Recognizing the top performer of the 2025 season.
June 10, 2025 by Josh Katz in Awards
Each year, Ultiworld presents our annual College Awards. Our staff evaluates the individual performances of players from throughout the season, talking to folks around college ultimate, watching film, and look at statistics, voting upon the awards to decide those to be honored. The regular season and the college Series are both considered, with extra emphasis for performances in the competitive and high-stakes environment at Nationals.
After announcing the finalists in our First-Team All-American, we are proud to present Player of the Year, our most prestigious award. Our Player of the Year winner is the best performer of the 2025 college season, and the highest vote-getter for All-American honors. The winner is not eligible for consideration in any of our other individual awards. The runner-ups are the second and third most vote-getters.
- All-American First Team
- Player of the Year
- All-American Second Team
- Defensive Player of the Year Award
- Offensive Player of the Year Award
- Rookie of the Year Award
- Breakout Player of the Year Award
- Coaches of the Year Award
- Full Awards Voting Breakdown
D-III Men’s 2025 Player Of The Year
Peter Mans (Middlebury)
In hindsight, we as a writing staff should’ve been higher on Peter Mans heading into this year. Despite earning a Second Team All-American spot as a sophomore in 2024, Mans was consistently getting barely a mention whenever we wrote about the Pranksters, all the way up to the start of Nationals. By the time the dust settled in Burlington, however, it was clear that Mans was the obvious choice for our Player of the Year award. So obvious, in fact, that if he were eligible, he’d be my top vote for both our OPOTY and DPOTY awards.
On offense, Mans was everywhere. He’d frequently start downfield and make a sharp cut towards the disc, eager to make his presence felt. And once he got the disc, he was always quick to move it to an open receiver, before making another cut to get it back. Or, he’d unleash a huck that seemed to always land square in a receiver’s hands. By the time opposing defenses were wise to his game, he’d change it up and cut deep himself. Trying to defend Mans in 2025 was an unenviable task: by the time you hatched an idea to shut down his Plan A, he’d be on Plan C.
In addition to being a key fixture on Middlebury’s O-line, Mans was a frequent flyer on defense. He was often the first to cross over when the Pranksters needed a break, to the point that it was easy to forget that wasn’t his normal routine. His nine blocks were the most on the team (and fourth in the division), many of which were of the uber-athletic variety.
Combine those blocks with his 10 goals and 20 assists, and Mans came up a block shy of a triple-double at Nationals. Those are POTY-caliber numbers. Then you put on the film and see a player in complete control of his environment, like a puppeteer pulling strings. Peter Mans made everything look easy on the field. POTY-caliber by the eye test, too. Like I said, an obvious choice.
Player of the Year Runner-Up
Jacob Felton (Davenport)
Player of the Year Second Runner-Up
Max Zwerin (Lewis & Clark)
