CLEMSON, S.C. — Brie Clark, Sammy Brown and Abby Dunning have been named recipients of Clemson athletic department-wide awards for the 2025-26 academic year. Clark is the winner of the Frank Howard Award, Brown is the winner of IPTAY Athlete of the Year and Dunning is the recipient of the Brandon Streeter Award.
The Frank Howard Award is the honor presented for bringing honor to Clemson Athletics. Clark was named a first-team WCGA regular-season All-American and an NCAA All-American on floor exercises at the NCAA Championships. The native of Daphne, Ala. was the first Clemson All-American in gymnastics. She was named to First-Team All-ACC, as her 9.945 NQS was the highest by any ACC gymnastics athlete in any event this year.
Clark was a major reason Clemson won the ACC Championship and reached the NCAA regional finals this year, just the third year of the sport at Clemson. She became the first Clemson competitor at the national meet, earning a bid out of the Baton Rouge Regional on floor exercise.
For the academic year, Clark won nine titles on floor and two more on beam. She had 21 podium finishes overall and was the only gymnast in the nation with a 9.900 on floor in all 15 meets in 2026.
The IPTAY Athlete of the Year is presented each year to the Clemson student-athlete who excels on the field and in the classroom. In addition to being a first-team All-ACC selection by the conference, Brown was named a third-team All-American by Phil Steele and a second-team Academic All-American by the College Sports Communicators.
He was the first Clemson defensive player to earn Academic All-America honors since 2001 when Chad Carson was honored. The aspiring pediatrician has a 3.8+ GPA in biological sciences.
Brown was credited with a team-high 107 tackles, including 13.5 for losses and five sacks in 2025. He played a defensive-unit-high 734 plays in 13 games, all as a starting linebacker. He had a team-best 11 tackles, including 2.0 tackles for loss in Clemson’s win at No. 19 Louisville last year. He finished the year with a career-high 15 tackles in the Pinstripe Bowl against Penn State.
The Brandon Streeter Award is presented each year to the student-athlete who has overcome injury or illness to have an outstanding season on the field. Dunning missed the 2024-25 season as a pitcher at Boston College due to injury but came back strong after transferring to Clemson in the fall of 2025.
The award is named in honor of former Clemson quarterback Brandon Streeter who was a Clemson quarterback from 1996-99. He time and again overcame injuries to lead the Clemson offense.
Dunning appeared in 31 games for Clemson’s NCAA Tournament team this past year and pitched 106 innings. She finished the year with nine wins and 94 strikeouts, including a seven-strikeout outing in her upset victory against No. 5 Oregon. Her season included a no-hitter against Georgia Tech, just the eighth no-hitter in program history. She posted three shutouts, including six-strikeout performances against Louisville and Coastal Carolina.
Clark, Brown and Dunning Recipients of 2025-26 Clemson Department-Wide Honors
