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, April 29. Five awards were handed out.
 
In the two most prominent senior awards of the night, CJ Composto (Westfield, N.J./Westfield) from wrestling was honored with the Class of 1915 Award while gymnastics standout Skyelar Kerico (Toms River, N.J./Toms River North) was named recipient 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. Both have been presented annually since 2000.
 
Jaxson Nield (Holmdel, N.J./Highland) from sprint football was named the male recipient of the Goldring Prize, while two women shared the Goldring as female recipients: Alyssa Rosen (Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) from gymnastics and Carly Yang (San Diego, Calif./Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science) who is a coxswain with the men's lightweight rowing program. Yang also is this year's recipient of the Frazier Prize.
 
CLASS OF 1915 AWARD
CJ Composto, wrestling
A four-time NCAA Championships qualifier and three-time All-America, Composto graduates as one of the most decorated wrestlers in program history. As a junior, he won the 141-pound title at the inaugural Ivy League Championships and then finished fourth at the NCAA Championships, the best finish by a Penn wrestler at NCAAs since 2016. Composto followed that up by taking runner-up at the Ivies and placing seventh at NCAAs as a senior. His other podium finish at NCAAs came his freshman year when he finished eighth. Composto also won individual championships at Penn's Keystone Classic as well as the prestigious Midlands Championships, hosted each year by Northwestern University. A three-time selection as first-team All-Ivy, Composto was named Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Freshman of the Year his first year on campus. He is a political science major in the College of Arts and Sciences who was a four-time National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Scholar All-American. Composto is the first Penn wrestler since 2016-17 to earn the Class of 1915 Award and the 12th overall.
 
ASSOCIATION OF ALUMNAE FATHERS' TROPHY
Skyelar Kerico, gymnastics
It speaks to Kerico's prowess that she was a runaway recipient of this award despite not even competing as a senior due to an injury she suffered prior to the season. The accolades she racked up her first three seasons still make her arguably the most distinguished gymnast in program history. Kerico holds program-record scores in the all-around (39.450) and vault (9.925) and is second in program history in the uneven bars (9.950), tied for second on the balance beam (9.925), and tied for third in floor exercise (9.900). An NCAA Regional qualifier in the all-around her junior year, Kerico was the Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) Gymnast of the Year as a sophomore and junior and also earned GEC Co-Performance of the Year her junior year. She was a six-time individual champion at the GEC Championships—winning both the beam and all-around twice—a three-time individual champion at the Ivy Classic, and racked up 21 All-GEC or All-Ivy honors with 16 of them being first-team recognitions. During Kerico's four years with the program, Penn won four GEC regular-season championships, four GEC Championships team titles, and three Ivy Classic team championships. Kerico is a dual concentration in Wharton, in finance and real estate, and was a GEC Scholar-Athlete and the Philly-SIDA Academic All-Area Performer of the Year in the women's at-large category as a junior. Kerico is the seventh gymnast named recipient of the Fathers' Trophy and the first since 2022-23, when McCaleigh Marr shared the honor with Kayla Padilla (women's basketball). Because she missed this season, Kerico has one year of eligibility remaining and will use it next year at LSU—the NCAA runner-up this year—as a grad transfer.
 
NORMAN J. GOLDRING PRIZE (male)
Jaxson Nield, sprint football
  *The fifth sprint football player to earn the Goldring Prize, first since Andreas Wang in 2018-19
  *Played three games at quarterback before suffering a season-ending injury
  *Completed 34 of 73 passes, highlighted by a season-high 15 vs. Mansfield (9/27)
  *Four passing TDs, two against the Cougars and one each against Caldwell (9/19) and St. Thomas Aquinas (10/3)
 
NORMAN J. GOLDRING PRIZE (female)
Alyssa Rosen, gymnastics
  *The third gymnast to earn the Goldring Prize, second in as many years (Isabella Garrett)
  *Competed in floor exercise in all but one meet; best score (9.800) came at GEC Championships
  *Has been a member of four Gymnastics East Conference (GEC) championship teams
  *Has been a member of four GEC Championships team champions
  *Has been a member of three Ivy Classic championship teams
Carly Yang, men's lightweight crew (cox)
  *The sixth member of the lightweight rowing program to earn the Goldring
  *Coxed the Second Varsity Eight to silver medals at the 2025 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta
  *Coxed the Fourth Varsity Eight at EARC Sprints in 2024 and 2025, winning bronze in 2025
 
GEORGE H. FRAZIER PRIZE
Carly Yang, men's lightweight crew (cox)
  *The sixth member of the lightweight rowing program to earn the Goldring
  *Coxed the Second Varsity Eight to silver medals at the 2025 Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) National Championship Regatta
  *Coxed the Fourth Varsity Eight at the Eastern Association of Rowing Colleges (EARC) Sprints in 2024 and 2025, winning bronze in 2025