June 24, 2025 | Football, General, Women's Track & Field
CHAMPAIGN Ill. – The University of Illinois Division of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA) announced Tuesday its 2024-25 Newcomer of the Year honorees. J.C. Davis (football) and Abria Smith (track & field) have been named winners of the award, now in its third year, presented to the top male and female non-freshmen competing in their first season for the Fighting Illini. The recipients were selected by vote of Illinois head coaches and DIA executive staff.
Davis was a key component to Illinois football's success in 2024 which included a record-tying 10 wins capped by a victory over South Carolina in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and punctuated with a final ranking of #16 by the Associated Press. Davis started all 13 games for the Orange and Blue at left tackle, earning All-Big Ten honors from the coaches (third team) and media (honorable mention). Following the Illini's bowl victory, in which Davis allowed zero pressures by the Gamecocks' defense, he was rated as the No. 7 pass-blocking tackle in the country by PFF and was named to the AP's All-Bowl Team. A native of Oakland, Calif., Davis joined the Illini as a highly-touted transfer from New Mexico and entered his first season at Illinois as the nation's highest-graded returning tackle according to PFF.
Davis is the first member of the Illini football program to earn Illinois' Newcomer of the Year honors. The award began in 2023.
Smith, a native of Olympia Fields, Ill., experienced incredible growth in her first year in the Illini throws program after beginning her collegiate career at Hampton. Entering the 2024-25 season, her personal best shot put was 15.84m (51-11 3/4), but under coach J.C. Lambert she improved that mark by more than three meters to 18.92m (62-1) to set the program record and post the 14th-furthest throw in NCAA Outdoor history. She finished the outdoor season as the shot put national runner-up, throwing 18.85m (62-1 1/4), to become the highest finisher ever in program history. A month prior she became the Big Ten Outdoor Champion in the shot put throwing 17.95m (58-10 3/4), the program's first B1G Outdoor Champion shot putter since Olympic medalist Ashley Spencer in 2009. During the indoor season Smith earned All-America honors with her program-record throw of 17.99m (59-0 1/4) to place seventh at the NCAA Indoor Championships after a fourth-place finish at the Big Ten Indoor Championships with a mark of 17.87m (58-7 1/2).
Smith is the second consecutive member of the Illini women's track & field program to earn Newcomer of the Year, joining 2024 honoree Darja Sopova.
