Two Bearcats nominated for 2025-26 Big 12 Athlete of the Year

The Big 12 announced a list of nominees for the 2025-26 Big 12 Athlete of the Year award, and two Bearcats were named among the full list: Quinton Coats, a first baseman for Cincinnati Baseball, and Juliette Laracuente-Huebner, a multi-event athlete for Cincinnati Track and Field.

Coats had a great season for Cincinnati Baseball. As only a sophomore, he has appeared in 60 games for the Bearcats, has a batting average of .339, an on-base percentage of.420, a slugging percentage of .677, and an OPS of 1.097. He recorded 119 hits this season, 20 of them being doubles, 1 triple, and 34 home runs, accounting for 95 RBI's and 85 runs scored himself. The Bearcats made it all the way to the Starkville, MS Regional before being eliminated by Louisiana.

Laracuente-Huebner is regarded as one of the most accomplished Cincinnati athletes in recent memory. The multi-event athlete competes in the indoor and outdoor heptathlon, along with individual events like hurdles, long jump, high jump, shot put, javelin, and 800m. By the end of the 2025-26 season, Laracuente-Huebner was a 4-time NCAA All-American, earning second in both indoor and outdoor in 2024 and first team in indoor and outdoor. She is a three-time Big 12 Championship winner, winning the 2025 and 2026 indoor pentathlon and the 2026 outdoor pentathlon. She was named the 2026 Big 12 Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She also holds multiple records in both indoor and outdoor competitions.

The Big 12 continues to release more nominees for the award, releasing them alphabetically by school. The names that have already been announced are: Sydney Stewart and Jay Friend (Arizona), Kenzie Brown and Jonny Kudlow (Arizona State), Tyler Isgrig and Devin Badenhorst (Baylor), Jane Hedengren and AJ Dybantsa (BYU), and Sierra Humphreys and Themus Fulks (Central Florida).

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