Sports
Bobcat Showcase 2024-25 All-Ohio Teams
By: Andrew Bowlby
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) — With the year in Ohio Athletics over and as the teams and athletes begin to look toward the respective 2025-26 seasons, Bobcat Showcase selected its 2024-25 All-Ohio teams. Across the three teams 18 Ohio athletes have been chosen for their individual seasons. Season stats, conference accolades and overall value for their team were taken into account to select the individuals.
Zita Szoke | Swim & Dive
There is a rather easy argument to be made that Szoke had the best individual year of an athlete at Ohio in 2024-25. Szoke competed in nine meets across the 2024-25 season including the MAC Championships where she won three individual MAC titles. Those include the 50-, 100- and 200-yard freestyles. She was also a part of a pool record 200-yard medley relay with three other Bobcats. Her times on all three freestyles set pool records.
Szoke was one of five Ohio swimmers to be named to the All-MAC first team, but her success went far beyond the conference wins. Szoke also competed in the 2025 NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships in March. She placed 11th in the 100-yard freestyle becoming the first Ohio swimmer to reach All-American status since 2000. The 11th place finish was also the highest by any MAC swimmer in 2025 and the highest of a Bobcat since the 1995 season. Her 47.62 second time on the 100-yard freestyle is a school & MAC record capping one of the best seasons an Ohio swimmer has ever had.
Ben Slanker | Baseball
He served as a pivotal part of a Bobcats offense that didn’t have a whole lot of success. Slanker hit 12 more home runs than any other Ohio batter, and he accounted for 22.4% of the team’s RBI’s during the 2025 season.
The 2025 campaign was also a major step forward after having a slightly lackluster freshman season in 2024. He increased his production in every category and was one of the few bright spots on an Ohio team that underperformed.
Norah Roush | Soccer
If you simply looked at basic soccer stats you may question how Norah Roush even made this list. No goals, no assists meaning no points and just three shots on goal through the 20 game season. Virtually nothing can be gained from those numbers on how much Roush meant to the Ohio Soccer team in the 2024 season. We’ll never know what would’ve happened if any team was without a particular player, but if Ohio didn’t have Roush you could infer the team wouldn’t have done as well.
She anchored a Bobcats defensive line that was hard to crack all season. Through those 20 games Ohio played, they allowed just 14 goals, tied for the best in the MAC. That number is also a program record excluding the 2020 season when the Bobcats played on 10 games and allowed 13 goals. And aside from Celeste Sloma (a goalkeeper who started all 20 matches), Roush played by far and away the most minutes.
She held the Ohio defense as one of the best in the conference and led to her being awarded the MAC Defensive Player of the Year award. Roush became the first Ohio player to ever win the conference’s DPOY award. Along with the award, Roush was also part of the All-MAC First Team for he remarkable season.
Parker Navarro | Football
Navarro’s individual season was a major driving force in taking Ohio to the MAC title game and ultimately ending a 56-year MAC Championship drought. In that game, Navarro put together arguably his best performance of the season. Completing 74.1% of his passes and finding the end zone four times, two on the ground and two through the air, he saved his best for last.
Navarro took home four MAC Offensive Player of the Week awards throughout the regular season, and was the All-MAC Second Team quarterback. For his postseason success, he won the MAC Championship Offensive Player of the Game and the StaffDNA Cure Bowl MVP award. Navarro is the true example of what an individual can do to help their team reach new heights, and he’ll be back hoping to do it again in 2025.
Skipp Miller | Softball
Miller was also on the All-MAC first team, for the third-straight season, and her individual numbers speak volumes to what the Bobcats accomplished as a team. She recorded the lowest ERA of all MAC pitchers, had the third most wins, second most strikeouts and even had a pair of saves. Her season ERA of 2.80 dropped to an even lower 1.54 against conference opponents.
Miller was also instrumental in taking the Bobcats within one game of winning a MAC Championship. Throughout the season and including one game in the MAC tournament, of Miller’s 19 wins, six came by way of a shutout. One of those was her first career seven-inning no hitter against Longwood on March 9.
