The Western Collegiate Hockey Association is proud to announce its finalists for the Outstanding Student-Athlete and Coach of the Year awards. All of the WCHA major individual award winners for the 2024-25 season will be announced this Thursday, March 7. 

WCHA fans can purchase their tickets to the 2025 Kwik Trip WCHA Final Faceoff, which will be held at AMSOIL Arena in Duluth, Minnesota, this Friday and Saturday. The tournament will open on Friday, March 7, with semifinal games between Wisconsin and Minnesota Duluth at 1 PM CT and Ohio State vs. Minnesota at 4:30 PM CT.  The tournament championship game will then be played on Saturday, March 8, at 2 PM CT.  Tickets can be purchased online HERE or via phone by calling the UMD Ticket Office at (218)726-8595. 

2024-25 WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year Finalists

Minnesota's Audrey Wethington, Minnesota Duluth's Clara Van Wieren, Ohio State's Jenna Buglioni, and Wisconsin's Casey O'Brien are this year's finalists for the WCHA Outstanding Student-Athlete of the Year award. Each of this year's nominees was named to the WCHA All-Academic Team and earned the WCHA Scholar Athlete of the Year honor. Minnesota's Wethington is a graduate student working towards her Master of Biological Sciences. Minnesota Duluth's Van Wieren, who won the honor last season, is a graduate student in the Master of Professional Studies program at UMD. Ohio State's Buglioni is currently working towards her Master of Kinesiology and has carried a 4.0 GPA  in her graduate work. O'Brien recorded a perfect 4.00 GPA during the 2024 fall semester while pursuing her Master of Sports Leadership. 


2024-25 WCHA Coach of the Year Finalists

This year's three finalists for the 2025 WCHA Coach of the Year are Minnesota Duluth's Laura Schuler, St. Thomas' Bethany Brausen, and Wisconsin's Mark Johnson. In her first season at the helm of the Bulldogs, Schuler coached her team to a 14-12-2 record in conference play and coached the Bulldogs to a berth into the upcoming 2025 Kwik Trip WCHA Final Faceoff. Brausen was named head coach of the St. Thomas women's hockey program on Jan. 26 of this season after she led the Tommies to their first-ever sweep of a top-5 program (#4 Minnesota Duluth) in the interim position. Johnson led Wisconsin to a 25-1-2 record in conference play and guided the Badgers to their 10th regular season title in program history. Johnson has won the WCHA Coach of the Year honor eight times in the league's history, with his last honor coming during the 2020-21 season. 


For more information on the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, follow the league at WCHA.com and on its social platforms:  X, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.