The 2025 Male Athlete of the Year Award is presented to … Mac Stout!
The redshirt junior wrestler from Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, managed to put together one of the most decorated seasons in Pitt wrestling history. Stout finished seventh at the NCAA Championships, becoming a Division I All-American at 197 pounds and the first Pitt sophomore to earn that honor since 2010. He entered nationals as the No. 6 overall seed, even making history along the way by facing his own brother, Princeton’s Luke Stout, marking the first time brothers ever met at the NCAA Division I Championships.
Stout dominated from start to finish — a 27-4 overall record, a 6-0 run through ACC duals and a stretch of 22 straight victories between December and March, 16 of which came with bonus points. He led the team in wins, averaged more than 10 points per match, and outscored ACC dual opponents 53–3.
He claimed the 197-pound ACC title as the No. 1 seed and rolled to a Midlands Championship crown. Stout helped propel Keith Gavin’s squad to a top-25 national ranking, a second-place ACC finish and the program’s highest NCAA qualifier total in over a decade
In the first week of the 2025-26 wrestling season, Stout was named ACC Wrestler of the Week after a dominant opening weekend, highlighted by winning the 197-pound title at the Navy Classic. Stout has now started the season at 5-1, including two wins over top-20 opponents.
He went 4-0 at the Navy Classic with three technical falls, finishing with a statement 20-4 tech fall over No. 6-ranked Camden McDaniel in the finals. He also opened the weekend by defeating No. 20-ranked Payton Thomas in Pitt’s dual win at Navy.
His teammates recognized him as the Gold Standard Teammate of the Year, and the University recognized him as the Panthers’ Choice Awards Male Athlete of the Year.
Honorable mention: Pitt football’s Kyle Louis
The leader of the sharks, the junior linebacker, came off a 2024 breakout in which he racked up 101 tackles, 15.5 tackles for loss, seven sacks and four interceptions. With that production on the field, Louis earned himself first-team All-America honors from Sporting News, second-team All-America honors from the Associated Press, and first-team All-ACC honors.
He was named as the 100th All-American at the University of Pittsburgh, the first as a sophomore to achieve that feat since Hugh Green in 1978. In 2025, he followed with another strong campaign — 81 tackles, 8.5 TFLs, three sacks, two interceptions and two fumble recoveries — and landed on the prestigious Walter Camp Player of the Year Watch List.
To top it all off, Louis was named to the Lombardi Award Midseason Watch List as well. The next step for Louis, following a successful redshirt junior campaign, is the NFL Draft.
Honorable mention: Pitt track & field’s Nigel Hussey
Hussey capped off the 2025 season by earning the 2025 Panther Choice Award for Male Performance of the Year — a testament to his outstanding showing at the 2025 ACC Indoor Track & Field Championships. At the Championships, he posted a 6.66-second 60 M — third-fastest in Pitt history — and a 20.86 in the 200 M — second-best ever in program history — while also contributing to the 4 by 400 relay to score 16 of the team’s 21 points that weekend.
Later in the season, Hussey, as part of Pitt’s men’s 4 by 100 relay team, earned Honorable Mention All-American honors when the quartet placed 17th at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships after clocking a 39.32 in the semifinals.
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