MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR NOMINEES
WILL ADAM
MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Pekin
Adam carried on his success on the gridiron, leading the Panthers to an 8-2 record and the program’ s first postseason win in a decade, into three more successful seasons during his senior year. Adam led the Panther boys basketball team with 6.4 rebounds and 3.2 steals helping Pekin produce a 15-8 record. In the spring, Adam secured state track and field medals as part of the shuttle hurdle and 4x200 relays qualifying in four different events. In the summer, Adam started all 22 games for the Panthers on the diamond, driving in a team-leading 15 runs helping Pekin win a district championship while coming within one run of a state tournament berth.
CAMERON MANARY
CANAAN DUNHAM
PELLA
Ottumwa
Manary’ s incredible senior season earned him the honor of being named Ottumwa’ s Senior Male Athlete of the Year. Despite battling an injury midway through the football season, Manary was able to produce his second straight 1,000-yard rushing season leading Ottumwa to a 7-2 record in the fall. Manary also qualified for the boys state swimming meet for the fourth consecutive year, competing in the 50-yard freestyle, 200-yard medley relay and 400-yard freestyle relay. Manary was also one of Ottumwa’ s top sprinters on the track in the spring and was Ottumwa’ s starting catcher in the summer, earning all-district and all-conference honors helping the Bulldogs win the Iowa Alliance Conference south division title.
30 CHAPY AWARDS 2025
It was another big year for the Pella long distance runner. In the fall, he finished runner-up in the Class 3A state meet at 15:16 to grab his third career all-state finish. It was also the team’ s third straight top three finish as they finished third with 92 points. Dunham then went on to narrowly miss a trip to Nationals as he would take sixth at the Midwest NXR Heartland Regional with a time of 14:54 to fall just short of a top five qualifying spot by 10 seconds. He was the fastest Iowa runner in the race. Dunham followed that up with an impressive spring on the track where he picked up a state title in the 4x800 as well as a second in the 3200, third in the 800 and third in the 1600 on his way to helping Pella to another top three team finish at the Blue Oval.