Garrett Thompson | Wrestling
Of his 30 wins, Thompson had four falls, nine technical falls and eight major decisions. The season’s best moment for Thompson was arguably his individual MAC Championship at the 174-pound class. He defeated Alex Cramer 14-0 in a major decision to win the title and earn the MAC Tournament Most Outstanding Wrestler. As to be expected his remarkable season also earned Thompson a spot on the All-MAC First Team.
Thompson also capped the 2024-25 season as a NCAA qualifier for the second-consecutive season. He entered as the No. 4 seed in the 174-pound class bracket and earned an opening round win over Jackson Turley from Rutgers.
Anna Kharchynska | Volleyball
And the recognition was well deserved. Kharchynska recorded a career-best 436 kills in 2024, nearly 100 better than in her sophomore season and good for second most in the MAC. Just under 70% of those 436 came in conference play, more than anybody in the league. She also reached personal bests with 1,020 total attacks and a 31.3% hitting percentage. The total attacks number was a standout achievement as it was nearly 400 more than any other player in the MAC. Only one player had more total attacks and that was her teammate Kam Hunt.
Kharchynska continued to lead a Bobcats team leading the group in many stat categories, including points, which excluding Kam Hunt, she had a significant amount more than any teammates.
Brenna Farmer | Softball
Her .392 batting average was the best on the team (min. 100 at bats) and in the top five of the MAC. Farmer recorded the most hits, doubles, total bases and had the highest slugging percentage among Bobcats. All that while striking out in less than 10% of her 176 at bats. She did only hit three home runs during the season, but that wasn’t far off on a team that struggled to hit balls past the fence.
One of the most remarkable moments of the season for Farmer was her unbelievable batting stretch in the MAC Tournament. She had 12 at bats during the tournament and racked up nine hits for a .750 batting average over four games. The hitting led to four runs and doesn’t take into account she was also walked three times. A consistent hitting force that the Bobcats needed down the stretch.
Kam Hunt | Volleyball
Her conference rankings were equally impressive finishing fourth on the MAC kills leaderboard and fifth in points. It led to an All-MAC second team selection following up her 2023 All-MAC Freshman team nomination. On October 4, Hunt set a career best with 79 total attacks against Toledo. Plus, she had eight matches with 20.0 or more points consistently adding to the Bobcats offensive attack.
But she also contributed to the Ohio defense with 231 digs on the season and a total of 29.0 blocks. The 231 digs were good for fourth on the team and her block number positioned Hunt in fifth among Bobcats.
Jackson Paveletzke | Men’s Basketball
Paveletzke finished his first season with the Green & White averaging 13.8 points per game, second only to AJ Clayton (and top 20 in the MAC). But his impact goes far beyond scoring. Paveletzke averaged 4.8 assists a night, good for fourth in the conference, and he rebounded. For an already undersized Ohio team, Paveletzke, a guard, pulled in 4.1 rebounds per night trailing only Clayton and Aidan Hadaway for the Bobcats.
A well-rounded player who on different nights did different things. Paveletzke put together 14 games with at least 15 points, 16 games with at least five assists and 12 with five or more rebounds. His shooting was also part of his season story going 51.4% from the field (second on the team), 32.3% from deep and 76.7% from the charity stripe.
Jamiason Brooker | Soccer
It’s also seen through her shot totals. Brooker create more shots and shots on goal than any Ohio player in 2024. With 47 shots and 27 on goal, she placed eighth and tied fifth respectively in the conference. Those totals, combined with the scoring earned her a spot on the All-MAC first team along with a few of her teammates. The best two performances of Brooker’s season (individually) came on October 13 and 27 when she netted two goals against Ball State and Central Michigan.
Coleman Owen | Football
Owen’s reception total was the fourth most in the MAC and his yards total was second best to only third round NFL draft pick Harold Fannin Jr. of Bowling Green.
In the 14 games during the season, Owen recorded over 100 receiving yards in half of them. He was a weapon that challenged opposing pass defenses week in and week out. And although he was only able to spend a season in the Bobcats system, he made it memorable setting records, winning a MAC Title and bringing home yet another Bowl win for the program.
