Contact: Brock Reisler, Assistant Executive Director, breisler@midwestconference.org
 
OSHKOSH, Wisconsin – The Midwest Conference (MWC) announced Lake Forest College men’s tennis player Daniel Tulchinskiy and Grinnell College women’s basketball and track and field athlete Sara Booher as the 2025 Athletes of the Year on Friday, August 15.
 
The MWC Athletes of the Year Awards are presented annually, recognizing one graduating student-athlete representing women’s sports and one graduating student-athlete representing men’s and mixed sports for their exceptional athletics, academics, leadership, and community service achievements.
 
Tulchinskiy was the MWC Newcomer of the Year and a conference champion at #1 doubles as a freshman, earned Second Team All-MWC honors at #2 singles as a sophomore, and was voted All-MWC in doubles each of the last two seasons. He finished his career ranked second in Lake Forest program history with 68 doubles victories and seventh with 105 wins overall. In conference matches he was 38-8 in singles and doubles combined.

“Daniel has been an exemplary student-athlete throughout his collegiate career,” began Forester Head Men’s Tennis Coach Scot Reinhart. “He has excelled on the court, in the classroom, and in the community and taken on leadership roles in every endeavor. He is extremely deserving of this award.”

Successful in the classroom as well, Tulchinskiy was an Academic All-District® selection by College Sports Communicators each of the last three seasons and is a four-time Academic All-MWC honoree and Intercollegiate Tennis Association Scholar-Athlete. The double-major in neuroscience and biology was inducted into the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society and earned the College's Fredericka L. Stahl Memorial Award for Excellence in Science.

Tulchinskiy has also been involved in numerous activities on campus and in the community. Among them are volunteering with Great Lakes Adaptive Sports Association and in the Emergency Department, as well as serving as a research assistant and teacher assistant on multiple occasions.

Tulchinskiy is the second Forester to be named MWC Athlete of the Year Representing Men's and Mixed Sports, joining soccer player Joao Godoy, who was the first recipient of the award in 2021. Lake Forest has also had six student-athletes earn the honor on the women's side. Volleyball player Mary Gegen was the winner a year ago and she joined softball players Josie Klein (2022) and Jenny McTague (2017), soccer players Michelle Greeneway (2016) and Becky Esrock (2014), and swimmer Becky Shaak (2013).
 
Booher, a political science major with minors in education and environmental studies, starred on both the basketball court and as a track and field athlete. She is just the fifth Grinnellian to claim the award, joining Sabrina Tang (women’s tennis - 2023), Morgan Bober (women’s swim and dive - 2012), Claire Reeder (volleyball - 2011) and Rachel Moskowitz (women’s soccer - 2006).
 
On the court, Booher averaged a double-double in 2024-25 with 10.4 points and 10.6 rebounds a game. She also led the league and was among the best in the nation in blocked shots per game at 3.2. Booher, who established the Pioneer’s first-ever triple-double for points, rebounds and blocked shots, set school records for career games played with 96 and rebounds in a season with 287. Her efforts helped Grinnell amass 19 overall victories, just one win shy of the program record, and its first MWC Tournament title game appearance in 34 years. In track and field, she ranks second all-time in the shot put on Grinnell’s leaderboard.
 
Booher was Grinnell’s Team Sport Athlete of the Year in 2024-25 and claimed the MWC Elite 20 Award for women’s basketball. She was named a Chi Alpha Sigma inductee, All-MWC first team in basketball, All-MWC in track and field and CSC Academic All-District in both sports.
 
Besides her athletic endeavors, Booher was a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) at both the conference and campus levels, worked for the Office of Admissions, was a Student Educational Policy Committee representative and served on Grinnell’s Athletic Hall of Fame Committee. She also served in the Grinnell Middle School Mentorship Program, assisted with the Grinnell Community Meal and was a teacher and literacy coordinator at the Grinnell Community Early Learning Center.
 
Booher won the GC President’s Medal, Archibald Prize and Young W. Kihl Political Science Prize while also being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. Additionally, Booher had an article published in the Washington University in St. Louis Undergraduate Law Review.
 
Tulchinskiy and Booher will be the league’s nominees for the Division III Commissioners Association (DIIICA) Student Athletes of the Year Program, while Booher will also move on for NCAA Woman of the Year consideration.
 
The DIIICA will announce its regional selections on Thursday, August 21 via press release with national winners following on Thursday, September 4.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year program was established in 1991 and honors the academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service and leadership of graduating female college athletes from all three divisions. To be eligible, a nominee must have competed and earned a varsity letter in an NCAA-sponsored sport and must have earned her undergraduate degree by summer 2025.
 
Of the conference honorees, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division – and then selects the NCAA Woman of the Year, who is honored during an awards presentation at the NCAA Convention.