Third time strong for Brock standout and OUA MVP Madalyn Weinert

Burlington, Ont. – Becoming more than just an accolade, the player of the year selection has become the standard for Brock's Madalyn Weinert, as the Badgers standout captured her third consecutive MVP honour. Weinert headlines a star-studded class of Ontario University Athletics (OUA) women’s basketball award winners and all-stars who have left their mark on the 2025-26 campaign. 

Player of the Year - Madalyn Weinert, Brock Badgers

Weinert has been an impressive force this season, capping off her incredible career for the Brock Badgers by collecting the conference’s top honours for the third year in a row.

The St. Catharines, Ont. local has been all over the provincial and national leaderboards this year in many categories. She led in points per game (24.1), overall points (530), and field goals made (196). Also producing on the defensive side of the ball, Weinert led with 14.4 rebounds per game. It was an impressive year on the stat sheet for the medical sciences student.

Off the court, Weinert was named one of the U SPORTS 2024-25 Top 8 Academic All-Canadians and won Brock's David Atkinson Surgite Award in 2024-25, awarded annually to a student-athlete who excels both academically and athletically.

Her impact on the Brock Badgers is written in the history books as she holds many program records, including most points, points per game, most rebounds, rebounds per game, most field goals, most field goals per game, most free throws, and most free throws per game.

Weinert’s third consecutive player of the year award is another one for the history books, as she is the first to receive three in a row since the conference started naming only one overall most valuable player.

Rookie of the Year - Sydney Cowan, Western Mustangs

Cowan, a London, Ont. local playing for her hometown Mustangs, wasted no time in her foray onto the OUA stage and immediately produced a breakout season. She started in all but one of Western's 22 conference contests, while averaging 16.3 points per game (good for ninth overall in the league) and 358 points scored in total.

It was a rookie season to remember for Cowan, as she had the ball in many clutch situations for the purple and white, including draining the last-second three to defeat the defending OUA champions Ottawa Gee-Gees in the regular season.

With this 2025-26 honour in tow, Cowan becomes the ninth Mustang to take home the rookie of the year nod in program history.

Defensive Player of the Year - Hailey Franco DeRyck, TMU Bold

Franco DeRyck anchored the TMU defence this season, and her efforts helped the Bold hold their opponents to the second-lowest scoring average in the OUA (56.4 PPG).

A force in the front court, Franco DeRyck helped patrol the paint with averages of 12.9 rebounds (2nd in OUA), 2.4 steals, and 2.0 blocks (T-2nd in OUA) per game. The accounting and finance student also finished first in the OUA in defensive rebounds (179), second in total blocks (44), and ninth in steals (53).

This season, the third-year forward broke TMU’s single-game and single-season blocks records, highlighted by her six swats against Guelph on February 6. She also twice set the TMU single-game rebounding record, posting 22 against Brock on November 8 before surpassing that mark with 23 against Toronto late in the regular season. Efforts like these helped her go on to break her own TMU single-season rebounding record with 283 overall.

Coach of the Year - Claire Meadows, Queen’s Gaels

In her sixth year on the bench for the Gaels, Meadows led Queen’s to an incredible 21-1 season, taking top spot in the conference and holding on to an undefeated season until the end of January. The Gaels’ record bettered their 15-7 output in 2025 by an impressive six wins.

Meadows’ guidance and leadership helped her squad put up outstanding offensive performances night in and night out, leading the OUA in points per game with 80.1 and shooting 35.5% from beyond the arc. The Gaels were also a defensive powerhouse, allowing a league-low 54 points per game from their opponents. And those well-rounded numbers helped Meadows' squad close out the regular season ranked No. 2 in the country, in addition to boasting multiple all-star nods and major awards celebrating accomplishments both on and off the court.

A former Gael herself, Meadows spent five seasons as a player with the Tricolour while completing her physical education and education degrees. As a member of Queen's, she was an OUA East First Team All-star, CIS All-Canadian nominee, and University Award of Merit recipient. She finished her career as the Gaels' second all-time leading scorer.

Meadows’ coach of the year award - her second such selection (2022-23) - is the sixth time a Gaels bench boss has received this award.

Joy Bellinger Award - Amy Hagman, Queen’s Gaels

As soon as Hagman stepped onto campus at Queen’s, she embedded herself in the fabric of the Gaels’ Athletics and Recreation community. She has grown in the intermural league, and now as Intramural Student Lead, is responsible for convening and overseeing day-to-day operations for a variety of intramural sports on campus.