Anna Wise | Softball
The strong season resulted in a spot on the All-MAC second team, and recognition as one of the best pitchers in the conference. Her play in conference was also stellar with a 6-2 record, 31 strikeouts and just 23 earned runs given up over 53.1 innings.
Wise was even named the MAC pitcher of the week in late February for her efforts in the Lowcountry Classic. She was part of an Ohio pitching staff that did not concede an earned run over four games. In the 12.0 innings that Wise was on the mound, she strung together six strikeouts, five hits and allowed opposing batters to hit just .116. The run also included a complete-game shutout over Dartmouth that went into extra innings that Ohio won in the top of the eight.
Bradley Weaver | Football
The defensive end was dominant during the historic season and was one of the conference’s best disrupters at the line of scrimmage. Weaver totaled 8.5 sacks, and 15.0 tackles for loss during the season which ranked second and third in the MAC respectively. Both were also career highs with bump ups in his totals from the 2023 season.
When he needed to get to the quarterback, he did. When he needed to help stop the run, he did. He led the defense in many ways, including the aforementioned sacks and TFLs. Weaver also forced three fumbles, the most on the team, and second most in the conference only to Buffalo’s Red Murdock.
As one of the best defensive linemen in the MAC, Weaver was a First Team MAC-Defense nominee, and won the MAC Championship Game Defensive MVP with there total tackles, 1.5 TFL and three QB hits. Although Weaver won’t be back for 2025, he does depart Athens having had the third highest single season sack total in 2024 and the sixth most sacks by defensive players all time.
Kennedi Watkins | Women’s Basketball
Watkins had seven 20+ point games, and reached the 1,000 point career milestone in a game against Buffalo in late January.
Aside from scoring, Watkins contributed to the team in many other ways. She pulled in over four rebounds a night, added an assist & steal seemingly every night. Watkins was named to the All-MAC Third team and was the only Ohio Women’s Basketball player to receive a postseason spot on an all-conference team. Plus, Watkins was Academic All-MAC and placed onto the CSC Academic All-District.
Celeste Sloma | Soccer
Sloma made 63 saves on the year for a .829 save percentage (4th in the MAC, 5th Ohio single season all-time). Naturally, starting in all 20 games, she played more minutes than any player on the team and the third most among goalies in the MAC. Her 1,755 minutes in 2024 were the seventh most in program history for a single season, following up her 2023 season where she played the most minutes all time in one year (1,980). As you can probably tell, Sloma’s name is already littered through the Ohio record book, and that will most likely continue after 2025.
Sloma had 10 shutouts, the second most in the conference, and even had 12 games with three or more saves. It led to an All-MAC Second Team selection (Thompson – BUF was the first team keeper).
Anouk Plaehn | Field Hockey
Plaehn’s five goals were the second most on the team, and she added an assist for 11 total points on the year. She also had 21 shots, with nine on goal. Plaehn was also tied for the most defensive saves on the team and the second most in the MAC with four. Her season culminated in a selection to the All-MAC First Team.
Mathieu Ovaert | Hockey
The Ohio Hockey team had one of the most disjointed season in the country due to delayed renovations at Bird Arena. But it didn’t stop the team from pushing through and succeeding or from Mathieu Ovaert from leading the Bobcats offense. In his second season with Ohio, Ovaert led his team with 14 goals, 20 assists and 34 points in 26 games played. Among all ACHA DI players, Ovaert was top-50 for points per game at 1.31 per night, and top-80 in total points. (Note: ACHA Division I has over 1,000 players)
He was a consistent player and heightened his offensive production from night-to-night. Ovaert had three-four point games on the year, once against West Virginia, and two times against Liberty. Those three games were complemented by five other multi-point games bringing his total of games with over one point to eight. And on consistency, Ovaert was on the scoresheet in 18 of his 26 games (69%). That included a stretch from Nov. 9 through Feb. 21 when he put up 27 points in 14 games (1.93/game). Ovaert was part of the ACHA All-Athletic Third Team.