meet, the Warriors finished in second place to perennial power Naperville North and qualified for sectionals as a team for the first time since 2018. Bairbak and Bertolini finished in top 10, along with Shanmugasundaram and Heap in the top 20. The following week at the Hinsdale Central 3A sectional, the Warriors made school history with a fourth-place team finish, qualifying for state for the first time ever. While Baibak and her fellow seniors are moving on, the Warriors should continue to be a program on the rise.

Waubonsie Valley girls water polo

For our next nominee, we jump all the way to the spring with another Waubonsie Valley squad, the girls water polo team. The Warriors have had several strong seasons over the past five years, but their record dipped below .500 last year, and the team only secured one conference victory. This spring, the green and gold put things back in the right direction with a 14-win campaign and a second-place finish in the DVC, the best in program history. Waubonsie also defeated Naperville Central for the first time in well over a decade and earned the number two seed in the Naperville North sectional. Senior Ruby Meier was selected to the All-State fourth team. Veteran Calin Ball, goaltender Emma Buchenauer and underclassmen Reece Calvey and Hadley Vierck all played key roles in the turnaround. Despite falling in a 10-8 heartbreaker to Naperville Central in the sectional semis, Waubonsie girls water polo became an opponent to be reckoned with this spring.

Neuqua Valley girls soccer

Neuqua Valley girls soccer has a rich history with a state championship in 2005, a state runner-up finish in 2015, while consistently challenging for a conference title. 2024 was a rough year for the Wildcats who finished the year with only six victories and a 1-4 record in the DVC. The blue and gold flipped the script in 2025, winning 16 games and a share of the DVC championship. Neuqua defeated eventual state runner-up Naperville North in conference play and was the only team to defeat Naperville Central this season, winning their DVC matchup and eventually eliminating the Redhawks in the sectional semifinals. Senior Selma Larbi returned to the roster after playing club during her junior season, and made the All-DVC and All-Sectional teams along with Chloe Orlow, while midfielder Allessandra Russo was named All-State. Addison Gusky, Sydney Michalak, Alexis May, Alaina Chandola, and Safa Jeffery were all important contributors to the Wildcats earning another regional title. Despite a tough 2-1 loss to Naperville North in the sectional final, it was clear the Cats had their claws back this spring and appear well set to remain a state contender for years to come.

Neuqua Valley boys volleyball

Like the Neuqua Valley girls soccer team, the blue and gold boys volleyball program has a proud history, earning third-place state trophies in 2007 and 2008 and finishing as the state runner-up in 2018. In 2024, the Neuqua boys only won 9 games, one of the roughest seasons in team history. Coach Erich Mendoza and his team entered 2025 eager to get things turned around. The Cats won 11 of their first 12 to start the year, showing immediate improvement that carried on throughout the season. Neuqua won the DVC championship and 27 games in total, the most since 2018. Chase Marston set a new program record for kills in a season while Dhruva Jasti set the single-season assists record. Veda Chebrolu, Liam Mitchell, Blake Thompson, Noah Cullen, and Vishwak Naramreddy each played major roles in Neuqua winning its first regional championship since 2019. The Wildcats saw their run end at the hands of powerhouse Glenbard West in the sectional semifinals, but proved their mettle throughout their turnaround campaign. 

Waubonsie Valley boys tennis

Waubonsie Valley boys tennis is unique compared to the other nominees as the Warriors are coming off back-to-back successful campaigns. However, this spring the Waubonsie boys took another step forward with one of the greatest seasons in program history. The Warriors went undefeated during the DVC regular season against tough opponents like Naperville North, Neuqua Valley, and Metea Valley and capped it off at the DVC tournament to win their first conference title in at least 15 years. Playing host for the 2A sectional, Waubonsie qualified both singles players and both doubles teams to state, surging past Neuqua Valley to win the sectional championship for the first time since 2015. 

Junior Hector Diaz dazzled in singles play, taking first place in the conference and sectional meets. Senior Samayan Tayal went 24-3 playing two singles and finished in second at sectionals. Revanth Kothapalli and Ishan Suresh Kumar swept the DVC and sectional doubles titles while freshmen Krish Dave and Kavin Sivapunniyam had strong debut seasons, finishing in fourth at sectionals. Legendary head coach Phil Galow, who has led the program since 1982, then saw his boys earn the best team finish in history, ending the state meet in ninth place. Tayal is the only graduate in the main varsity rotation, so there is a chance the green and gold can build on this historic season in 2026.

Neuqua Valley girls soccer wins the Most Improved Team Award

The winner of the most improved team is Neuqua Valley girls soccer! The Wildcats improved their win total by 10 games and home DVC and regional titles!

Aaliyah Butler already had the two big things she wanted at last week’s NCAA Women’s Outdoor Track & Field Championships, the individual 400-meter national title and the team title for the Georgia women. The last prize, in the event’s final race Saturday night, she wanted that for her 4×400 relay teammates.

The Bulldogs had an insurmountable lead in the team competition heading into the final relay at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., and Georgia’s 4×400 quartet of Butler, Michelle Smith, Dejanea Oakley and Sydney Harris could have taken four victory laps. Instead, the four sprinted their way to another national championship with a time of 3:23.62.

“Knowing that we already had (the team title) in the bag, and knowing that we didn’t have to score points at all to win the (team) championship, we still had other teammates on the relay that we knew could win,” said Butler, who made the U.S. Olympic team last summer on that same track. “Just giving them a chance to be a national champion individually was good.”

