A new set of Great Midwest Athletic Conference Athletes of the Week were revealed on Monday (Oct. 20) afternoon, and senior midfielder
Emily Pate (women's soccer offense) and redshirt freshman kicker
Manaki Watanabe (football special teams) are among the honorees.
Pate equaled her goal total for the 2025 season prior to last week as the No. 16 Eagles went 1-0-1 and remained in first place in the Great Midwest. She scored AU's lone goal in a 1-1 tie at Northwood on Wednesday (Oct. 15), then had the game's only goal in a 1-0 win at Ferguson Field vs. Lake Erie on Saturday (Oct. 18) – and now is tied for third on the team with four goals and nine points.
Ashland – 9-2-2 overall and 7-0-2 in the Great Midwest – will take a stretch of 8-0-2 over the last 10 games into another home game on Thursday (Oct. 23) at 3:30 p.m. vs. Walsh (4-6-3, 3-5-2).
Watanabe started the scoring for the now No. 20-ranked Eagles in a 31-14 win at Ohio Dominican on Saturday afternoon with a 50-yard field goal – two yards shy of the school record of 52 yards by
Gary Kester in 1969. Watanabe also was 4-for-4 on extra points, and three of his six kickoffs went for touchbacks.
So far in 2025, Watanabe is one of the top field goal kickers in NCAA Division II, making 8-of-9 (88.9 percent), has made all 24 extra points, and has put 17 of his 40 kickoffs in the end zone for touchbacks.
The Eagles are 6-1 overall and 5-0 in the Great Midwest – tied for first place with Findlay. They will take their five-game winning streak into the last regular-season conference road game of the season, Saturday (Oct. 25) at 1 p.m. at Tiffin (5-2, 4-1).
2025-26 ASHLAND UNIVERSITY GREAT MIDWEST ATHLETIC CONFERENCE ATHLETES OF THE WEEK
SEPT. 8 – Ravin Morgan (volleyball),
Michael Shimek (football),
Nate Slater (men's cross country),
Tom Woodward (men's soccer).
SEPT. 15 – none
SEPT. 22 – Dani Hicks (women's soccer),
Mark Pillar (men's golf).
SEPT. 29 – Cameron Blair (football),
Damien Johnson Jr. (football).
OCT. 6 – none
OCT. 14 – Jaden Cook (football),
Joey Lenczyk (men's swimming and diving),
Yasmim Tomita (women's swimming and diving).
OCT. 20 – Emily Pate (women's soccer),
Manaki Watanabe (football).
