BGSU Athletics Celebrates Student-Athletes at the 12th Annual Ziggys

Photo by: Coyle Withrow/Falcon Media Sports Network

BGSU Athletics Celebrates Student-Athletes at the 12th Annual Ziggys

April 23, 2026 | General

By: by Tyler Kavalecz, Falcon Media Sports Network

BOWLING GREEN, Ohio - The Ziggys, BGSU's annual end-of-year awards show took place for the 12th consecutive year Wednesday night at the Stroh Center.

The annual awards show serves as a celebration of the academic and athletic accomplishments of Bowling Green student athletes and entire athletic department took place across an hour-and-a-half at the Stroh Center Wednesday night.

"I think that we've become transactional in a lot of places, and the things I love about Bowling Green is that we're still rooted in the experience of our student-athletes, our campus, our community and everybody that participates in this, and I never want to lose that," Vice President for Athletics Strategy and Director of Athletics Derek van der Merwesaid. "It's something I hold near and dear to me and shaped who I was when I was an athlete. I feel like as long as we really invest in that experience and make sure that it is a true part of participation of a community together and celebrating together, we're going to do just fine, and we can't lose that."

Last night, @BGSU_Athletics celebrated the past year at the 12th annual #TheZiggys at the Stroh Center 🏆

Check out Falcon Media Sports Network's @henrykosko cinematic recap of the awards show ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/Rc6jdeIMnu
— Falcon Media Sports Network (@BG_FMSN) April 23, 2026

BGSU hockey sophomore forward Max Martin and swim & dive senior Grace Bodrockhosted the show.

"It was so surreal to be up there," Bodrock said. "It was so much more fun than I thought it was going to be. I had such a great time. I think everything went really well, and it was so exciting."

Martin and Bodrock opened the show with a monologue and roast of all 17 Bowling Green athletic teams and the recent academic year.

The pair crafted the jokes in the monologue over the span of two months, starting with a Microsoft Word document.

"We just kind of went back-and-forth, making jokes on the doc," Martin said. "Then, eventually, that led into a script and then the script approval process was difficult because we tried to teeter the line a bit. So, we got some rejections, but it was good. It was a lot of fun."

After BGSU President Rodney Rogers and van der Merwe spoke, former Bowling Green women's basketball star Cary McGehee was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award, speaking to the current group of student-athletes about her life experiences.

"Her speech was awesome," Martin said. "These moments when you get to hear these really amazing alumni come and talk and basically touch our hearts almost, it's awesome to have that opportunity and to hear from people like that."

Later in the event, Bowling Green equipment manager Scott "Scooter" Jess and Associate Athletic Director for Operations, Events and Championships Steve Messenger were honored by van der Merwe as Distinguished Service Award winners for their contributions to BGSU athletics, with both planning to retire at the end of the academic year.

"It was a lot of behind the scenes work with Scott "Scooter" Jess," BGSU Assistant Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Services Kerrie Turner, who led the organization of the event, said. "I was working with Dennis Williams on how can we one, get him to the event and two, get him up to the stage. I think Steve had a little inkling knowing he was presenting an award, but he still didn't fully know … They deserve every recognition."

Built for the Spotlight 💪@BGSUHKY is HERE 🏒#ZIGGYS pic.twitter.com/ak7u73aJVd
— BGSU Athletics (@BGSU_Athletics) April 22, 2026

BGSU men's and women's basketball PA announcer Jerry Anderson also spoke after being honored with the Distinguished Service Award for his contributions to Bowling Green athletics.

Falcon Media Sports Network played a major role in the production and coverage of the event for the third straight year.

"The partnership with Falcon Media Sports Network has really blossomed into something I think we can be very proud of," van der Merwe said. "Integrating that into the experience, and they take such a great effort into doing it so well, and I appreciate that."

🟠🟤@BGSUGymnastics is Orange Carpet Certified ✅

There is MAC Floor Champ Keira Thornton!!!!#ZIGGYS pic.twitter.com/RPY54IXj6O
— BGSU Athletics (@BGSU_Athletics) April 22, 2026

The partnership was highlighted during the event by a speech from BG Falcon Media Sports Content Director Lucas Kleimeyer and an impromptu shoutout speech on stage by van der Merwe.

"It means a lot," Kleimeyer said. "It's incredible to see how far the partnership has come in just my past four years here. Seeing all our hard work finally get highlighted at [BGSU] athletics' biggest awards show of the year is just a huge deal … Then, for me personally, giving a speech for the second straight year was fantastic. We've had a huge record-breaking year across multiple categories with out numbers and our content we've produced this year. So, being able to do that was fantastic. The whole night was great."

We caught up with Tia Clemens and Brynn Chaffee from @BGSUTennis before the show!#ZIGGYS pic.twitter.com/5aHNCEKlMH
— BGSU Athletics (@BGSU_Athletics) April 22, 2026

Five Falcon Media Sports Network members—Kleimeyer, Tyler Kavalecz, Ben Corak, Holden Ruck and Veronica Florek—presented awards during the show.

Full list of award winners: