ROSEMONT, Ill. – Skye Ellis and Jack Lausch have been recognized as Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship Award recipients for the 2025-26 school year, the conference announced on Thursday.
One member of each varsity sports team on every campus was chosen by his or her institution as a Sportsmanship Award honoree, and two Outstanding Sportsmanship Award winners were then selected from each institution. All of the Sportsmanship Award winners have distinguished themselves through sportsmanship and ethical behavior. In addition, these honorees must be in good academic standing and must have demonstrated good citizenship outside of the sports-competition setting.
Ellis put together an outstanding 2025-26 campaign. During the Wildcats’ historic cross country campaign, the Jan Juc, Australia, native scored in four of her six appearances en route to earning United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) All-Region accolades following a 16th-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional. She went on to clock the top 6k time of her career at the NCAA Championships, leading the Wildcats with a time of 19:50.9.
Ellis didn’t skip a beat in the transition to Northwestern’s track slate. After shattering her own program record in the 800m run during the indoor regular season, the redshirt junior went on to earn fourth-place finishes in both the mile run and distance medley relay at the Big Ten Indoor Championships. Ellis carried that success into the outdoor season, taking down her program record in the 1,500m run on a pair of occasions ahead of finishing seventh in the event at the Big Ten Outdoor Championships and qualifying for the NCAA West Preliminary.
OF Jack Lausch earned All-Big Ten honors in his senior season, after leading all Wildcats in batting average (.312), on-base percentage (.393), slugging percentage (.653), runs (52), hits (63), triples (4), home runs (16), runs batted in (41) and total bases (132). Lausch's 16 home runs and 132 total bases this season both rank second in program history. He is the first Wildcat to lead the team in batting average and home runs since Shawn Goosenberg in 2021.
Lausch was also selected as a Big Ten Outstanding Sportsmanship Award recipient, representing all Northwestern male student-athletes. Earlier this season, he was voted by his teammates as the recipient of the 2026 Paul Stevens Life Teammate Award. The Paul Stevens Life Teammate Award is presented annually to the Northwestern baseball senior who best embodies the spirit of a Life Teammate - a leader on the field, in the locker room and in the community. As the recipient of the 2026 Paul Stevens Life Teammate Award, Lausch wore #13 for the 2026 season, commemorating the life of Will Trautwein, son of former Northwestern Baseball player John Trautwein and brother of former Wildcat Michael Trautwein.