Park Ridge, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced that Indiana track and field athlete Derek Drouin was named the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year. He is the first five-time high jump national champion in NCAA history. The conference also announced that Minnesota ice hockey player Amanda Kessel was honored as the Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year. She earned two national player of the year honors after leading her team to an undefeated season and its second straight NCAA title.
Drouin is the fifth Indiana student-athlete to win Male Athlete of the Year accolades and first since football’s Anthony Thompson in 1990. Drouin began his senior year at the 2012 London Olympics, where he claimed a bronze medal in the high jump to become the first Canadian male to medal in a track and field event since 1996. Collegiately, Drouin was name the National Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year after winning both NCAA high jump titles, becoming only the second student-athlete to win both honors in the same season. During the indoor season, Drouin became the first NCAA student-athlete to win the NCAA high jump title three times after taking home the 2013 championship. At the conference championships, he won the high jump and took third in the heptathlon, setting a world record in the heptathlon high jump. On the outdoor circuit, Drouin claimed his fifth overall NCAA high jump title at the 2013 national meet, making him the only five-time champion in the event’s history, and won his seventh Big Ten Championships crown in the event. A semifinalist for the Bowerman Trophy, the nation’s top award for collegiate track and field, Drouin was the Big Ten’s Indoor and Outdoor Field Athlete of the Year in addition to earning Academic All-Big Ten honors.
Kessel becomes just the second Minnesota student-athlete to be voted the conference’s Female Athlete of the Year, following swimming and diving’s Gretchen Hegener in 1997. The Gopher junior won the 2013 Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award as the nation’s top player, becoming just the second player to win the award in program history, and helped Minnesota to an undefeated season and its second consecutive national championship in 2013. Kessel, who also was honored as USA Hockey’s Bob Allen Women’s Player of the Year, is just the fourth player in NCAA history to score more than 100 points in a season, finishing with 101 on 46 goals and 55 assists. She averaged 2.66 points per game, including 28 multi-point games, which allowed her to surpass 200 career points midway through the season to become the 24th player in NCAA history to reach the milestone and only the ninth to do so in just three seasons. En route to leading the Gophers to a perfect 41-0-0 mark this past season, Kessel was named a first-team All-American, U.S. College Hockey Online Co-Player of the Year and Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) Player of the Year, finished the season with +71 plus-minus ratio. She was named to the WCHA All-Academic Team and was an Academic All-Big Ten performer.
Drouin and Kessel were among a field of heralded nominees for the annual conference honors that included nine individual national champions, four team national champions and 22 All-America honorees. On the men’s side, Drouin was among a group of six nominees to take home individual national championships, including Iowa wrestler Derek St. John, Michigan swimmer Connor Jaeger, Minnesota wrestler Tony Nelson, Ohio State tennis player Blaz Rola and Penn State wrestler Ed Ruth, with Jaeger and Ruth each leading his respective squad to a national team title. On the women’s side, Kessel was among a group of five nominees to win an individual or team national title. Individual winners included sprinter Ashley Spencer of Illinois, gymnast Joanna Sampson of Michigan and diver Casey Matthews of Purdue, while Kessel and Ohio State rowing’s Claire-Louise Bode led their teams to NCAA Championships.
The Big Ten Conference has recognized a Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year since 1982 when Indiana’s Jim Spivey earned the inaugural award. The conference first honored a Female Athlete of the Year in 1983, with Michigan State’s Judi Brown collecting the initial award. The Big Ten Athletes of the Year are selected by a panel of conference media members from nominations submitted by each institution.
The complete list of 2013 Athlete of the Year nominations, as well as the list of all-time winners for each award, can be found below.
2013 BIG TEN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
School
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Michigan State Le’Veon Bell (football)
Minnesota
Nebraska
Northwestern Venric Mark (football)
Ohio State
Penn State Ed Ruth (wrestling)
Purdue
Wisconsin
BIG TEN JESSE OWENS MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS
1982 – Jim Spivey, Indiana, track and field/cross country
1983 – Ed Banach, Iowa, wrestling
1984 – Sunder Nix, Indiana, track and field
1985 – Barry Davis, Iowa, wrestling
1986 – Chuck Long, Iowa, football
1987 – Steve Alford, Indiana, basketball
1988 – Jim Abbott, Michigan, baseball
1989 – Glen Rice, Michigan, basketball
1990 – Anthony Thompson, Indiana, football
1991 – Mike Barrowman, Michigan, swimming
1992 – Desmond Howard, Michigan, football
1993 – John Roethlisberger, Minnesota, gymnastics
1994 – Glenn Robinson, Purdue, basketball
1995 – Tom Dolan, Michigan, swimming
1996 – Eddie George, Ohio State, football
1997 – Blaine Wilson, Ohio State, gymnastics
1998 – Charles Woodson, Michigan, football
1999 – Luke Donald, Northwestern, golf
2000 – Ron Dayne, Wisconsin, football
2001 – Ryan Miller, Michigan State, ice hockey
2002 – Jordan Leopold, Minnesota, ice hockey
2003 – Amer Delic, Illinois, tennis (co)
2003 – Matt Lackey, Illinois, wrestling (co)
2004 – Damion Hahn, Minnesota, wrestling
2005 – Luis Vargas, Penn State, gymnastics
2006 – Peter Vanderkaay, Michigan, swimming
2007 – Cole Konrad, Minnesota, wrestling
2008 – Brent Metcalf, Iowa, wrestling
2009 – Jake Herbert, Northwestern, wrestling
2010 – Evan Turner, Ohio State, basketball
2011 – David Boudia, Purdue, diving
2012 – Draymond Green, Michigan State, basketball
2013 – Derek Drouin, Indiana, track and field
BIG TEN FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS
1983 – Judi Brown, Michigan State, track and field
1984 – Lisa Ishikawa, Northwestern, softball
1985 – Cathy Branta, Wisconsin, cross country/track
1986 – Stephanie Herbst, Wisconsin, cross country/track
1987 – Jennifer Averill, Northwestern, field hockey/lacrosse
1988 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country
1989 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country
1990 – Suzy Favor, Wisconsin, track and field/cross country
1991 – Julie Farrell-Ovenhouse, Michigan State, diving (co)
1991 – Joy Holmes, Purdue, basketball (co)
1992 – MaChelle Joseph, Purdue, basketball
1993 – Lara Hooiveld, Michigan, swimming
1994 – Kristy Gleason, Iowa, field hockey
1995 – Laura Davis, Ohio State, volleyball
1996 – Olga Kalinovskaya, Penn State, fencing
1997 – Kathy Butler, Wisconsin, track and field (co)
1997 – Gretchen Hegener, Minnesota, swimming (co)
1998 – Sara Griffin, Michigan, softball
1999 – Stephanie White-McCarty, Purdue, basketball
2000 – Lauren Cacciamani, Penn State, volleyball
2001 – Katie Douglas, Purdue, basketball
2002 – Christie Welsh, Penn State, soccer
2003 – Perdita Felicien, Illinois, track and field
2004 – Kelly Mazzante, Penn State, basketball
2005 – Jennie Ritter, Michigan, softball
2006 – Tiffany Weimer, Penn State, soccer
2007 – Jessica Davenport, Ohio State, basketball
2008 – Hannah Nielsen, Northwestern, lacrosse
2009 – Maria Hernandez, Purdue, golf
2010 – Megan Hodge, Penn State, volleyball
2011 – Shannon Smith, Northwestern, lacrosse
2012 – Christina Manning, Ohio State, track and field
2013 – Amanda Kessel, Minnesota, ice hockey