Simone Biles took home two ESPY Awards, including her second Best Female Athlete honor, on Wednesday night at ESPN’s annual awards show surveying the world of sports.

Biles also received the award for Best Championship Performance for her gold medal-winning showing in the Olympic gymnastics all-around event.

NBA Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beat out Shohei Ohtani, Josh Allen and Saquon Barkley for Best Male Athlete. But Barkley ended the night with three trophies, including the one for Best NFL Player.

His Philadelphia Eagles were honored with the Best Team award, and the running back also won Best Play for his backwards hurdle of a Jacksonville Jaguars defender last fall.

Comedian Shane Gillis hosted the program and delivered an uneven monologue that left him wishing he could take back certain jokes. Cracks at President Donald Trump, Aaron Rodgers and Bill Belichick’s girlfriend got laughs, but he was caught mispronouncing Diana Taurasi’s name and got an uncomfortable reaction for a line about Caitlin Clark’s treatment in the WNBA.

“When Caitlin Clark retires from the WNBA, she’s going to work at a Waffle House so she can continue doing what she loves most: fist-fighting Black women,” Gillis joked.

At the end of his monologue, Gillis said, “Well, I see a lot of you don’t like me and that’s OK. That’s it for me. That went about as well as we all thought it was going to go.”

Clark later received the Best WNBA Player award following her Rookie of the Year campaign in 2024. It was Clark’s third straight year with at least one ESPY, following back-to-back years winning in the Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports category.

Biles was named Best Female Athlete in 2017 following her dominant Olympic performance in Rio de Janeiro the year before. She received the honor once again after collecting gold medals at the 2024 Paris Games in the all-around, vault and team competitions.

The Olympics had a wide impact on the list of ESPY winners. Team USA rugby star Ilona Maher won Best Breakthrough Athlete, a bit of an upset in a category that included No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg and Pittsburgh Pirates phenom Paul Skenes.

Maher helped the U.S. take home bronze in rugby sevens at the Paris Games. Her personality and messages about body positivity helped vault her into the national consciousness, and she appeared on “Dancing with the Stars,” finishing runner-up. She became the first rugby player to win an ESPY.

And Biles’ teammate, Suni Lee, won Best Comeback Athlete for overcoming two rare kidney diseases and winning three medals in Paris.

NBA legend Oscar Robertson was recognized with the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage for his work as the NBA Players Association president to establish free agency in the 1970s.

Penn State volleyball coach Katie Schumacher-Cawley, a cancer survivor, received the Jimmy V Award in memory of the late basketball coach Jim Valvano.

Other winners Wednesday included:

Best College Athlete, Men’s Sports: Cooper Flagg, Duke basketball

Best College Athlete, Women’s Sports: JuJu Watkins, Southern California basketball

Best Athlete With a Disability: Noah Elliott, snowboarding

Best Record-Breaking Performance: Alex Ovechkin breaking Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record

Best NFL Player: Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia Eagles

Best MLB Player: Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers

Best NHL Player: Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton Oilers

Best NBA Player: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder

Best WNBA Player: Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever

Best Soccer Player: Christian Pulisic, AC Milan, U.S. men’s national team

Best Driver: Max Verstappen, F1

Best Golfer: Scottie Scheffler

Best Boxer: Katie Taylor

Best UFC Fighter: Merab Dvalishvili

Best Tennis Player: Coco Gauff

Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award: Sloane Stephens

–Field Level Media

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Chicago junior jumper Aryan Shrivastava concluded a standout career for the University of Chicago men’s track and field team by earning 2nd-Team CSC Academic All-American honors, as announced by College Sports Communicators on Wednesday morning.

The Irvine, California native earned First Team All-America recognition in the Triple Jump at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Championships where he brought home a 7th-place finish with a mark of 15.03 meters, the third-best performance in school history in his first-ever appearance in the NCAA Championships.

