ASHLAND – For the fifth time in the last six years it has been handed out, a Southern Oregon University product received the Oregon Sports Awards' Small College Women's Athlete of the Year award on Tuesday.
Track and field star Abi Stevens was the latest honoree, strengthening her case as one of the top Raider performers of all time. Not that she needed the help.
Over the last year, Stevens won NAIA national championships in the indoor pentathlon and the outdoor heptathlon, brought her school-record-breaking total of All-America awards to 15, and was voted the Cascade Collegiate Conference Women's Track and Field Athlete of the Year, the all-sports CCC Women's Athlete of the Year, and the NAIA West Region Indoor Field Athlete of the Year.
As the Oregon Small College Athlete of the Year, she joins a long line of recent SOU winners that includes distance runner Jessa Perkinson (2018), volleyball player Taylor Ristvedt (2020), softball player Riley Donovan (2022) and wrestler Carolina Moreno (2024). The only other school with multiple women's winners over the last decade is George Fox, which has produced two.
Stevens will be recognized at the 2025 Oregon Sports Awards in Beaverton on Nov. 6. The event celebrates the state's top prep, collegiate and professional athletes, as well as the latest inductees to the Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.
A native of West Allis, Wis., Stevens spent four years at SOU and completed her career last spring. She broke program records in the heptathlon (5,205 points) and pentathlon (3,824), finished at No. 2 on the high jump (5 feet 8 ¾ inches) and long jump (18 feet 7 ¼ inches) lists, and landed at No. 6 on the 800-meter (2:16.26) and 100-meter hurdles (14.79) lists.
She was at her best under the brightest lights, accumulating 72 team points for SOU at NAIA Championship meets.
Stevens entered 15 national competitions during her career and didn't finish lower than seventh place in any of them. As a senior, in addition to her multi-event titles, she placed fourth in the NAIA outdoor high jump and sixth in the indoor high jump. She earned four all-conference medals in 2025, including a gold in the heptathlon.
She also competed in cross country for the first time as a senior, helping SOU place second at the CCC Championship and 16th at the NAIA Championship.