By UNI Athletics
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — UNI Athletics is proud to honor four outstanding student-athletes with Athlete of the Month awards for March 2025. The award recipients, voted on by members of UNI’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) for their achievements in the month of February, include Brendan Safley (men’s track & field), Colin Realbuto (wrestling), Kayba Laube (women’s basketball) and Faith Larsen (swimming & diving).
BRENDAN SAFLEY
A Kansas City, Missouri native, Safely recorded a career-best mark of 5.43 meters in the pole vault with the second-best height cleared in program history in winning the event at Kansas State’s DeLoss Dodds Invitational. He also picked up a pole vault tilt at the Iowa Open with a height of 5.30 meters cleared, finished second at Nebraska’s Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational (5.30m) and sixth at the Wisconsin Windy City Invite (5.32m).
COLIN REALBUTO
A redshirt senior out of Somers, New York, Realbuto has been one of the Panthers’ top performing wrestlers of the season, going a perfect 5-0 in the month of February to improve to 20-4 on the season. He recorded a pair of ranked wins last month against No. 27 Gavin Drexler (North Dakota State) and stunned No. 6 Paniro Johnson (Iowa State) in sudden victory in his finale career home match in a 10-7 decision. Realbuto is currently riding an 11-match winning streak dating back to January
KAYBA LAUBE
A Marion, Iowa product, Laube tallied an average of 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds per game in eight games played in February. Shooting 15-of-36 from beyond the arc, she became UNI’s all-time leader in made three-point fields with 267 in a home win over Southern Illinois. Laube also contributed greatly on the defense end of the floor with 15 steals during the month.
FAITH LARSEN
A senior from Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Larsen put on a show in the final regular season meet of her career at South Dakota’s Coyote Invite. In addition to dominating the 50-yard freestyle field, she also won the 100-yard individual medley and took second place in the 100-yard breaststroke, swimming the latter event for the first time in her college career. She also contributed to a fourth-place finish for the Panthers in the 200-yard freestyle relay.