Cornell University Wins 2025 EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play
6-Week Competition Among EcoAthletes Champions from 29 Universities Converts Exercise into Vital Coral Restoration Projects
3,372 Corals Planted
Combined NC State/Long Beach State Squad Takes 2nd, Rutgers Nabs 3rd
Long Beach State Golf Coach Alyssa Waite Earns MVC Award – Most Value Cupper
April 22, 2025
The moment when Cornell found out they had won the 2025 EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play (Photo credit: EcoAthletes)
Cornell University, thanks to outstanding organization, consistent passion, and creativity displayed by members of the Cornell Student-Athlete Sustainability (CSAS) club, is the winner of the 2025 EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play in a runaway. The MVC (Most Valuable Cupper) race, awarded to the individual who exercised the most during the six-week competition, went down to the final hours, with Long Beach State golf coach Alyssa Waite getting the win a tight three-way race.
The EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play: Exercise Converted into Coral Restoration
EcoAthletes Champions from 29 schools drove the six-week competition by recruiting their teammates, friends, and family to sign up for their team in the third annual Collegiate Cup via the Climategames app. There, the “Cuppers’’ exercise — running, walking, swimming, cycling, rowing and gym workouts — was converted into an environmental currency. Funded by our partners Protect Where We Play and Earth Day Network, the currency supported vital coral restoration projects from the Coral Gardeners nonprofit. The final Collegiate Cup scoreboard was impressive:
579 Cuppers took part, exceeding the combined total of the 2023 and 2024 Collegiate Cups
They exercised for 7,721 hours, with a total distance of 43,523 km or 27,044 miles, which is greater than one trip around the world!
The most impactful metric is that the combined exercise generated the planting and restoration of 3,373 corals in the South Pacific!
Cornell University Wins Collegiate Cup Team Competition; NC State/Long Beach State Combined Squad Takes 2nd, Rutgers 3rd
Cornell, led by junior basketballer, EcoAthletes Champion and founder of Cornell Student-Athletes for Sustainability (CSAS) Emily Pape (Class of ‘26), was responsible for the restoration of 1,050 corals on its own! EcoAthletes Champions and CSASers Jillian Ryan (‘27, Equestrian) and Ellie VanHouten (‘25, Rowing) provided valuable organizational and strategic support.
The Big Red took over first place on Day 2 of the competition and never looked back, thanks to a commitment to take meaningful climate action combined with old-fashioned hard work.
Emily Pape in action for Cornell (Photo credit: Cornell Athletics)
“We drafted emails, created flyers with a QR code to make registration simple, and brainstormed a lengthy list of people and organizations who might be interested in this opportunity and who could pass it to others as well,” Pape shared. “Then we spread the word via email, social media, and word of mouth, sharing our genuine passion and contagious energy for climate action to get people just as excited as we were. To ensure participation throughout the competition, we featured Cornell EcoAthletes Champions in weekly Instagram videos to update followers on the standings, created a large banner with Velcro team labels to hang in our main athletic facility, and gave shoutouts to high-recording individuals who were contributing exemplary workout time. It was really exciting to get over 200 participants to join Team Cornell. The work we put in has clearly paid off!”
The combined squad from NC State and Long Beach State, thanks to MVC Waite and EcoAthletes Champion golfers Inja Fric (NC State) and Hannah Jugar (LBSU) as well as NC State runner Jenna Schulz, led on Day 1, settled into second place on Day 2 and held steady the rest of the way, restoring 600 corals in the process. Rutgers University, which came in third place in 2023, repeated the feat in 2025, getting credit for restoring 300 corals, with lacrosse player Kelsey Klein and swimmer Natalie Schick taking charge.
Long Beach State Golf Coach Alyssa Waite Earns Collegiate Cup MVC
Most Valuable Cupper Alyssa Waite (Photo credit: Alyssa Waite)
In a tight three-way race for the MVC, Long Beach State golf coach Alyssa Waite eked out a narrow win that came down to the last day of the competition! She exercised for 140 hours over the six-weeks, just ahead of Celina Sattelkau of Germany, a rookie on the Ladies European (LET) Access Tour and an EcoAthletes Champion who logged 137 hours. Tanja Ecker, a world-class stand up paddler (SUP) from Germany, came in a close third. As recognition of their individual efforts, 550 corals will be planted in Waite’s name, 300 corals will be planted on behalf of Sattelkau, and 100 corals will be planted in Ecker’s name.
Finishing as the Most Valuable Cupper in the 2025 EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup means a lot to me because it shows I was able to commit to something greater than myself,” said Waite. “Coral reefs are so much more important than people realize and being able to use my normal, daily physical activity to help restore them offers hope that we as a society can keep our planet safe and healthy.”
EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play Partners Fund Coral Restoration
Title sponsor Protect Where We Play and supporting sponsor Earth Day Network provided the funding for the coral restoration at the heart of the 2025 Collegiate Cup.
Protect Where We Play, an initiative of Ocean Conservancy, engages athletes and entertainers to rally their followers to protect the planet by protecting
the ocean. College student-athletes are key to that effort, according to the organization’s Chief Brand Communications Officer Jenna DiPaolo.
"College athletes are the future of sport," said DiPaolo, "Athletes like the 2025 Collegiate Cup winners at Cornell University are not only bringing their game to a new level, they are using their connections and megaphone to protect our environment, to Protect Where We Play!
"Cornell and hundreds of other Cup participants helped restore coral reefs this year. Long-term survival of the world’s magnificent coral reefs requires two things: rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions and protecting and restoring the remaining corals. EcoAthletes’ contribution to coral survival moves us a step closer to a world where corals cannot just survive but thrive. And healthy oceans mitigate climate change. When corals win, the ocean wins, we all win."
Earth Day Network (EDN), the organization that promotes Earth Day around the world – and environmental and climate action every day, sees athletes as powerful ambassadors of its message. Influential student-athletes are of particular interest to EDN, given its strong commitment to on-campus activism.
“This year Earth Day Network (aka EARTHDAY.ORG) has worked tirelessly to empower and engage with campus communities and the Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play was a critical part of this effort,” offered Lee Franklin, EDN’s college campus coordinator. “Student-Athletes have a unique platform in campus communities to reach people who may have never engaged with Earth Day and our theme of ‘Our Power, Our Planet,’ calling for increased renewable energy production. We are thrilled that so many student-athletes not only care about the environment but also care enough to step up and advocate. That is the best action anyone can take to observe Earth Day.”
According to EcoAthletes founder/CEO Lew Blaustein, the support of both partners was crucial to the success of this year’s Collegiate Cup.
“Ocean Conservancy, through its title sponsorship of the EcoAthletes Collegiate Cup Powered by Protect Where We Play, and Earth Day Network, with its supporting sponsorship, took the event to the next level as compared to its first two years,” Blaustein asserted. “Because of booth organizations’ financial, strategic, and social media support, we had more Cuppers in 2025 than we did in 2023 and 2024 combined. And while the final numbers aren’t in, we already know that our impact on social media was exponentially greater than in our first two years!”