Story provided by Mako News & Isabella Fernandez de Cueto
NSU athletics hosted its 8th annual Sharky’s awards to honor NSU student-athletes, teams, coaches and staff and their accomplishments during the 2025-26 season. The event included speeches from President Harry K. Moon and Ryan Romero, interim director of athletics.
Deanna Rivero, assistant athletic director for academic services, put together the event alongside Robert Baroniel, assistant athletic director of athletic external affairs.
“The Sharky’s is our annual award show, kind of encompassing the academic and athletic success this year,” Rivero said. “The athletes are so routine with their schedule, practice, weights, class, study hall, that this is an opportunity for them to dress up, look like normal students and kind of celebrate all of their accomplishments.”
The awards given out at the Sharky’s on April 15 included Male and Female Newcomer of the Year, Male and Female Rising Star, Male and Female NSCA Strength and Conditioning, Male and Female Scholar Athlete, Larry Starr Comeback Award and Scholarship, Sharks Supporting Sharks Cup, Male and Female Ultimate Shark and Male and Female Golden Shark.
The Newcomer of the Year was awarded to Santiago Hoyos-Lopez of men’s soccer and Bridie McCann of women’s basketball. Hoyos-Lopez, business administration graduate student and transfer from North Carolina State, started 13 games and recorded 12 goals and five assists, earning All-SSC First Team and All-South Region Second Team. McCann, junior applied professional studies major and transfer from Chestnut Hill, started 32 games and averaged 14.4 points per game.
“This was truly such a journey for me, so for me to end up here with such a great community around me is really awesome,” McCann said. “I’m super grateful for this award, super grateful for the people around me, and I can’t wait till next year and see what brings us.”
The winners of the Rising Star award were Eli Allen of men’s basketball and Kristina Orban of women’s swim. Allen, junior business major, started 27 games and averaged 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. Orban, sophomore business management major, won three individual national championships and helped the women’s swim team to its fourth consecutive national championship, earning CSCAA Swimmer of the Year and SSC Swimmer of the Year.
“This award means a lot to me. The hard work I’ve been putting in for the past year has really paid off, and this is the confirmation that it has,” Orban said. “I always want more and I would love to win more awards and accomplish even bigger things, so this is a big motivation for me.”
Every sport has an Ultimate Shark award winner, and from this pool a male and female Golden Shark are selected. The Male Golden Shark was presented to Dallas Graziani, men’s basketball player and leadership graduate student. Graziani started 33 games and averaged 20.0 points and 6.2 assists per game. He was named D2CCA Ron Lenz Men’s Basketball National Player of the Year, D2CCA First Team All-American, D2CCA South Region Player of the Year and SSC
Player and Defensive Player of the Year. Upon winning the award, Graziani credits his teammates.
“We’ve been close most years, but this year we were really close. We had a group of hard-playing guys that made it easy to have a lot of fun and have a good year,” Graziani said. “This award goes to show the kind of teammates and coaches I had, obviously this is an individual award, but I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Kristyna Hranacova of women’s tennis was named the Female Golden Shark. Hranacova, junior business management major, won the ITA Cup Doubles National Championship in October and is currently ranked No. 1 in the country in both singles and doubles. Doug Neagle, head women’s tennis coach, presented Hranacova with the award at the ceremony, which shocked Hranacova because she had no idea it was coming.
“When I saw my coach go up on stage, I was like ‘oh my god’,” Hranacova said. “I honestly didn’t expect to win any award tonight and it means so much to me.”
Other award winners include:
Male NSCA Strength and Conditioning – Will McGhie, men’s golf
Female NSCA Strength and Conditioning – Taylor Stockman, volleyball
Male Scholar Athlete – Nicko Peristeridis, men’s swim
Female Scholar Athlete – Mollie Morfelt, women’s swim
Larry Starr Comeback – Gianna Russo, softball
Sharks Supporting Sharks Cup – Rowing