CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Kate Douglass and Iñaki Montes were honored as Virginia’s top female and male athletes for the 2022-23 academic year. Douglass earned the IMP Award as UVA’s top female athlete, while Montes de la Torre claimed the WINA Award as the top male athlete.
Douglass was named the Honda Sport Award winner for the second straight season. The Pelham, N.Y. native, captured three individual NCAA titles and was part of four relay titles, leading Virginia to its third consecutive NCAA Championship. Douglass swam NCAA, American and US Open records in all three individual event wins at NCAAs. She was named the CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year and ACC Women’s Swimmer of the Year for the second-straight year.
Montes was the 2022 ACC Player of the Year and an ITA All-American in singles, rising to a No. 4 national individual ranking. Last season, he won the clinching match for the Cavaliers in the ACC Championship final against UNC in a dramatic tiebreaker to decide the third set, giving UVA its second straight conference title. Montes came up huge in UVA’s 2022 NCAA Championship run, picking up wins against the 2021 NCAA Singles Champion in the Elite Eight, the No. 10 player in the country in the Final Four, and another top-25 win in the NCAA Championship final to lead the Cavaliers to the 2022 NCAA title.
Gary Martin of men’s track & field was named Male Rookie of the Year and swimmer Aimee Canny was named Female Rookie of the Year.
One of the nation’s top recruits in 2022, Martin set a Virginia freshman record in the mile, running 3:56.83, a time that ranks as the second-fastest in program history. Martin also ran on the Virginia distance medley relay team which set a UVA record of 9:23.71. In his first outdoor season, Martin has set a freshman record running 3:39.53 in the metric mile (1500 meters) and ranks second on the Virginia all-time list in the event.
Canny earned ACC Women’s Freshman of the Year honors after joining the Cavaliers in January. Canny won NCAA titles as part of the 800 free relay and 400 medley relay in her first NCAA Championship appearance. Canny added a third-place finish in the 200-yard freestyle at NCAAs. Her time of 1:42.34 is the second-fastest in UVA history. Canny was runner-up at the ACC Championships in the 200 free behind teammate Alex Walsh.
Football’s Mike Hollins earned the 1*15*41 Award (formerly the Wahoowa Award), which is given to the individual who best displayed…