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Throughout the collegiate athletic season there are hundreds of events across multiple sports. Oregon, unlike many other schools, excels at a variety of sports. The excellence in the fall, winter, and spring sports is reflected in nominations for Best Male Athlete.
Royce Freeman
The player who really needs no introduction. Freeman was a second team All-American. He broke the Oregon single-season rushing record, previously held by LaMichael James. In a double-overtime loss Royce Freeman rushed for 246 yards, good for an average of 9.1 yards per carry. He rushed for over 100 yards in 11 of 13 games and was a bright spot every week no matter how the passing game might have looked. He does things that people weigh 230 pounds should not be able to do. He can run over people, make people miss, catch the ball out of the backfield, make catches downfield, and run away from people. (NSFW music)
Devon Allen
The fastest player in college football is headed to Rio for the summer after running the 110-meter hurdles in 13.03 seconds. Allen suffered a knee injury during the 2015 Rose Bowl game against Florida State, making the performances even more impressive.
He's a two-time national champion and won the US National Title in 2014. Hopefully we'll see him blowing past defensive backs this fall.
Dillon Brooks
Oregon, maybe surprisingly, earned a #1 seed in the NCAA college basketball playoffs and sophomore Dillon Brooks was a huge part of that. Every game he was the rock of the team that guaranteed output every time he was on the court. Brooks was named 1st-Team All PAC-12, 3rd-Team All-American, and averaged 16.7 points per game and 5.4 rebounds.
In the playoffs Brooks had 25 points against Saint Joe's and 22 points against Duke in what was one of the most fun games I've ever watched Oregon play. The best news, he's back for another year.
Edward Cheserek
This is maybe one of the most ridiculous awards list I've ever seen. I pulled this info from goducks.com:
PAC-12 Athlete Of The Year
13-Time NCAA Champion
Four-Time PAC-12 Champion
14-time All-American
Two-Time Bowerman Award Finalist
Five-Time USTFCCCA National Athlete Of The Year
2nd-Team Academic All-American
All PAC-12 First Team
PAC-12 Academic Team, Honorable Mention
This is maybe my favorite story. He won the 5,000-meter with a time of 13:47.89 and WITH ONLY A 30 MINUTE BREAK he anchored the distance medley relay with a time of 3:52.89. Then he won a third event, running the second-fastest time in NCAA history in the 3,000-meter, putting him in a class with Galen Rupp. In 2015 Cheserek is the first man in the history of the conference to win three consecutive individual titles in cross-country and the first man in NCAA history to win three straight NCAA individual titles. I'm sure I'm missing other things.