PHILADELPHIA - The University of Pennsylvania's Division of Recreation and Intercollegiate Athletics (DRIA) announced its major intercollegiate senior student-athlete awards at the annual "Quakers Choice Awards" banquet on Wednesday night, May 1. Five awards were handed out.
 
In the two most prominent senior awards of the night, Wyatt Henseler (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) from baseball was honored with the Class of 1915 Award while women's lacrosse standout Niki Miles (San Clemente, Calif./St. Margaret's Episcopal) and women's track star Isabella Whittaker (Laurel, Md./Mount DeSales Academy) were named co-recipients of the Association of Alumnae Fathers' Trophy.
 
Presented annually since 1931, the Class of 1915 Award is given to the male student-athlete who best exemplifies the spirit and tradition of University of Pennsylvania Athletics. The recipient must be a senior student-athlete who shows outstanding athletic, academic, and leadership qualities. The academic standard is a 3.0 GPA. Voting on the award is conducted by the head coaches of Penn's varsity men's programs.
 
The Fathers' Trophy has been given annually since 1945 to the woman who is recognized for her contribution to Women's Athletics at the University of Pennsylvania. The recipient must be a senior student-athlete who shows outstanding athletic, academic, and leadership qualities. The academic standard is a 3.0 GPA. Voting on the award is conducted by the head coaches of Penn's varsity women's programs.
 
Penn Athletics also announced recipients of the Norman J. Goldring and George H. Frazier Prizes on Wednesday night. The Goldring Prize is given to one graduating male and one graduating female student-athlete with the highest GPA who earned a varsity letter in his/her senior year. The Frazier Prize, meanwhile, is given to a graduating student-athlete (male or female) with the highest GPA who competed on one of the following teams: basketball, crew, track, soccer, baseball, or football.
 
Men's lacrosse player James Shipley (Weddington, N.C./Weddington) was named the male recipient of the Goldring Prize, while women's rower Eve Chiarello (Ocean City, N.J./Ocean City) was both the female recipient of the Goldring Prize and the recipient of the Frazier Prize.
 
CLASS OF 1915 AWARD
Wyatt Henseler, baseball
Despite playing a limited, 14-game schedule in 2021 due to the Ivy League's COVID-19 restrictions, Henseler has established himself as one of the all-time great players in Ivy League baseball history. A starter in all 151 games he has played since arriving in University City, Henseler has shattered the Ivy League's career records for home runs (currently he has 51) and RBIs (177), and he owns the program records for hits (215), runs (163) and doubles (49) and is one point shy of the program record for slugging percentage (.700). A first-team All-Ivy selection each of the two years he's been eligible, Henseler was a third-team ABCA All-America and first-team All-Region selection in 2022. Last year, he helped Penn win the inaugural Ivy League Baseball Tournament, earning all-tournament honors, and led the Quakers to their first NCAA Championship appearance since 1995 where the Quakers advanced to the Auburn Regional final with wins against the host Tigers and Samford. The senior slugger has set the program record for home runs each of the last three seasons with 14 in 2022, 18 last year, and 19 (three shy of the Ivy single-season record) so far this season. Henseler is the first true baseball player to be voted the Class of 1915 Award; there have been several multi-sport recipients who played baseball at Penn and won the award, most recently Robert Finke (hockey/baseball) in 1970-71.
 
ASSOCIATION OF ALUMNAE FATHERS' TROPHY
Niki Miles, women's lacrosse
Miles has been a unanimous first-team All-Ivy pick each of the last two seasons and was the Ivy League Attacker of the Year in 2023. One of the elite offensive players in program history, she is fifth on the Quakers' all-time list for career goals (125), sixth in career points (181), and tenth in career assists (56). Last year, Miles set the program record for goals in a season, with 63, as the Red and Blue went undefeated in Ivy League play, won the Ivy Tournament, and advanced to the NCAA Championship second round. This year, she is ninth on the single-season list for goals (44) and 11th for points (63) for a team that is 12-3 overall, ranked fourth in the NCAA's RPI, and poised for a lengthy postseason run. Miles has scored a goal in 35 straight games, recorded a point in 39 straight contests, and she has put up multiple points in 29 of Penn's last 30 games. Miles is the first lacrosse player to be voted the Fathers' Trophy since Meg Markham in 2014-15.
 
Isabella Whittaker, women's track & field
Whittaker currently owns four school records—the indoor 400, indoor 500, outdoor 200, and outdoor 400—and is second on the all-time lists in the indoor 60-meter dash and the indoor 200. Additionally, she ran a leg on the fastest indoor 4x400 relay in program history, the top three outdoor 4x100 relays, and four of the program's five fastest outdoor 4x400 relays. Whittaker's mark in the outdoor 400 (51.14 seconds), set just a few weeks ago, also bettered an Ivy League standard that had stood since 1990, and she also has helped Penn's 4x100 and 4x400 relays set Ivy League records this spring while during the indoor season she lowered the Ivy mark twice in the 400—again bettering a time that had stood since 1990—and as part of Penn's 4x400 relay. Whittaker was co-recipient of the Outstanding Track Performer at the Indoor Heptagonal Track & Field Championships in February after she won the 400 and took second in the 200, and she followed that up with a second-team All-America performance in the 400 at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Boston. A six-time Heps champion overall—three individual, three on relays—Whittaker is the first track athlete to be voted the Fathers' Trophy since Nia Akins and Uchechi Nwogwugwu were back-to-back recipients in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
 
NORMAN J. GOLDRING PRIZE (male)
James Shipley, men's lacrosse
*The third men's lacrosse player in a row and fourth overall to earn the Goldring Prize, which has been given annually since 2000
*A two-time second-team All-Ivy pick (2022, 2024)
*Honorable mention All-Ivy recognition in 2023
*CAREER STATS: 49 GP/31 GS, 42 goals, 43 assists, 85 points, 46, GBs, 10 CTs
*Finance concentration in the Wharton School of Business
 
NORMAN J. GOLDRING PRIZE (female)/GEORGE H. FRAZIER PRIZE
Eve Chiarello, women's rowing
*The fourth women's rower to earn the Goldring Prize, first since Rhodes Scholar Jenna Hebert in 2015-16
*The third women's rower to earn the Frazier Prize, the others being Hebert and Cassi Henderson (2012-13)
*A three-year member of Penn's Second Varsity Eight, has rowed the 2 and bow seats so far this season
*Has helped Penn to its first two NCAA Championship appearances in 2022 and 2023
*2V8 is 28-6 so far this season and ranked 14th nationally
*2V8 went 29-1 last spring, finished third at Ivy Championships, then took ninth at NCAAs
*Part of first Penn women's rowing team to compete at Henley Royal Regatta, in 2023