Laramie, Wyo. (Sept. 30, 2023) – An outstanding student-athlete and a dedicated student worker are the winners of the 2023 Admiral Land Award and Trophy, a longtime Wyoming homecoming tradition. This year's Award winner is tennis player Maria Oreshkina, and the Trophy winner is Zoie Olguin. The presentations were made at Saturday's Wyoming-New Mexico Homecoming football game.
The Admiral Land
Award is presented to the
student-athlete(s) who has completed his or her Wyoming competition during the preceding academic year and demonstrated outstanding achievement in intercollegiate competition, exemplary personal conduct during competition, and maintained academic standing with satisfactory progress toward a degree. The Admiral Land
Trophy is awarded to the
student (non-collegiate athlete) who has done the most to promote Intercollegiate Athletics at the University during the previous school year.
A native of Moscow, Russia, Maria Oreshkina was a key member of the Mountain West champion Cowgirl Tennis team. An Academic All-America, Oreshkina was a four-time all-Mountain West singles player during her career. Her 64 wins in singles is tied for 10
th most in program history. She also ranks 9
th in doubles wins with 60. The first women's tennis player to win the Admiral Land award, Maria majored in Geospatial Information Science and earned a g.p.a. of 3.7.
Zoie Olguin is a junior majoring in Marketing with a minor in Digital Media. Since her freshman year, Zoie has committed her time and efforts to promote UW Athletics as a digital media intern. Over the last two years, Zoie has covered every sport, taking photos, creating videos and content to tell the story of UW Athletics. A native of Lyman, Wyoming, Zoie has stepped into a leadership role, guiding and teaching other interns, as well as helping to build a photo library.
The Admiral Land awards have been a special part of Homecoming since 1953. They were established as a tribute to distinguished UW alumnus Admiral Emory S. Land, class of 1898. Land was a World War II Shipping Administrator and head of the U.S. Maritime Service. At UW, he was a member of the first football team and four of the first five teams in school history.
Following are the previous Admiral Land Award & Trophy Winners:
Year Admiral Land Award Admiral Land Trophy
- Paul Carlin, Track
- George Galuska, Football
- Bob Jingling, Baseball
- Joe Capua, Basketball
- Jim Crawford, Football
- C.T. "Wimp" Hewgley
- Harold Farmer, Football & Track Janice Elmer
- Dick Ballinger, Wrestling Mary Jones
- Jerry Hill, Football Dave Bonner
- Chuck Lamson, Football Gene Bryan
- Bob Hanson, Basketball Judy King
- Mack Balls, Football Joan Selmer
- Flynn Robinson, Basketball John Hursh
- Bob Dinges, Football Babette Numon & Harold Blumenthal
- Mike Gregorio, Cross Country Phil White, Jr.
- Mike Eberle, Basketball Carl Hanson & Jim York
- Bruce Jennings, Skiing Bill Hill
- Stan Dodds, Basketball Debbie Hardy
- Roy Wilson, Basketball Mary Ann Gorman & Don Bogdan
- Gary Fox, Football Kathy Hunt & Larry Bresso
- Staale Engen, Skiing The UW Marching Band
- Steve Cockreham, Football Michelle Green & Bill Yost
- Jody Sloan, Wrestling The UW Pep Band
- Bill Ewing, Baseball Steve Prosinski
- Christine Brown, Women's Athletics Sally Shurmur
- Kathy Merklin, Women's Athletics Randall Luthi
- Ross Houston, Skiing Pete Kuhn
- Geir Kvernmo, Track/Skiing Cynthia Fester
- Charles Bradley, Basketball Bob Ihle
- Phil Davis, Football; Bill Garnett, Basketball Mike Larson & Mark Netzel
- Lynn Stetson, Swimming; Stacy Ward, Skiing Scott Roberts
- Wes Gasner, Wrestling; Mary Shea, Volleyball Bill Lamberty
- Joe Ramunno, Football; Kathy Romsa, Track; Annie Easterbrook
Becky Simning, Skiing
- Mike Hamel, Wrestling; Shari Ahola, Skiing Audrey Waldock
- Jim Walter, Baseball Mike Chisholm
- Mark Miller, Swimming; Ronda Munger, Volleyball Patrick Stolz
- Randy Welniak, Football Amy Dimond & Ron Loghry
- Darcy Cudaback, Volleyball; Kevin Rochlitz
& John Wodny, Cross Country
- Shelly Thacker, Track & Field; Rob Clayton, Swimming Jeff Ketron
- David McCleave, Golf; UW Marching Band
Dave Myers, Wrestling;
Reginald Slater, Basketball
- Scarlett Gustin, Basketball; Wildfire Dance Team
Mike Abbey, Track & Field
- Kiesa Fornstrom, Swimming Noah Buckley, John Carr & Brian Madden
- Amy Burnett, Basketball; Karen Schatz
Ryan Christopherson, Football
- Joe Cummings, Football; Doug Hoffman
Tom Hickenlooper, Wrestling
- Shilo Mathill, Wrestling Kevin Koerwitz
- Brian Lee, Football Dusty Clements
- Mark Winninger, Wrestling Mark Gibbs
- Corey Hamrick, Wrestling Baend Buus
- Joe Hall, Track & Field Abi Gerhard
- Oscar Delgado, Diving Will LeDoux & Shalee McCue
2003 Josh Rollins, Football Mark Krug
2004 Casey Bramlet, Football Keven Gibbs
2005 Shauna Smith, Track, & Scott Usher, Swimming Jason Wasserburger
2006 Bryce Leonhardt, Wrestling David Primus
2007 Kevin Bretting, Diving Mark Bock
2008 Hanna Zavecz, Basketball Eric Whiting & Shelley Heward
2009 Ward Dobbs, Football, & Amanda Lathrop, Soccer Sean Valentine
2010 Emily Huth, Diving Kellen Little
2011 Aubrey Vandiver, Basketball & Chris Prosinski, Football Andy Chapman & Nick Kinney
2012 Joe LeBlanc, Wrestling Ali Galey and Ryan Freeman
2013 Alfonso Hernandez, Wrestling, & Chaundra Sewell, Basketball Katie Stout and Steven Sundberg
2014 Morgan Hartigan-Calhoon, Swimming & Diving Jami Baker
2015 Erin Kirby, Volleyball/Track & Field; Larry Nance, Jr., Basketball; Cory Fields
& Shane Woods, Wrestling
2016 Tanner Harms, Wrestling Cassandra Craddock & Patrick Hall
2017 Ryan Wallen, Golf Mary Ginsbach & Zach Wisniewski
2018 Bryce Meredith, Wrestling & Liv Roberts, Basketball Kayla Cryer
2019 John Murdock, Golf Dana Jorgensen & Keaton Yeend
2020 No Awards Given (Pandemic)
2021 No Awards Given (Pandemic)
2022 Chad Muma, Football Emma Agebrand & Jocelyn Campbell
2023 Maria Oreshkina, Tennis Zoie Olguin
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