NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A pair of Vanderbilt All-Americans—Sara Wojdelko and Wells Williams—have been nominated for the 2026 H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar Athlete-of-the-Year award it was announced Tuesday by the Southeastern Conference office.
A 2025 first-team College Sports Communicators and United Soccer Coaches Academic All-American, Wojdelko received her degree in medicine, health & society from Vanderbilt in May 2025 and is currently working toward a medicine, health & society master’s degree. On the pitch, the Northville, Michigan, native was named second-team All-America and first-team all-region by United Soccer Coaches as well as chosen the SEC Goalkeeper of the Year and first-team all-league in 2025 after tying the school season record with 13 shutouts while recording a 0.57 goals against average, the fifth-best mark in program history. Her efforts helped the Dores go 17-3-2 overall after winning the SEC Tournament championship and making their first-ever appearance in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament.
Named to the Fall SEC Academic Honor Roll selection each of the last two seasons, Wojdelko has served as a team representative on Vanderbilt’s Be an Anchor Leadership Board for four years and has volunteered with both Feed My Starving Children and Forgotten Harvest since 2017.
Named the SEC Men’s Golf Scholar Athlete of the Year each of the last two years, Williams was also selected as a GCAA All-America Scholar last spring and is expected to graduate with an anthropology degree next month. In addition to receiving honorable mention All-America recognition from both the GCAA and Golfweek, Williams was a first-team GCAA all-region and second-team All-SEC selection following his junior season; he also was honorable mention All-America and a member of the conference’s all-freshman team in 2023. Entering NCAA postseason play, he paces the Commodores with a 70.10 stroke average—which stands eighth in program history—and seven top-10 finishes, while his career scoring average of 70.86 and three collegiate victories both rank among the top five in Vanderbilt’s record book.
Originally from West Point, Mississippi, Williams has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll each of his first three years at the collegiate level. Off the course, his currently is a volunteer with the Old Waverly Junior Golf Foundation and College Golf Fellowship and has organized, led and supported efforts for the homeless in Mississippi and Tennessee since 2021.
Each league member nominates one male and one female student-athlete for the award, with the two winners ultimately selected by the Faculty Athletics Representative Selection Committee. Thirty additional awards, entitled SEC Postgraduate Scholarship Awards, will be given to the institutional nominees not selected as the SEC Male and Female Scholar Athlete-of-the-Year.
On Wednesday, the SEC will name the recipients of this year’s H. Boyd McWhorter Scholar Athlete-of-the-Year awards.
