Celebrating 2025–2026 Winter Sports Student-Athletes, Teams, and Coaches

The 2025–2026 Winter Sports Awards to honor Big Red student-athletes, teams, and coaches was held on Wednesday, April 15, in Kimberly Chapel. All of our coaches shared a season recap and then announced the individual team-award winners. 

All the winter sports teams had a great season! The speech team won the Trailways Conference championship again this year. Several team members also qualified for the state meet, making it to the semi-finals—Kai Nguyen `27, semi-finalist in Informative Speaking; Ellie Sinclair `28, semi-finalist in Special Occasion Speaking; Khushi Jhamb `27, semi-finalist in Radio Speaking. Powerlifting had two student-athletes—Ella Kikkert `26 and Seul Chan Albert Kim `27—compete at the state tournament. Ella finished third in her weight class, while Albert finished in the top 15 of his weight class (read more here). Wrestler Caden Farrell `29 qualified for the Challenge Series Tournament, placing second in the region and propelling the team to an undefeated January at duals. He also won the first conference championship at the Trailways Conference Tournament. The girls' and boys' varsity basketball teams also earned spots in the playoffs. 

The swim team had an outstanding season, finishing with a 4-0 record in dual meets and breaking four school records. The team of Ky-Mani Hendricks `28, Harry Dohyun Yeo `26, Zhansultan Kassymkaliyev `28, and Jose Fabian Calvo Guevara `26 now hold the school record in the 200 Medley Relay with a time of 1:44.90, breaking the record time of 1:45.58 set in 2019 by the Wayland Academy, Beaver Dam High School, and Randolph High School co-op team of Nolan Kohlbeck `20 (Randolph High School), Jonathn White `21 (Wayland Academy), Jack Heier `21 (Beaver Dam High School), and Damen Seremet `22 (Beaver Dam High School). The team of Ky-Mani Hendricks `28, Harry Dohyun Yeo `26, Jose Fabian Calvo Guevara `26, and Dang Andy Nguyen `26 broke the 200 Freestyle Relay record, with a time of 1:36.52. The 200 Freestyle Relay record was previously held by a co-op relay team of Christopher Neil `19 (Wayland Academy), Jonathn White `21 (Wayland Academy), Ryan Falkinham `19 (Beaver Dam High School), and Nolan Kohlbeck `20 (Randolph High School), who set the record in 2018. In his first year at Wayland, Ky-Mani Hendricks `28 broke the 50 Freestyle record with a time of 0:21.72 and the 100 Freestyle record with a time of 0:51.00. The 50 Freestyle record was previously set by Richard Yeager `64 in 1964, with a time of 0:23.40. Peter Jenkins `78 held the record for the 100 Freestyle, set in 1978, with a time of 0:51.50. 

Here are this year’s individual award winners for each winter sport: 

Basketball 

Boys 

• Most Improved: Regan Richardson `26
• Most Valuable: Mario Padilla  `26
• Champion of Character:
  • Varsity—Bill Xue `26
  • JV—Dylan Gatera `26
  • JV2—Micah Ratajczak `29

Girls 

• Most Improved: Ava Barudin `26
• Most Valuable: Alexa Arguello `26
• Champion of Character:
  • Varsity—Derya Baytan `28
  • JV—Saule Kupcinskaite `26
• Four-Year Letterwinner: Ava Barudin `26

Cheerleading

• Most Improved: Verlyn Small `29
• Most Valuable: Charlotte Hoar `26
• Champion of Character: Jacqueline Fogarty `26

Fencing 

• Most Improved: Augustas Dauksevicius `27
• Most Valuable: Joseph Weng `27
• Champion of Character: Shaobo Xue `26

Powerlifting 

Boys 

• Most Improved: Bentley Owens `29
• Most Valuable: Seul Chan Albert Kim `27
• Champion of Character: Easton Keil `26
• Four-Year Letterwinner: Easton Keil `26

Girls 

• Most Improved: Ruste Ciemnolonskyte `27
• Most Valuable: Ella Kikkert `26
• Champion of Character: Sara Srikanta-Achee `29

Speech 

• Most Improved: Daniel Brunstad `27
• Most Valuable: Khushi Jhamb `27
• Champion of Character: Ellie Sinclair  `28
• Four-Year Letterwinners: 
  • Genesis Garcia-Ruiz `26
  • Kennedy Norris `26

Swimming

• Most Improved: Zhansultan Kassymkaliyev `28
• Most Valuable: Harry Dohyun Yeo `26
• Champion of Character:
  • Varsity—Dang Andy Nguyen `26
  • JV—Aleksa Nenadic `27

Wrestling

• Most Improved: Madeleine Knudson `28
• Most Valuable: Caden Farrell `29
• Champion of Character: Anh Nathan Doan `27

Congratulations to all our winter sports athletes and coaches on an outstanding season. Go Big Red! #RTB 🔔