By Isaac Fernandez, Assistant SID

ASHLAND – Abi Stevens' historic year received a glowing ending on Thursday when she was named the Cascade Collegiate Conference's 2024-25 Women's Athlete of the Year for all sports. 

The award is the conference's top individual honor, voted on by CCC athletic directors, and comes on the heels of Stevens' selection as the CCC Women's Track and Field Athlete of the Year two weeks ago.

As a senior, Stevens ended the Southern Oregon women's track and field team's eight-year title drought with the 10th and 11th individual championships in team history. She won the pentathlon at the NAIA Indoor Championships with 3,824 points and the heptathlon at the Outdoor Championships with 4,961 points.

"It's fitting that after Abi's time here at SOU that she would receive this award from the CCC," SOU head cross country and track and field coach Grier Gatlin said. "Her high level of achievement over a long period of time is reflective of the high level of work she put into her craft. She's the epitome of how mixing talent and work can culminate into something special. We're all very proud of her."

SOU has produced four of the last eight CCC Female Athletes of the Year. Stevens is the sixth Raider to win the award and the third representing SOU's track and field team, joining Jill Carrier (1994-95) and Jessa Perkinson (2016-17) in that group.

During her four-year career at SOU, Stevens produced two national championship titles, 15 All-America honors, 12 All-CCC honors, 21 overall event victories, and 72 team points for the Raiders in national competitions.

She holds program records in the heptathlon (5,205 points) and pentathlon (3,824 points), and stands at No. 2 on SOU's all-time high jump (5-8 ¾) and long jump (18-7 ¼) lists. Stevens is also sixth on the all-time list for both the 800 meters (2:16.26) and 100-meter hurdles (14.79).

On top of her achievements in track and field, Stevens also competed this season for the first time in cross country, helping the Raiders finish second at the CCC Championship and 16th at the NAIA Championship.

She majored in health and exercise science and has been a perennial Academic All-CCC team selection.