Rabbit Barnes from the men's cross country and track & field teams, Kaidan Mbereko from the hockey team and Alison Mueller-Hickler from the women's cross country and track & field teams were named Colorado College's top student-athletes among the 2026 graduating class.
    
The awards, given to the outstanding male and female student-athletes who demonstrate excellence in athletics, academics, leadership and college contribution, were presented on Tuesday, May 5, during the school's honors convocation.
    
Barnes and Mbereko shared the Van Diest award, given to the top senior male student-athlete, while Mueller-Hickler won the Laura Golden Award for the top female student-athlete.
 
Barnes added to his stellar track career with a runner-up finish in the mile at the NCAA Division III Track & Field Championships. He also earned All-America honors last season with a fourth-place finish in the outdoor 1500 and is one of only two runners in the history of the SCAC to win four 1500 titles.
 
The Los Olivos, Calif., product was named the 2025 SCAC Track Athlete of the Year and 2026 West Region Indoor Athlete of the Year. He has won six SCAC titles and holds seven school records.
 
Barnes, a three-time team captain, has a 3.97 grade-point average and is majoring in neuroscience. He was named a CSC first-team Academic All-American as a junior.

Mbereko, meanwhile, earned first-team All-America honors and was a unanimous selection as NCHC Goaltender of the Year in 2024. He was also one of three finalists for the Mike Richter Award as the nation's top goaltender and posted the most wins (21) by a Tiger goalie since the 2007-08 campaign.
 
A team captain this year as a senior, Mbereko is CC's career leader with 128 games played as a goalie and No. 3 with 57 career wins.
 
Mbereko has a 3.68 GPA majoring in business, economics and society and is a two-time recipient of the NCHC Distinguished Scholar Athlete Award. 
 
Mueller-Hickler is a two-time All-American between cross country and track & field. She finished 10^th in the 10K at the 2025 NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships to earn second-team All-America honors and placed 26^th at the 2025 National Cross Country Meet.
 
The senior from Katy, Texas, won the SCAC Cross Country individual title last fall and has captured two SCAC 10K championships. She ran in the NCAA cross country meet all four years and won the 2025 West Region title.

Mueller-Hickler has a 3.91 grade-point average with a major in environmental science and was selected to the CSC Academic All-District team as a junior.
 
The Van Diest Award, named after former Colorado College trustee and local civic leader Edmond C. Van Diest, has been presented annually since 1936. The Laura Golden Award originated in 1981 in honor of the late women's basketball coach and 1995 CC Athletics Hall of Fame inductee and has been awarded every year thereafter except for 1982 and 1995. 

Several other Colorado College student-athletes received an all-campus award on Tuesday:
 
Nick Anderson (men's tennis) – David and Karen Cowperthwaite Award for Excellence in Physics
 
Felix Battle (men's cross country / track & field) – Max Kade Award in German; Excellence in Ensemble Performance
 
Veronica Bianco (women's soccer) – Ruth Barton Award for Journalism
 
Zaniya BrunoMunn (women's track & field) – Crown-Goodman Presidential Scholarship
 
Brooktie Frogge (women's cross country / track &field) – Crown-Goodman Presidential Scholarship
 
Sofia Mancino (women's lacrosse) – Crown-Goodman Presidential Scholarship

Kole Petersen (men's swimming) – Adelaide Bender Reville Prize for Creative Nonfiction (3^rd Place); William Arthur Blakely Memorial Award in Psychology
 
Keller Pooley (women's diving) – Patricia J. Buster Research Scholarship in Geology

Orion Samikoglu (women's track & field) – Kenneth J. and Elizabeth Hare Curran Award for Economics and Business
 
Megan Simonson (women's swimming) – Robert William Kaye Prize for Economics & Business

Cheyan Sundell-Turner (women's cross country / track & field) – Crown-Goodman Presidential Scholarship

Sky Theodosopoulos (women's cross country / track & field) – Laboratory Award in Organismal Biology and Ecology
 
Molly Vance (women's track & field) – Crown-Goodman Presidential Scholarship

Riley Webb (women's track & field) – Adelaide Bender Reville Prize for Creative Nonfiction (2^nd Place)
 
Liz White (women's cross country / track & field) – Ralph Garcia-Bertrand Award in Molecular Biology