EVANSVILLE, Ind. – In an evening that celebrates the accomplishments of the University of Southern Indiana student athletes during the 2025-26 year, senior Patrick McLellan (Baseball) and senior Ali Saunders (Women's Basketball) were honored with Screaming Eagle Pride Awards at the USI Archie Awards sponsored by Old National Bank Monday evening.

The ONB/USI Screaming Eagles Pride Award winners, who have been role models on the women's basketball and baseball teams and in Athletics, were selected in a vote by the Athletics staff.
 
McLellan, a two-year starter on USI Baseball and a major in sport management, has led the Screaming Eagles on the diamond the last two seasons. McLellan, currently, leads the team and ranks second in the Ohio Valley Conference with a .371 batting average and 35 RBI. He also has a team-best 14 multi-hit and 11 multi-RBI games this season.
 
For his career, McLellan has appeared in and started 80 games with a .327 batting average, 59 RBI, and 78 runs scored.

Saunders, a three-year starter on Women's Basketball and a major in elementary education, helped lead the Screaming Eagles to dominance in the Ohio Valley Conference the last three seasons. She earned All-OVC first team this season after posting a team-best and conference top-three 17.8 points per game and pacing the squad and the OVC with 4.7 assists per contest.
 
Saunders set a USI  single-season record and led the OVC with a 90.1 free throw percentage (118-131) after setting a Screaming Eagles' mark with 41 consecutive free throws made.
 
For her career, the 2026 OVC All-Tournament performer finished her career ranked first in program history in career free-throw percentage (83.8), second in assists (416), fourth in three-pointers made (169), eighth in steals (179), and points (1,159). She appeared in 97 games, made 82 starts, and averaged 11.9 points and 4.3 assists per game.

Previous winners of the Pride Award were Ginnie Roberts (Softball) 2003; Mike Arnold (Men's Basketball) 2004; Brian Kendall (Men's Cross Country/Track) 2005; Angie Davis (Softball) 2006; Geoff Van Winkle (Men's Basketball) 2007; Kathy Wood (Softball) 2008;  Austin Inge (Men's Track) and Brittany Neuman (Women's Basketball) 2009; Jeron Lewis (Men's Basketball) and Sara Loete (Softball) 2010; Lauren Meneghetti (Women's Basketball) and Mohamed Ntumba (Men's Basketball) 2011; Susan Ellsperman (Women's Soccer) and Brendan Devine (Men's Cross Country/Track) 2012; Ellena Stumpf (Women's Tennis) and Scott Ernstberger (Baseball) 2013; Stephanie Carpenter (Women's Basketball) and Jeff Neidlinger (Men's Soccer) 2014; Austin Davis (Men's Basketball); and Mary O'Keefe (Women's Basketball) 2015; McKinsey Durham (Women's Soccer) and Lucas Woodford (Men's Soccer) 2016; and Kendyl Dearing (Women's Basketball) and Bobo Drummond (Men's Basketball) 2017; Olivia Clark-Kittleson (Softball) and Adam Zehme (Men's Soccer) 2018; Claire Johnson (Softball) and Alex Stein (Men's Basketball) 2019; Callie Gubera (Volleyball) and Manny Lopez (Baseball) 2021; and Mary Bean (Softball) and Tyler Henry (Men's Basketball) 2022; Morgan Beyer (Women's Soccer) and Jacob Polakovich (Men's Basketball) 2023; Addy Blackwell (Women's Basketball) and Ricardo Van Grieken (Baseball) 2024; Vanessa Shafford (Women's basketball), Garland Hall (Men's Soccer), and Quinten Gillespie (Men's Tennis) 2025.
 
Dr. Wayne F. Kirk, lecturer in biology in Pott College of Science, Engineering & Education, was presented the Dr. Jane Davis-Brezette Faculty Excellence Award. The award is presented to a USI faculty member who has contributed to the success of USI Athletics by mentoring student athletes and helping them achieve their goals in the classroom and beyond.  Previous winners of the award were Dr. Jane Davis-Brezette, the former chair of Kinesiology and Sport and instructor in the Pott College of Science, Engineering and Education (2008); Tim Mahoney, an instructor in the Romain College of Business (2009); Patti Marcum, an instructor in the Pott College of Science Engineering, and Education (2011); Dr. Lacie Rogers, an instructor in the Romain College of Business (2012); Dr. Darrin Sorrells, an instructor and learning specialist in Academic Skills (2013); Chris Croft, an instructor in Pott College of Science, Engineering, and Education (2014); Timothy Bryan, an instructor in accounting (2015);  Dr. Brandon Field, an associate professor of engineering (2016); Jamie Seitz, an associate professor of accounting (2017); Dr. Kimberly Delaney, an assistant professor of biology (2018); Dr. M. Catherine (Katie) Ehlman, an associate professor of gerontology/director (2019); Dr. Daria Sevastianova, an associate professor of economics (2022); Dr. Kent Scheller, a professor of physics (2023); Dr. Tim Schibik professor of economics (2024); and Olga Donnellly, instructor in mathematics (2025).
 
USI Softball earned the USI Female Team GPA Award (3.701), earning the honor for USI Athletics' best seventh time and the second consecutive year, while Men's Swimming & Diving received the USI Male Team GPA Award for the first time (3.557). The team GPA awards were separated by men's and women's varsity sports in 2024.
 
Softball (2012, 2014, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025; 2026) has won a team GPA award a record seven times, while Volleyball (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2015) has collected a team GPA award five times. Women's Cross Country/Track & Field (2013, 2016, 2017, 2024) and Women's Soccer (2006, 2018) round out the multiple award winners with four and two times, respectively.
 
Women's Basketball (2011) and Women's Tennis (2019) have earned the honor once. Men's Tennis (2024), Men's Soccer (2025), and Men's Swimming & Diving (2026) also have received the award once.


The award for the top GPA by an individual in a men's and women's varsity sport was presented to Heidi Rhodenbaugh (Women's Swimming & Diving), who had a 4.0 through 97 credit hours, and Andrew Smith (Men's Cross Country/Track & Field), who had a 4.0 through 44 hours. Any ties for the award that was created in 2024 are broken by credit hours earned.
 
Previous individual GPA award winners are Joseph Russler (Men's Cross Country/Track & Field) and Mackenzie Bedrick (Softball) in 2024; Kiera Moore (Volleyball) and Landen Swiney (Men's Cross Country/Track & Field) in 2025.