2024-25 Rock M’mys: Best Team

We’ve reached the end of Awards SZN at Rock M Nation, and today we vote for Best Team. Voting ends TONIGHT!

It’s awards season at Rock M Nation, and we’ve got a lot to celebrate from the 2024-25 school year. New hires, postseason highs, incredible individual and team performances… There’s a lot of good things going on in CoMo, and we intend to talk about it.

And because we always strive to do things a bit differently around here, we created our own award, the Rock M’my, two years ago. Consider it to be part Emmy, part Espy, and all parts love of Mizzou Athletics. (pronounced Rock Emmy)

I encouraged the staff to not just consider the major sports and the top dogs, but to dig below the surface and select worthy nominees from all the teams. Luckily, Rock M Nation represents a diverse group of writers with knowledge about a variety of Mizzou sports, so this wasn’t too much of an ask. With each nomination, you’ll also find a bit of backstory, so you, the fans, can make an informed decision, because at the end of each post, you’ll vote. Forget to cast your ballot one day? No big deal. I’ll provide links to the other awards from the preceding posts.

Once all the votes for each award have been tabulated, I’ll present a winners list, and that student-athlete will win our completely serious award that will undoubtedly be the greatest triumph of their lives thus far.

Voting closes Friday, July 25 at 11pm CST.

Let’s begin.

We’ve made it! The final award, Best Team. So what makes a good team? Former US National Team member and two-time Olympic gold medalist Mia Hamm famously said, “I am a member of the team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.”

Not only did I subscribe to this in my years as a high school swim coach, but I have also used it to describe various teams on Mizzou’s campus over the years, and this year is no exception. The nominees in this category are the best examples of competing alongside each other with a singular focus in mind. These teams rose above the others with their athletic performance. They displayed a winning culture, a drive to succeed, and had so much fun doing it.

Here are the nominees for Best Team:

Volleyball

The Dawn Sullivan Era

Putting this team BACK on the MAP #MIZ | #LoveFamilyGrit pic.twitter.com/RSYHLdKitp

— Mizzou Volleyball (@MizzouVB) June 14, 2025

Mizzou Volleyball’s turnaround in the first two years of the Dawn Sullivan era has been nothing short of remarkable. The Tigers had their best season in years, going 22-8 with an 11-5 mark in SEC to finish third, the best finish in the conference standings since 2020. The team also had banner moments like the win over defending national champions Texas in Austin and arguably the biggest upset of the NCAA Tournament, defeating 2 seed and host SMU to advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2017. Mizzou has been placed firmly back on the national map, and this team could be the first of many breakthroughs to come for the program in the future. – Matthew Gustafson

Football

As is the case with sequels, they’re rarely better than their predecessor. Mizzou’s 2023 12-2 campaign was the breakthrough Eli Drinkwitz needed to have, and another 10-win campaign was necessary to continue the program’s upward trajectory. And while it wasn’t always exciting or sexy, the culture that Drink has built in Columbia saw the Tigers grind their way to a 10-3 season, including a 27-24 win over Iowa in the Music City Bowl. They did it through injuries; they did it through a sputtering offense; and they did it through personnel changes on the staff. And while it’s hard to compare their successes to those of the team that came before, they’re worth celebrating all the same. —Josh Matejka

Gymnastics

It was a season of wonderment for the Mizzou Gymnastics team, whose third place finish at Four on the Floor was the best finish by any Tiger women’s program EVER at the NCAA National Championship. Not only this, they had a .500 record in the SEC (a conference with all teams ranked in the top 12 nationally by season’s end), an undefeated home record, two events (Floor, Bars) ranked in the top four nationally and the remaining two in the top 11. The Tigers qualified for the night session of SEC Championships for the first time ever and placed fourth. They broke the elusive 198 team score barrier against Auburn, which only seven teams nationally did this season (they were the fifth).

A whopping six(!) were named WCGA regular season All-Americans, while nine (!) achieved postseason All-American honors. That’s not to count five All-SEC performers (Mara, Helen, Amari x2, Jocelyn), Specialist of the Year honors (Helen Hu), two SEC co-champions (Mara Titarsolej, Hu), one national champion (Hu), a WCGA Coach of the Year, and a very deserving WCGA National Coaching Staff of the Year honor. I’m sure I missed something, but you get the picture. What a season. I wish I could re-live it forever. —Karen Steger

Men’s Basketball

Similar to the football team, the men’s basketball team’s season didn’t end how many wanted it to. Even so, the 2024-25 campaign was a wildly fun ride for the Tigers. They knocked off Kansas for the first time since 2012, beat eventual national champion Florida on the road and hung 110 points on Alabama. While there were certainly bumps in the road to the NCAA Tournament, this team was ridiculously fun to watch, and it was easily the best in Dennis Gates’ short tenure at MU. —Quentin Corpuel

Track & Field Jumpers

NCAA Track and Field: NCAA Indoor Championships — Mar 15, 2025; Virginia Beach, VA, USA; Jonathan Seremes of Missouri wins the triple jump at 55-11 (17.04m) during the NCAA Indoor Championships at Virginia Beach Sports Center.

The stats speak for themselves.

1 SEC Indoor Champion (Jonathan Seremes, men’s TJ)— The first title in program history.

1 SEC Outdoor Champion (Kristi Perez-Snyman, women’s HJ)— The first title in program history.

2 shiny new records, broken multiple times (Men’s TJ, Women’s HJ)— Just to over-emphasize this point, no Tiger has ever jumped farther or higher than this team is jumping right now.

4 All-Americans

1 South African National Champion (Perez-Snyman)

This program simultaneously gained collegiate and professional prominence this season.

And a partridge in a pear tree —Abigail Klapatauskas

Women’s Golf

Over the course of the season the Tigers pled their case of why Mizzou should be considered a golf school. At the SEC Championships, not only did the squad set a new program record of a three-day score of 869, but they also finished above three teams for the first time since 2018. Those teams being No. 21 Vanderbilt, No. 36 Oklahoma, and No. 55 Georgia – not too shabby. It was its highest ranked win since 2021. After the tournament, Mizzou women’s golf was ranked No. 64 in the country – a 15 place jump from the previous season.

Individually, the women EXCELLED. Ffion Tynan led the team with a stroke average of 73.83 and was also the first to receive an NCAA Regional invite since 2021. The Wales native also finished in the top-15 in EIGHT CONSECUTIVE tournaments. Fleur van Beek was another powerhouse who helped fuel the Tigers alongside Tynan. van Beek was second on the team in stroke average and started the season with top-10 finishes in the first two tournaments, marking the first time this has been done since 2012-2013 (mark another box for another record broken). I’m not kidding when I say I could continue to list accomplishment after accomplishment for this group.

These accolades and statistics shouldn’t be the only reason you pick women’s golf as the best team…these women displayed grit and fight you won’t find on every team. Every women who stepped on the green displayed the kind of heart and hustle mentality without which would’ve made reaching these heights impossible. The SEC loves to say “It just means more” and I think Mizzou Women’s Golf showcases just that. —Rory Whetstone

In case you missed the vote: