Today’s second part of three looks at eight more honors, with the Most Valuable Player, Newcomer of the Year and Breakthrough Athlete of the Year having both male and female winners.

The third and final part of this series will include some specialized awards, such as Moment of the Year, Play of the Year and Humanitarian of the Year.

Here’s a look at today’s Part 2:

MVP

Northern Michigan University’s Josie Lakosky, left, takes a penalty shot that she would score on during a college lacrosse game played against Lewis University at the Superior Dome in Marquette on Feb. 26. (Photo courtesy of Cara Kamps)

This best-of-the-best honor from all around the Wildcat sports community must’ve had some great competition, with national leaders and conference “best ofs” dotting the landscape in every season as noted by NMU Sports Information.

The women’s Most Valuable Player was chosen to be junior attacker Josie Lakosky of the Northern lacrosse team.

The team captain from Victoria, Minnesota, was cited for not only being the definition of this award as MVP of Wildcats’ lacrosse this season, but has consistently been one of the most valuable across all of NCAA Division II, leading the country in goals and points, both in raw totals and per-game numbers.

Lakosky earned numerous awards, ranging from Attacker of the Year in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference for the second straight season, to Third Team All-American by the Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association.

And she has rewritten the Wildcats’ decade-old record book in every non-goalie category for season records, and despite having a full season remaining, is already No. 1 in career goals at NMU as the first to break the 200 barrier.

A familiar name earned the men’s MVP — Dylan Kuehl.

Cited in the previous NMU Awards story as Gildo Canale Outstanding Senior, the Iron Ridge, Wisconsin, native and Northern graduate student doubles up as Wildcats men’s MVP after one of the most decorated and dominant seasons in NMU men’s basketball history.

Kuehl just capped off his season of honors barely a week ago when he was named GLIAC Male Scholar-Athlete of the Year. The award combines athletics and academics, and the athletics were easy to see why they meshed well with his 3.65 grade-point average in construction management.

He was named GLIAC Player of the Year and also GLIAC Defensive Player of the Year for this past season when he averaged 21.3 points and 6.4 rebounds per game, shooting 55.2% from the floor and leading the Wildcats to a 28-7 record, league regular season title and a berth in the Division II national tournament.

Finishing second in program history with 2,197 points, he was also named the Midwest Region Player of the Year and a First Team All-American while adding First Team Academic All-America by the College Sports Communicators and First Team All-America by the Division 2 Conference Commissioners Association.

Newcomer of the Year

In this age of easier transfers, freshmen get some competition for this NMU Award.

But in this particular school year, it was two first-year college student-athletes that swept Newcomer of the Year accolades.

Ashley Choponis earned the women’s Newcomer of the Year after making an immediate impact on the Northern cross country team.

The downstate Sidney native quickly settled into the No. 2 runner position after senior veteran Madi Szymanski. Choponis earned All-GLIAC and All-NCAA Region honors while helping the Wildcats reach the NCAA Division II Championships and finish 24th nationally.

With a 16th-place finish at the GLIAC Championships, she was named GLIAC Second Team, then added a 20th-place position at the NCAA Midwest Regional for an All-Region honor.

The men’s Newcomer of the Year is Matteo Ballardin of the Wildcats men’s swimming and diving team. This Venice, Italy, native burst onto the scene by earning not only GLIAC Freshman of the Year, but even the GLIAC Male Swimmer of the Year after an impressive performance at the conference finals, winning three individual events — the 200-yard butterfly and the 200 and 400 individual medley — and leading off NMU’s winning 800 freestyle relay while finishing runner-up in the 200 breaststroke. He set two meet records in the process.

Then at the NCAA Championships, he was named a First Team All-American in the 200 fly and Second Team in the 200 IM and 400 IM, adding three more Second Teams in relays with Northern teammates for a total of a half-dozen All-American laurels.

Breakthrough Athlete of the Year

Men’s Breakthrough Athlete of the Year winner Ian Weimer of the men’s soccer team not only broke through this season, but actually began his breakthrough during the home stretch of the Wildcats’ fall season.

This sophomore from Marietta, Ohio, played in just eight games as a freshman in 2025, and only had one goal through nine games of his second-year campaign.

But he caught fire starting a week before Halloween, punching in five goals in five games — the final three of the regular season and two more to start the GLIAC Tournament. Three of the scores were game-winning goals, too.

Weimer gave Northern a second scoring option beyond Luca Rosen, and finished easily as the No. 2 scorer on the team with six goals and 13 points.

Earning a spot as a GLIAC Honorable Mention, he scored NMU’s only two goals in a GLIAC Tournament semifinal 2-1 victory over Roosevelt that went to overtime and was played at neutral-site Saginaw Valley State.

It set up the Wildcats for their first-ever GLIAC tourney championship appearance, which became a 1-0 victory and automatically sent Northern to its first-ever NCAA Division II tournament appearance.

Women’s Breakthrough Athlete of the Year winner Sydney Whitehouse of the women’s basketball team became the Wildcats’ secret off the bench, earning GLIAC Sixth Woman of the Year honors.

The Green Bay, Wisconsin, sophomore never started a game but still averaged just about 19 minutes per game. She finished with 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 0.6 steals per game as she shot 43.1% from the field. As a student, she also had a 3.85 GPA in biology.

Whitehouse was third on the team with 65 offensive rebounds and scored in double figures 15 times, including a career-high 25 points in a GLIAC Tournament 74-66 quarterfinal win over Michigan Tech.

The Wildcats later received an NCAA tournament bid for the third straight year.

Coach of the Year

Veteran coach Jenny Ryan — she’s been women’s cross country coach since 2007 and added the women’s track and field mentorship in 2014 — was named the NMU Awards’ Coach of the Year for her work with the cross country team, which reached the NCAA Division II Championships for the first time since 2017.

The team climbed as high as No. 12 in the national rankings, then finished fourth of 32 teams at the NCAA Midwest Regional after coming in runner-up at the rough-and-tumble GLIAC Championships.

Under Ryan’s guidance, senior Madi Szymanski and freshman Ashley Choponis were named All-GLIAC and All-Region, with the Wildcats’ Emma Sweeney and Lamar Gordon also named All-GLIAC.

Team of the Year

Men’s basketball head coach Matt Majkrzak, who took a promotion to NCAA Division I Northern Illinois shortly after the season ended, guided this NMU Awards’ Team of the Year.

The men’s hoopsters set a program record in wins with a 28-7 overall record, regular season championship in the GLIAC and not only a berth, but a victory in the NCAA tournament. These Wildcats defeated Rockhurst 86-85 in their nationals’ opener before taking an 86-68 setback to regional host and top seed Walsh in the round of 32. It marked Northern’s fourth straight NCAA appearance.

It marked this Wildcat team’s fourth consecutive year winning a GLIAC crown, going back to 2023 when they started alternating tournament, regular season, tournament and again regular season titles.

Majkrzak received credit as GLIAC Coach of the Year for the second time in three seasons, while NMU rose as high as No. 10 in the national poll conducted by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, its best rating since 1993.

Standouts performances across the roster were led by Kuehl, already a winner of two NMU Awards for his individual production and leadership.

Story contents based on a Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing the awards. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.