SAN ANTONIO — St. Mary's University Athletics celebrated its top student-athletes on the playing surface, in the classroom, and in the community at its annual Fang Awards on Monday at Bill Greehey Arena, culminating with the Athlete of the Year honors.
The women's award was a tie as both Elena Kossler (Women's Soccer) and Alyssa Koehl (Volleyball) dominated their respective sports and continue to represent the university at the highest standard. Male Athlete of the Year was presented to Kongpop Kaikaew (Men's Golf).
Kossler (Ötztal-Bahnhof, Austria) was named both the Newcomer and the Forward of the Year in the Lone Star Conference, as well as D2CCA First-Team All-Region and LSC First-Team All-Conference. She was also tabbed to the Lone Star All-Academic and CSC Academic All-District teams. She tied the school single-season record with five game-winning goals, and finished fourth with 13 goals and 32 points. She led the Lone Star in game-winning goals (5), goals per game (0.72), points per game (1.78), shots per game (4.50) and shots on goal per game (2.28).
Koehl (New Braunfels, Texas) was both the D2CCA South Central and Lone Star Conference Libero of the Year, and was a First-Team All-Conference and CSC Academic All-District honoree. She averaged 5.39 digs and 0.37 aces per set over her final campaign, leading the Rattlers (15-13) in both categories. The senior became only the second player in St. Mary's history to surpass 2,000 digs in a career, ending with 2,068. She increased her dig total every season of her career, topping the 600-dig milestone as a senior (604).
Kaikaew (Rayong, Thailand) was recently tabbed as the Lone Star Conference Golfer of the Year and enters NCAA Regional play as the 9th-ranked golfer in NCAA Division II. He has two tournament wins and finished in the top-10 in six of the team's eight regular-season tournaments. The senior recorded the 1,000th par of his career in the final tournament of the regular season and set the school record for a 54-hole tournament, shooting a 197 at the Skip Wagnon Invitational in October.
Combining strong work on the field, along with excellence in the classroom, the winners of the scholar-athlete for 2026 are Courtney McClellan from STUNT, who maintains a 3.98 GPA in Criminology, while Luke Mulkey from Men's Soccer won the men's award with his 3.83 GPA in Management. Both were named to the 2025-26 Lone Star Conference All-Academic teams in their respective sports.
Rookie of the Year honors, awarded to a first-year student-athlete at St. Mary's, were presented to Taliiah Wilson from STUNT and Blake Allen from Baseball.
There were also co-winners for the Women's Newcomer of the Year, given to a transfer student-athlete in their first year with the Rattlers. Brielle Burns from Women's Golf and Bryley Westfahl from Softball won, while Olaverr Camacho from Basketball took home the men's award.
Breakout Athlete of the Year is given to an athlete who has made a significant jump in their contributions on the field of play. Samiya Johnson from Softball won the second-straight award for that sport, while Derek Maples from Baseball and Lucas Castillo Sanchez from Men's Tennis were recognized.
The Sports Performance Athletes of the Year are chosen by the staff in the weight room for their work ethic, dedication to the process, leadership and growth. Raegan Tennill from Softball and Baptiste Touchard from Men's Golf won the trophies.
The Rattlers presented Quezia Bertoni from Women's Basketball with the Comeback Player of the Year award. Bertoni missed 14 games between last season and this season due to injury and fought back to earn Lone Star All-Conference honors in 2026.
In an extremely tough category, the award for Best Play of the Year went to Damani Claxton's last-second three-pointer in the NCAA First Round. Fellow senior Wayne Wiggins grabbed his own offensive rebound and found Claxton on the wing, who nailed the shot with 2.9 seconds remaining to lift the Rattlers to the Second Round for the second-straight year.
Men's Basketball also took home the Community Impact Award, presented to the team that made the biggest impact both on campus and in the San Antonio community. All 13 teams do amazing work volunteering around the city and on campus, combining for over 1,000 hours of community service.
Team of the Year was presented to Men's Golf. The team has been ranked in the top-10 all season, won three regular-season tournaments and will begin NCAA Regional play on May 7 in Stockton, Calif.
The final award of the night was the Brother Louis Ernst, S.M. Rattler Award, presented to an individual or individuals whose sense of spirit, faith and service defines the excellence that it means to be a Rattler. This year's committee was extremely sneaky, presenting the award to Athletic Communications Director
Heather Kennedy, who is also a member of the committee. She joined the Rattlers in 2018 and was named the 2022-2023 Lone Star SID of the Year. In addition to the website, statistics, and historical/record work, Kennedy also serves as the chair of the D2CCA Softball Awards in the South Central Region, and is a voting member of the NCBWA South Central Baseball Player/Pitcher of the Week awards, all while battling complex regional pain syndrome, a chronic pain condition that affects her entire body.