Beyond her work with intramurals, Hagman has found unique ways to impact basketball on campus, including organizing, coaching, and playing in the Queen’s ArtSci Cup, an annual cross-faculty game that supports Martha’s Table, a community centre in Kingston.

Hagman is a long-standing member of the Varsity Leadership Council (VLC), elevating from women’s basketball representative to Co-President. As the latter, she has led many initiatives, including Pathways to Education Day, which brought 30 local youth from low-income neighborhoods to Queen’s Athletics & Recreation to access a variety of resources and learn about different pathways to post-secondary education; and Jack.Org charity dodgeball and spike ball tournaments to support student-athlete mental health.  

The Orilla, Ont. product has also supported many lunch and learns, food drives and clothing drives, as well as setting up Queen’s theme games. Hagman has also taken on a larger role with Queen’s department-wide Culture Day - an event that celebrates culture through music, song, dance, and food - and has been responsible for planning the annual event with her peers.

As an Academic All-Canadian and fourth-year student-athlete, Hagman is an active member of the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies, where she’s completing her undergraduate degree in Kinesiology (honours), while also completing a certificate in business.

She is a Founding Member and the current President of Marketing and Events for Queen’s Student Athletes in Business, which connects student-athletes with Queen’s alum and workplace leaders. On the academic side she is also the Student-Athlete Academic Mentor Lead.

A selfless teammate, active community member and a stud on the court, Hagman embodies the qualities to be named the 2025-26 Joy Bellinger Award winner.

Tracy MacLeod Award - Bella Gaudet, Queen’s Gaels

Gaudet has shaped how the Queen’s Gaels view resiliency.

She suited up for the first time in Tricolour during her third season, after her first year was cancelled due to the pandemic and she spent her second year rehabbing her plantar fascia, an injury she suffered during her first practice.

After helping the Gaels secure OUA and U SPORTS silver medals and garnering an OUA all-rookie nod, Gaudet was once again dealing with an injury, this time from chronic pain in her shooting elbow. This required surgical intervention and many months of rehabbing to get back to competition once again.

Coming back from that, she earned herself a permanent spot in the Gaels’ startling lineup, capturing another conference silver and fourth place finish at nationals.

Her fifth season (2024-25) started out hot, as she averaged nearly 17 points and shot 50% from deep on eight attempts per game, while also taking on the most challenging defensive assignments. In cruel fashion, her season ended just a few games in with an ACL tear, partial MCL and lateral meniscus tears, and a bone contusion. Despite a successful surgery, she faced further complications and setbacks, but resilience shone through once again and she returned before the 2025-26 preseason.

Back in full form, the Ottawa, Ont. product has once again emerged as one of the most consistent and accurate long-range shooters in the country. She has started in all of the first-place Gaels’ games and drained a Queen’s single-season record 62 threes while averaging 10.9 points per game. The long-serving captain has led the Gaels on and off the court, showing her teammates that resiliency is the long hours of practice, not a game winning three.

Champion of EDI Award Winner - Enora Touloute, Ottawa Gee-Gees

Touloute is the definition of positivity and she shares her contagious energy with her Ottawa Gee-Gees squad.

The third-year guard always finds ways to make her teammates smile and create a supportive team environment. She is active in the local Ottawa community and shows great initiative as the Gee-Gees women’s basketball external lead, where during Black History Month, she introduced her teammates to Black-owned small businesses. This is just one example of how the psychology student has gotten involved in many areas, both on and off campus.

On the court, the guard out of Repentigny, Que. was a defensive leader for Ottawa, tying for the team lead with 2.5 steals per game and ranking third with five rebounds per game.

MAJOR AWARDS

Player of the Year - Madalyn Weinert, Brock Badgers
Rookie of the Year - Sydney Cowan, Western Mustangs
Defensive Player of the Year - Hailey Franco DeRyck, TMU Bold
Coach of the Year - Claire Meadows, Queen’s Gaels
Joy Bellinger Award - Amy Hagman, Queen’s Gaels
Tracy MacLeod - Bella Gaudet, Queen’s Gaels
Champion of EDI Award Winner - Enora Touloute, Ottawa Gee-Gees
Officials Award of Merit - Robb Caporicci 

FIRST TEAM ALL-STARS

SECOND TEAM ALL-STARS

THIRD TEAM ALL-STARS

ALL-ROOKIE TEAM