Before the final race, Georgia Director of Track & Field Caryl Smith Gilbert gave the racers the chance to select the order in which they ran. She wanted them to decide how they closed out the program’s first NCAA Outdoor team title.

“I said, ‘You know what, guys, I trust you,'” Smith Gilbert said.

That trust was rewarded as Oakley, Smith, Harris and then Butler sprinted to the fastest time in school history and the eighth-fastest collegiate time ever.

“I thought it’s a great order if they decide to really run,” assistant coach Karim Abdel Wahab said. “Sometimes you don’t know how motivated they are, because they’d already won the national championship. So the incredible thing is that they all ran really well and broke the school record and won the national championship.”

“Just going out there knowing you’re a national champion as a team, I think really brought the energy towards the (4×400), which then we were able to go and win,” Harris said, adding, “I would say be able to run free was one of the biggest things. I think that really helped us win.”

At the end of the meet, Georgia finished with 73 points, well ahead of second-place USC’s 47.

Butler entered Saturday’s individual 400 final as the favorite, having posted the fastest time in the country this spring. In fact, heading into the final, she was the only woman to break 50 seconds this year. She was soon joined by a teammate in the sub-50 category.

Butler won the 400 title by lowering her school record to 49.26, and Oakley took second place with a time of 49.65. Between the two of them, they have the five fastest 400 times in the country this year and seven of the top 10.

“She’s grown a lot, and she cares about the team,” Smith Gilbert said of Butler. “She was the one at SECs who said ‘It is time to win, guys.’ She doesn’t talk a lot, hardly ever, so when she talks, it means something.”

At the SEC Outdoor meet, Butler also won the 400 and helped the women capture their first conference title since 2006. Georgia’s women won three individual titles at the SEC Outdoors — Butler, Lianna Davidson in the javelin and Stephanie Ratcliffe in the hammer throw — and then won four titles at the NCAA Outdoors. Along with Butler’s 400 title and the 4×400 title, Ratcliffe won the hammer and high jumper Elena Kulichenko won her third straight (two outdoor, one indoor) NCAA title.

While coaching the USC women, Smith Gilbert won NCAA Outdoor titles in 2018 and 2021. She said this one was different.

“I feel more happy,” she said.

Why?

“Because the whole team did it,” she said.

For Smith, who placed third in the 400 hurdles, she said the whole experience at the meet was special.

“From start to finish, it wasn’t real,” Smith said. “It was pretty cool because I got to spend all that time with my teammates, and we worked so hard to get to this point.”

Georgia’s track national championship was the athletic department’s fourth in 2025. The women’s tennis team won the ITA National Indoor Championships in February and followed that with a dominating run through the NCAA tournament in May. In April, Georgia’s equestrian team also captured the program’s eighth NCEA national championship.

The four team titles won in 2025 match the bountiful spring of 1999, when women’s swimming, gymnastics, men’s golf and men’s tennis all won NCAA championships. Overall, Georgia has now won 52 team national championships, tied for second in SEC history. 

 

Assistant Sports Communications Director John Frierson is the staff writer for the UGA Athletic Association and curator of the ITA Men’s Tennis Hall of Fame. You can find his work at: Frierson Files.

The 2025 season will go down in the history of Florida track and field as one marred with injuries that robbed opportunities for greatness. From before the indoor season began to the final day of the outdoor season, the injury bug hit the Gators over and over. 

An eighth-place finish for the men and 15th for the women at the NCAA Outdoor Championships hosted in Eugene, Oregon, June 11-14, was far from representative of what UF’s rosters are capable of.

One athlete embodied these challenges during the indoor season: Malcolm Clemons. The redshirt senior failed to qualify for nationals due to a nagging heel injury that severely limited his performance. It was a slow build for him as the outdoor season progressed, but he seemed to be in a good position headed into nationals.

On his first attempt, Clemons tore down the runway and launched himself 8.04 meters into the sand, a significant season’s best. While the mark was wind-aided, it still represented an important breakthrough for the Oakland native.

“I always try to come out to these competitions and try to get a good jump on my very first one,” Clemons said. “That’s exactly what I did today, and I think that really carried me to try and get a better jump throughout the rest of the competition.”

The rounds ticked by, but nothing changed at the top. There were eight men in the field, aside from Clemons, who jumped at least 8.04 meters in their careers, but none managed to do so on the national stage. 

When the last jump, which could have unseated Clemons’ first-place position, was measured at only 7.55 meters, the reality of what happened began to set in. After five years, four national championships and three top-four finishes, he finally claimed the title of national champion.

“After coming off of such a high at the Olympics to getting injured at the first meet of the year, it really took a toll on my confidence,” Clemons said. “[Florida jumps coach Nic Petersen] helped me build my confidence back up, being able to know that I can run down the runway and jump far at any moment.”

Men’s team

There was a distinct difference in the Florida men’s team’s fortunes in the field and on the track June 11. In two field events, the Gators scored 18 points: 10 for Clemons’ victory and eight from a second-place finish in the javelin for Leikel Cabrera Gay.

The Cuban sophomore strung together the best season of his life en route to an NCAA silver. His first throw of 78.51 meters represented his first clearance of the 78-meter barrier, but he bettered the mark with a 79.05-meter heave in round three. It moved Cabrera Gay up to third in program history and became the best throw by a Gator since 2008. 

“It’s still stunning,” Cabrera Gay said. “I was just focused. This is the time of year you have to be focused on what you want. I was just like, ‘Let’s go for it.’”