CHAMPAIGN Ill. – The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) announced Monday its 2024-25 Freshman of the Year honorees. Kasparas Jakucionis (basketball) was selected as the Illini’s top male competing in his first collegiate season, while Chloe Cho (gymnastics) and Melissa Wullschleger (track & field) were named co-winners as the top, first-year female athletes for the Fighting Illini. The recipients were selected by vote of Illinois head coaches and DIA executive staff.
Jakucionis, who was a unanimious selection to the Freshman All-America Team by The Athletic, led the Illini in scoring and assists, averaging 15.2 ppg and 4.7 apg, and was third on the team in rebounding at 5.7 rpg. He equaled the most points ever scored by an Illini freshman, totaling 494 during his 33 starts, and set UI rookie season records shooting 84.5% from the free throw line and tallying eight 20-point games. Jakucionis was also a Big Ten All-Freshman Team selection, first-team NABC All-Great Lakes District, second-team All-Big Ten by AP, and third-team All-Big Ten by the league coaches and media.
Jakucionis is the seventh member of the Illini men’s basketball program to earn Illinois Freshman of the Year honors and the fourth to do so under head coach Brad Underwood, joining Ayo Dosunmu (2019), Kofi Cockburn (2020), and Andre Curbelo (2021).
Cho, the 2024-25 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, competed in all 15 meets during her freshman campaign, only missing one event in one meet. She earned All-Big Ten first team and Big Ten All-Freshman Team honors while recording 16 titles – four vault, two bars, three beam, three floor, and four all-around – and finished the year ranked in the top 60 nationally in vault (60), beam (39), floor (56) and all-around (30). Cho also set the program record by earning four Big Ten Freshman of the Week recognitions throughout the season.
Wullschleger became a first-team All-American in the heptathlon with a program record 5,928 points in her fourth-place finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. She is the program’s third-ever All-American in the event and the first since Carmel Corbett in 1996. As part of her school-record breaking score, Wullschleger also threw the…
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