UNC named the 2025 class of Patterson Medal winners Monday morning. The Patterson Medal is the school’s most prestigious individual athletics honor and has been awarded annually since 1924. Recipients must have competed in at least three seasons for UNC and have concluded their collegiate eligibility.
The 2025 honorees are David Ford of the men’s golf team, Ethan Strand and Parker Wolfe from the cross country and track & field programs and Aranza Vázquez Montaño from the swimming and diving program.
David Ford won consensus National Player of the Year honors during the 2024-25 season. Among his other honors were his second ACC Player of the Year award and the ACC Scholar-Athlete of the Year award. He set numerous single-season school records at UNC, including scoring average (68.78), combined score to par (-89), combined score to par per round (-2.47) and rounds shooting in the 60s (25). For his career, Ford also holds UNC records for scoring (70.13), combined score to par (-162), combined score to par per round (-1.13), rounds in the 60s (66) and victories in match play (10).
Ford is the first Tar Heel golfer ever to win three consecutive tournaments. His seven career wins also tied the program record. As a team, UNC won 17 team titles during Ford’s career, won the 2024 ACC championship and recorded three consecutive top-five finishes at the NCAA Championships.
Internationally, Ford represented the United States at several tournaments, including the World Amateur Team Championship. He helped Team USA win the Walker Cup in Scotland in 2023, sinking the winning putt.
“David Ford is one of a kind,” said UNC men’s golf head coach Andrew DiBitetto. “He’s elite in all areas of life and is truly special. He rewrote the Carolina record books, but as good as he was on the course, he’s even better off the course. He’s a phenomenal student, and it’s hard to find a better teammate and person than David. He’s extremely disciplined, kind, consistent, competitive, thoughtful, humble and grateful. We are proud of him and appreciate all that he did for our program and the University of North Carolina.”
David Ford re-wrote the record books while playing for the UNC men’s golf program. (Image via Andy Mead/YCJ via UNC Athletics Communications)
Aranza Vázquez Montaño is a four-time NCAA champion and the most decorated diver in UNC history. She won the one- and three-meter NCAA championships in 2023 and 2024, becoming only the second diver in the history of the ACC and the first female ACC diver ever to win four national championships. She also won eight ACC titles, won the Most Valuable Women’s Diver award at the ACC Championships three straight times and tied a league record with three championships apiece in the one- and three-meter competitions. She earned five first-team All-America honors, 11 All-America nods overall and won the ACC Women’s Diver of the Week award 18 times.
Vázquez Montaño set school records in all three diving disciplines, scoring 379.25 points in the one-meter competition in 2023, 409.60 points on the three-meter competition in 2023 and 337.10 points on the platform in 2021. She also represented her native Mexico at both the 2021 and 2024 Summer Olympics. Vázquez Montaño is the first UNC diver ever to win the Patterson Medal.
“Aranza represents everything we hope for as a Tar Heel — excellence, humility and relentless drive,” said UNC swimming and diving head coach Mark Gangloff. “Her impact on our program goes far beyond the records and titles. She elevated the standard of what’s possible here, inspired her teammates daily and led with quiet strength and unmatched consistency. Aranza will be remembered not only as one of the greatest divers in UNC history but as someone whose legacy will shape our program for years to come.”
Aranza Vázquez Montaño is the first UNC diver, male or female, to win the Patterson Medal. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
Parker Wolfe set a new standard for excellence in distance running at UNC. He won the 5,000-meter national title at the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championships, became the first Tar Heel ever to earn four All-America honors and swept the ACC’s three Performer of the Year awards during the 2023-24 season – Wolfe won the award for Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field.
Wolfe placed second in the 3,000 and 5,000-meter competitions at the 2024 NCAA Indoor Championships, becoming the first Tar Heel ever to medal in two NCAA events in the same year. He also helped UNC’s distance medley relay team finish second at the 2025 Indoor Championships. Wolfe’s personal best in the indoor 3,000-meters is the second fastest time in NCAA history, while his outdoor 5,000-meter time ranks eighth and is the all-time ACC record.
Wolfe won seven ACC titles, including consecutive wins in the 5,000 and 10,000-meters, and won ACC Meet MVP twice. He earned 11 All-America honors, was twice named ACC Cross Country Runner of the Year and won national track athlete of the week honors four times.
Parker Wolfe won numerous titles while at UNC, including the 2024 NCAA Outdoor Championship in the 5,000 meters. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications/David Hicks)
Ethan Strand put together a brilliant UNC career and rewrote the record books along the way. He set all-time collegiate records in the indoor mile and the indoor 3,000-meters, becoming the first runner ever to do so in the same season. He won the 2025 NCAA title in the indoor 3,000 and finished as the national runner-up in both the indoor distance medley relay and the outdoor 1,500-meters. His personal best outdoor 1,500 time of 3:33.22 is the second-fastest in NCAA history, and Strand also holds the ACC meet record in the indoor 5,000-meters. He is the third-ranked indoor miler in American history.
Strand won five ACC championships, including three in the outdoor 1,500. He earned seven All-America honors, won the 2025 ACC Men’s Indoor and Outdoor Track Athlete of the Year awards and was named the 2025 ACC Indoor Track Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
“Ethan is one of the most relentless and fierce competitors you’ll ever meet,” said Miltenberg. “His journey didn’t begin with immediate success — he faced significant setbacks early in his collegiate career but never wavered in his belief that he could become one of the best in the NCAA and, ultimately, the world. Through his unwavering determination and deep love for competition, he’s established himself — alongside Parker — as one of the next great American distance runners on the global stage. He elevated everyone around him, and I have no doubt he will continue to rise as one of the world’s very best in the next phase of his career.”
Ethan Strand set several UNC, ACC and NCAA records during his time at UNC. (Image via UNC Athletic Communications)
For a complete list of Patterson Medal winners, click here.
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