In 2025 alone, Shrivastava claimed three University Athletic Association titles across the indoor and outdoor seasons, sweeping both the Indoor and Outdoor Triple Jump titles with marks of 14.33 meters and 14.12 meters, respectively. He also brought home the Indoor High Jump championship with a mark of 2.04 meters and added a 3rd-place finish in the Outdoor High Jump (1.93m), making a total of four podium finishes at the UAA level that year. His dominance was recognized with a pair of USTFCCCA All-Region honors in both the Triple jump and High jump, as he posted marks that ranked top 5 in the Midwest.

Over the course of his three years as a Maroon, Shrivastava has been a consistent point scorer for the Maroons, tallying 12 UAA point-scoring performances and earning podium finishes in both the Triple Jump and High Jump across multiple seasons. He also ranks third all-time in both the Indoor High Jump with a mark of 2.04 meters and the Outdoor High Jump with a mark of 2.00 meters, third in the Outdoor Triple Jump with a mark of 15.03 meters, and fourth in the Indoor Triple Jump with a mark of 14.33 meters.

Shrivastava is the 6th Academic All-American in program history and the first since 2022 as he helps extend the University of Chicago streak to 10 consecutive calendar years and 14 of the past 15 calendar years with an Academic All-American, dating back to 2011. He also improves the number of Academic All-Americans in 2025 to 11 for the Maroons, joining three men’s swimmers, two women’s swimmers, one women’s tennis player, three men’s tennis players, and one women’s track athlete. The 11 Academic All-Americans so far in 2025 are now tied for the most in a single calendar year in the history of UChicago athletics, tied with the 2020 season.

By: Scott Nickerson

Elmore Autauaga News

The 2024-2025 school year saw a lot of successful athletic teams in Autauga County that advanced deep into their respective playoffs. But only one team in the county advanced to a state championship game and won it. That was the Prattville Christian Academy volleyball team. The Panthers won the Class 4A state championship in October 2024, clinching their second state championship in three years (the Panthers won Class 3A in 2022). As a result of the successful season, the Elmore Autauga News has named Prattville Christian Academy Volleyball Coach Kaylon Cantrell as Autauga County Volleyball Coach of the Year. 

“Winning another state championship was an incredible experience,” said Cantrell. “It’s something we worked for all season long, and to see it all come together in the end – it’s a moment I’ll remember for the rest of my life! Our theme for the season was MAKE IT MATTER, and our girls truly made it matter when it mattered most.”

While the state championship win over Alexandria clinched the 4A title, it was the semifinal victory over Madison County which might be the highlight of the season. After dropping the first two sets, the Panthers pulled a “reverse sweep,” winning each of the last three sets to advance to the 4A state championship game.

The 2024 Class 4A state champs won 45 games, which set a record for most wins in PCA history. Cantrell has won 356 games since becoming Head Coach in 2011 but 204 wins have come in the last six years.

The Panthers’ volleyball has experienced extended success recently under Cantrell:

2019 – Elite 8

2020 – Final 4

2022 – Class 3A State Champs

2023 – Elite 8

2024 – Class 4A State Champs

Under Coach Cantrell, the Panthers are also sending players to compete at the next level:

Class of 2021: Victoria Wheeler – Faulkner University

Class of 2022: Naomi Taake – Brewton Parker

Class of 2023: Hannah Jones – Memphis University then transferred to Ohio State University

Class of 2024: Bayleigh Seale – Chattanooga State

Class of 2025: Natalee Wheeler – Auburn University Montgomery

Cantrell has previously been recognized as Coach of the Year by other publications. In 2022, she was named Coach of the Year by the Central Alabama Scoreboard’s Volleyball Super 22. In 2024, she was named Class 4A Coach of the Year by al.com.

Kerri Walsh Jennings, a five-time Olympian (and three-time gold medalist) from California, will be in town this week to give a youth volleyball clinic at East Hampton High School Monday morning that is to be followed by a pro-am beach volleyball tournament Tuesday at Kirk Park in Montauk.

