Dwayne Haskins, Sade Olatoye Named Ohio State’s Athletes Of The Year

Heisman Trophy finalist Dwayne Haskins and NCAA indoor track and field national champion Sade Olatoye were named Ohio State’s Male and Female Athletes of the Year on Wednesday morning.

Both athletes are now finalists for the Big Ten’s Athlete of the Year award, which will be voted on and announced by the conference later this summer.

Haskins set numerous school and conference records last season while leading the Buckeyes to a Big Ten title and victory in the Rose Bowl. He threw for 4,831 yards and 50 touchdowns, completed 70 percent of his passes and finished third in the Heisman Trophy race behind Oklahoma’s Kyler Murray and Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa.

Haskins — who was drafted by the Washington Redskins with the No. 15 overall pick in April’s NFL Draft — is the first football player to win the award since Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith in 2007.

Olatoye, meanwhile, wins the award after setting four school records last season, including indoor (17.88m) and outdoor (17.88m) shot put along with indoor weight throw (24.46m) and outdoor hammer throw (67.49m). Her weight throw led to a national title at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships, while her overall efforts helped Ohio State win Big Ten titles in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Haskins now has a chance to become Ohio State’s third-straight Big Ten Male Athlete of the Year, as former wrestler Kyle Snyder won the award the last two year. Olatoye, on the other hand, would be the Buckeyes’ first conference female athlete of the year since former sprinter Christian Manning in 2012.