ACC, Clemson Gymnast Brie Clark, linebacker Sammy Brown and softball pitcher Abby Dunning received athletic department-wide awards for the 2025-26 academic year, the school announced Thursday.
Clark received the Frank Howard Award, which recognizes a student-athlete who brought honor to Clemson Athletics. Brown was named the IPTAY Athlete of the Year, while Dunning earned the Brandon Streeter Award after completing a remarkable return from injury.
In only the third season of Clemson gymnastics, Clark continued adding firsts to the young program’s record book.
The Daphne, Alabama, native became the first All-American in program history, earning first-team regular-season recognition from the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association before collecting
NCAA All-America honors on floor exercise. She was also Clemson’s first gymnast to compete at the NCAA Championships after advancing out of the Baton Rouge Regional.
The best of the best!
— Clemson Athletics (@ClemsonTigers) July 30, 2026
Congratulations to the 2025-26 Clemson Athletic Department Award winners! 🐅🏆
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Clark’s 9.945 national qualifying score on floor was the highest mark recorded by an ACC gymnast in any event during the season. She won nine floor titles, added two victories on beam and finished on the podium 21 times. Clark scored at least a 9.900 on floor in all 15 meets, making her the only gymnast in the country to reach that mark every time she competed in the event.
Clemson gymnastics also won its first ACC championship and advanced to an NCAA regional final with Clark anchoring its floor lineup.
Brown earned Clemson’s honor for excellence in athletics and academics after producing at an elite level in both areas.
The linebacker led the Tigers with 107 tackles, including 13.5 tackles for loss and five sacks, during the 2025 season. He started all 13 games and played a team-high 734 defensive snaps, developing from a promising freshman into the centerpiece of Clemson’s defense.
Brown recorded 11 tackles and two tackles for loss in Clemson’s road victory over 19th ranked Louisville. He closed the season with a career-high 15 tackles against Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl.
Those performances helped Brown earn first-team All-ACC honors and third-team All-America recognition from Phil Steele. His work away from the field, however, made his résumé even more uncommon.
The aspiring pediatrician holds a GPA above 3.8 while majoring in biological sciences and was named a second-team Academic All-American by College Sports Communicators. Brown became Clemson’s first defensive player to earn Academic All-America honors since Chad Carson in 2001.
After an injury forced her to miss the entire 2024-25 season at Boston College, Dunning transferred to Clemsonand immediately became an important member of its pitching staff. She appeared in 31 games, worked 106 innings, and finished with nine victories and 94 strikeouts for an NCAA Tournament team.
Her season included the eighth no-hitter in Clemson softball history, which came against Georgia Tech. Dunning also delivered seven strikeouts in an upset victory over then-No. 5 Oregon and recorded shutouts against Louisville and Coastal Carolina.
That comeback earned her the Brandon Streeter Award, named after the former Clemson quarterback who repeatedly returned from injuries during his career from 1996 to 1999.
Together, the three recipients captured exactly what Clemson’s department-wide awards are designed to recognize.
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This article originally appeared on Clemson Wire: Three ACC stars win department-wide athletic and academic awards
