It was a calendar year of outstanding achievements for many Kendall County athletic programs and individuals. Teams recording historic seasons. Record-setting accomplishments. Individual glory on the greatest of stages.

Here are the Top 5 Sports Stories of 2025 in Kendall County.

Oswego softball wins state

Aubriella Garza started crying before the seventh inning even started.

She said she blacked out during the last out.

When the Oswego senior third baseman came to, she was at the bottom of a dogpile.

Oswego softball was a state champion.

Garza slugged her program record-breaking 14th homer of the season, a solo shot in the third inning, for the game’s first run.

Jaelynn Anthony struck out eight in a four-hitter.

The Panthers went on to a 4-1 win over Barrington in the Class 4A final in June at the Louisville Slugger Sports Complex for the Oswego program’s first state championship.

The Panthers (38-2), which had won their first sectional title in 2024 en route to taking third in the state, won their first 21 games this spring.

Oswego had come-from-behind wins in sectional victories over Yorkville and Wheaton North. Anthony tossed shutouts in both regional games, and came a strike away from a no-hitter in the supersectional against Marist.

Sunny Weber’s triple crown

Sunny Weber spent the calendar year stacking together state championships in distance races.

She repeated as Class 2A 3,200-meter state champion in 10 minutes, 29.04 seconds at the state track meet in May. Then Weber won the 1,600 in a Class 2A record time of 4:41.90.

She checked off another one in November.

The Sandwich senior repeated as a state cross country champion – this time in a loaded Class 1A field.

Weber became the 1A state champion in another school-record 15:54.42 for 3.0 miles that just missed breaking the girls Detweiller Park course record of 15:53.4.

Weber, who committed in November to run collegiately at Duke, has now won four distance championships in the last year, with the Class 2A cross country title in 2024.

Oswego’s Alli Wiertel wins state golf with record round

Oswego Co-Op sophomore golfer Alli Wiertel capped off a season for the record books in record-breaking fashion.

Wiertel set IHSA state golf meet records for a single round and two rounds to win the Class 2A state championship at Hickory Point in Forsyth.

Wiertel, in third place after round one, fired a 7-under-par 65 in the final round and finished the tournament at 8-under par for a five-shot win over runner-up Martha Kuwahara of Glenbrook North.

It was the perfect capper to a sensational sophomore year.

She was medalist in every conference dual match, captured the conference title by 11 strokes and won six 18-hole tournaments.

Wiertel set course records of 63 at Glendale Lakes and 59 at Whitetail Ridge. She shot a bogey-free 65 to win regionals.

Her nine-hole scoring average was 33.6. She had 160 pars on the season, 84 birdies and five eagles with only 27 bogies.

State championships, record dives in the pool

Katie Malm, a gymnast growing up, first tried diving as a freshman at Oswego East for fun, an avenue to participate in high school sports.

Malm instead has made a record-setting splash in the sport.

In November, at the FMC Natatorium in Westmont, Malm won her second consecutive IHSA state diving championship. Malm’s total score of 515.75 points broke the state meet record of 507.55 set in 2003 by former Olympian Christina Loukas.

It put Malm’s name in the IHSA record books, along with record boards at pools at Hinsdale Central, Waubonsie Valley and Neuqua Valley.

The gymnast-turned-diver broke the Oswego co-op’s six-dive record in her first-ever six-dive meet. She had the 11-dive record as a freshman, a year she took fifth at the state meet.

“It’s everything to be able to do this,” Malm said. “That’s been the goal all season. Even the record book, our whole thing was I am completely capable of doing it. It’s in the judge’s hands and in my hands. The preparation, we have all done it. What can I do when I’m on the board when it’s that last dive at state? It worked. It was the best way to end my senior season.”

Earlier this year, Chase Maier of Oswego co-op was one of the top performers of the IHSA boys state meet. He won the 200 free (1:35.91) and the 500 free (4:19.36).

Maier, who will swim for the U.S. Naval Academy after graduation, said that he had to “come back a little faster” today after finishing seventh in the 200 free in Friday’s preliminaries. He finished second in state in 2024.

“Nice to come back as a senior and get the win,” he said.

Maier added that possibly his favorite memory of his four-year career in the Oswego program was his school-best performance in the 100 fly during the 2025 season.

“I’m not really a butterflyer,” said the senior, “but I wanted to go out there and set the record and I got it.”

Oswego football’s run to second in state

Oswego football has a proud history. It has two state championships in its display case and many other achievements it can boast of.

But this group of Panthers that took the season for a ride all the way into December, the first time that’s ever been done in the IHSA playoffs, will not soon be forgotten. Not after Oswego went toe-to-toe with 17-time state champion Mount Carmel for four quarters in an eventual 20-3 loss in the Class 8A state championship game.

Oswego rallied from an early two-touchdown deficit to knock off Maine South in the quarterfinal, Mariano Velasco catching two touchdown passes and returning an interception for a third score.

Kaleb Stumpenhorst, who kicked the go-ahead field goal in that game, booted the game-winner with a minute left in a 10-7 semifinal win over Lockport.