NEW YORK CITY — Middlebury College athletes Audrey MacLean and Caroline Adams will join nine other Division-III athletes in the Big Apple next week to celebrate their own and other competitors’ 2025-2026 season performances and learn the name of the D-III Honda Athlete of the Year winner.

The pair of Panthers earned the nominations for the multi-sport award in their respective sports — cross country (MacLean) and lacrosse (Adams)— after national championship-winning seasons this past academic year.

Also up for the award are D-III athletes who play basketball, field hockey, golf, soccer, softball, tennis and volleyball, plus one each from a swimming and diving team and a track and field team.

The 2026 honoree will be named from that pool during a national CBS Sports broadcast on Monday, July 27, at 7 p.m. Also at that time, D-I and D-II awards will be given out.

MacLean, who just finished her junior year, was the 2025 individual NCAA D-III cross country champion. Her time of 20:16.8 was 48 seconds faster than any of the other 300 runners in the field.

Adams was integral to the Panther women’s lacrosse team’s undefeated season and fifth straight national championship (her fourth). She was equally as prolific at scoring as she was at assisting teammates, both stats she led this spring. She put up her best numbers while taking draws, which she holds the all-time Middlebury College record in with 437.

Adams would be the second Panther women’s lacrosse player to be named the Honda D-III Athlete of the Year, and MacLean would be the first Middlebury cross country runner to garner the title.

Past winners of the accolade from Middlebury College include women’s lacrosse player Jane Earley (2023 winner) and field hockey players Erin Nicholas (2022 winner) and Julia Bergofsky (2002 winner).