For Oregon acrobatics and tumbling, the season isn’t quite over yet. The Ducks, though, have five wins under their belts and are essentially postseason locks. It’s time to hand out some awards — to the best-performing athletes this season (so far). The Daily Emerald took a look at an outstanding freshman class, comeback stars and our athlete of the year.
Freshman of the Year: Angelica Martin (base)
The Ducks have a ton of talented freshmen to whom this award could’ve gone. Three freshmen (Morgan Willingham, Carly Garcia and Briya Alvarado) have been nailed-on starters in tumbling. Top Cassidy Cu has been part of one of Oregon’s most reliably high-scoring events (five-element acro).
But this award goes to base Angelica Martin. The Delaware native has shone across multiple events this season: she competes with Cu in five-element, is a part of both the compulsory and synchronized pyramid heats, the toss event and the team event. She’s earned four well-deserved national recognitions from the NCATA, including three Freshman of the Week honorable mentions and the overall award following Oregon’s win over then-No. 3 Gannon University on March 23. Five-element is averaging a 9.733 score this season, the best of Oregon’s acro heats.
Martin will be in competition for the season-end national award, and while Baylor University redshirt-freshman base Leavy McDonald will pose stiff competition, Martin will absolutely be in contention. The last Oregon freshman to win the award was base Blessyn McMorris in 2022.
Comeback Athlete(s) of the Year: Haley Ellis (top/tumbler) and Blessyn McMorris (base)
This award is split between two athletes who have bounced back from season-ending injuries in 2024 to have strong years in 2025.
McMorris was named Athlete of the Week after Oregon’s first meet, a win over Morgan State University where she recorded three 9.85 or higher scores in the pyramid heat. She was also a part of Oregon’s perfect-10 pyramid against Baylor.
Ellis also returned to the starting lineup with aplomb. The top/tumbler is featured in Oregon’s standout tumbling event, where she participates regularly in both the quad (avg. 8.925 points when Ellis starts this season) and six-element passes (9.738).
Athlete of the Year: Bella Swarthout (base)
Swarthout gets this award in just her second year with the Ducks, but it’s more than warranted. She’s all over the starting roster for Oregon: the base competes in three of four compulsory heats, seven-element acro, all three pyramid heats, the open toss and the team event.
She excels in all of them. Oregon earned its first 10.0 of the season in the open pyramid against Baylor on Feb. 22 with Swarthout starting at mid-base. Last year, she stepped in as the bottom base due to the injury to regular starter McMorris. This year, the two are in the heat together.
Her versatility is what seals this award. Oregon struggled against Gannon with its seven-element acro skill (which did not yet include Swarthout) and scored just 8.45 of a possible 10.0 points. The following week, Swarthout and top Bethany Glick debuted a new-this-season, slide-to-split skill that would go on to score 9.85 in back-to-back meets against University of Mary Hardin-Baylor and Quinnipiac University. The two also integrated the skill into Oregon’s team event, which has had a regular start value advantage against nearly every team the Ducks have faced.
Every Oregon win has Swarthout’s fingerprints all over it. She earned the honorable mention for the NCATA Athlete of the Week category following Oregon’s win over UMHB, where six of her eight total heats that week earned a 9.50 or higher score. Any milestone Oregon achieves will likely run through the sophomore, and that’s more than enough to give her this award.