Josh Brussell, who coaches East Hampton High’s boys varsity team and has worked as well with the girls varsity, said during a recent conversation at The Star that it was Jen Brabant who had persuaded Walsh Jennings, “one of the best beach volleyball players in the world, she’s absolutely incredible,” to come here. “I’m super excited — I never thought this would happen. This will be her first time here. . . . It’s a dream come true.”

“It will be a two-day thing,” he added. “The clinic” — for ages 11 to 18 — “will be a fund-raiser for her p1440 Foundation, and the pro-am tournament at Kirk Park on Tuesday will also have the Hampton Lifeguard Association as a beneficiary. . . . We’re setting up four courts on the grass next to the high school’s turf field for the clinic. If it rains, we’ll probably move into the gym, we’re saying ‘no rain.’ ” The cost is $350, though some scholarships may be available. Registration is at p1440.org.

At the 9 a.m. to noon clinic, “she’ll do volleyball training exercises and she’ll give a motivational talk about what it takes to be a champion. . . . She wants to bring the sport of volleyball up. . . . Her mission is to make volleyball be seen all the time.”

Brussell took his 14-year-old daughter, Rori, to a recent professional beach volleyball tournament at East Hampton Point, “the best-attended weekend event they’ve had to date, and she was thrilled — she loved it. She told me, ‘If Kerri can get me to serve the ball over the net, I’ll definitely do volleyball when I get to the high school this fall.’ My son, Kai, who’s 12 and has never been particularly into sports, asked after that tournament if he could start playing volleyball. . . . I’ve never seen anyone watch a volleyball game and not say ‘this is the greatest sport to watch.’ ”

“There will be a pro and a lifeguard on every team in Tuesday’s tournament. It will begin at 11 and go until 4 or 5. We’ll do 6-on-6, rather than 4-on-4, which will be kinder to the people who don’t play all the time.” Attendance is free, but donations will be accepted for the two beneficiaries.

Asked for names of some of the amateurs who will play in the pro-am, Brussell listed Kim Valverde, a former two-time collegiate all-American, Chris Botta, Clark Miller, Alex Lombardo, Melina Sarlo, Aaron Torres, Marcus Oransky, and Wyatt Zeledon, the latter three being players whom Brussell is coaching at the high school now.

Thursday through Sunday pickup beach volleyball games have been played at Atlantic Avenue Beach for years, said Brussell, who’s been in them since he was 15, “since Oceans first put a net up 30 years ago.”

PHILADELPHIA – College Sports Communicators (CSC) named University of Pennsylvania junior Kampton Kam to the Academic All-America Second Team for the 2024-25 men’s cross country / track & field seasons.

Kam is the only Penn student-athlete to earn Academic All-America recognition from CSC this year. 

Kam placed first in the men’s high jump at the 2025 Ivy League Heptagonal Indoor Championships clearing a personal-best height of 2.21m (7’3″), breaking the Singapore indoor national record. He then finished 12th at the NCAA Indoor Championships earning second team All-America honors. Kam set the outdoor Singapore national record clearing 2.25m (7′ 4.5″) at the South Florida Invitational. He became the first Quaker in history to win the high jump at the Penn Relays. He went on to place second at the Ivy League Outdoor Championships. Kam closed out the season earning first team All-America honors at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships placing eighth in high jump.  

#FightOnPenn

The FISU World University Games 2025, one of the world’s largest multi-sport events, takes place in Germany from 16 to 27 July across five cities in the Rhine-Ruhr region – Bochum, Duisburg, Essen, Hagen, and Mülheim an der Ruhr – as well as the capital, Berlin.

Approximately 8,500 athletes from over 150 nations are competing for medals in 18 sports. The basic requirement for participation is that the athletes are enrolled at a university.

Scroll down for the results and all the medal winners from the FISU World University Games Rhine-Ruhr 2025.