By Sam Ranard

Exchanging their jerseys and sneakers for jackets and dresses, UK Athletics celebrated the best of the best at the seventh annual Catspy Awards.

Scores of athletes and coaches from all 22 varsity sports at UK filled Memorial Coliseum to honor their peers in this year’s Catspy Awards. A total of five teams and 28 individuals were honored Wednesday night.

The Catspys were created to emulate the ESPYs, ESPN’s annual sports awards show. In 2003, Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart wanted to do something for the athletes and coaches to show appreciation for their hard work on and off the field, using the Catspys to do so.

For the second year in a row, ESPN personality Jay Crawford hosted the event with co-host Christi Thomas. In a departure from recent years, it was not the men’s basketball team or the football team that stole the show, but it was the NCAA runner-up rifle team and the track and field teams that took home most of the hardware.

The rifle team took home four Catspys, including K-Association’s Male Athlete of the Year, given to Tom Csenge, and Coach of the Year, which was awarded to rifle head coach Harry Mullins.

“They won it for me,” Mullins said. “Coach of the Year is just pretty much a direct reflection on them, they’re the ones that make me look good … Sometimes I feel like I’m just the bus driver.”

The men’s track and field team took home its share of awards as well. Coming off its best season ever, the Cats wrapped up the season last June finishing ninth at the NCAA Championship. The track and field team won the Male Team of the Year, while the women’s volleyball team was honored with Female Team of the Year.

Sarah Rumely, the first volleyball player in school history to win the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, won Female Athlete of the Year.

“It’s such a great award, there are so many deserving people and I just can’t believe they picked me,” Rumely said.

Carly Ormerod of the women’s basketball team and Ashley Trimble of track and field were named Miss Wildcat. Trimble said she was honored to receive the award.

“We’ve all been through so much and there’s plenty of times when you just want to stop and quit,” Trimble said.

Jodie Meeks won the Male Performance of the Year award. Despite playing in front of over 20,000 fans at Rupp Arena, Meeks said he was nervous while receiving his award.

Men’s tennis player Bruno Agostinelli, who has been ranked as high as No. 2 in the nation, received co-Male Athlete of the Year, which he shared with Rifle all-American Tom Csenge, as well as co-Mr. Wildcat.