NORTHFIELD, Minn. – Sophomore Ethan Hess of the St. Olaf College football team was named to the 2025 Fred Mitchell Award Midseason Watch List, as announced earlier this week.

Hess was one of 38 collegiate placekickers – including of six in NCAA Division III – selected to the midseason watch list for the Fred Mitchell Award, which is presented annually to the top placekicker at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), NCAA Division II, NCAA Division III, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and California Community College Athletic Association (3C2A) levels for excellence on the football field and community service. The midseason watch list was compiled based on performances through Oct. 11.

The namesake for the award, Fred Mitchell, was a longtime (1974-2015) award-winning sports columnist for the Chicago Tribune and the author of 12 sports books. Mitchell set the NCAA record for career kick-scoring at Wittenberg University in 1968 among "College Division" schools that are now classified as FCS, Division II and Division III.

"Our mid-season Watch List includes several kickers who are having exceptional years in terms of both field goal accuracy and distance. Not to mention late-game clutch performances," said Fred Mitchell. "We also value community service as an essential part of the criteria for choosing a winner, and that might very well be the determining factor at the end of this 2025 season."

In his first season as St. Olaf's primary placekicker, Hess has made 9-of-11 field goals and 12-of-12 PATs through the Oles' first six games of the season. The sophomore has twice been named the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) Football Special Teams Player of the Week this season (Sept. 8, Oct. 13). The first accolade came after he made all three of his field goals, including a 42-yarder – and all three of his PATs to score a season-high 12 points in a season-opening win over the University of Northwestern on Sept. 6. The second came off the back of Hess connecting on two field goals, including a 44-yarder that was the longest made field goal by an Ole since 2013, against Gustavus Adolphus College on Oct. 11.

The recipient of this year's Fred Mitchell Award will be announced in December.