In a year where mutual fund managers in every asset class struggled to post gains, there were still teams ably guiding their portfolios through the volatility.

Chicago-based Morningstar recognized five such teams on Tuesday, when it announced its 2015 U.S. Fund Manager of the Year awards.

The awards recognize managers of Morningstar medalist funds who demonstrate investment skill and the courage to differentiate themselves from the consensus to benefit investors.

Taking the award for Domestic-Stock Fund Manager of the Year are the managers of Baltimore, Md.-based Brown Capital Management’s Small Company fund (BCSIX). The team, led by Keith Lee and Robert Hall, buys companies that earn $250 million or less in revenue at the time of initial investment. Also sharing in the award are Kempton Ingersol, Damien Davis and Andrew Fones.

The International-Stock Fund Manager of the Year Award goes to Robert Lovelace and his team for overseeing the American Funds New Perspective (ANWPX). The fund is the second largest in Morningstar’s world-stock category, with $60 billion in assets, and its 5.3 percent gain in 2015 beat the MSCI All Country World Index by 7.7 percentage points. American Funds is a subsidiary of Los Angeles-based The Capital Group.

Morningstar awarded Fixed Income Manager of the Year to Jerome Schneider and team, the managers of the PIMCO Short-Term fund (PTSHX). The fund from Newport Beach, Calif.-based PIMCO gained 1.4 percent in 2015, placing it in the best percentile of the ultrashort-term bond category.

The award for Allocation Fund Manager of the Year goes to John Keogh and Michael Reckmeyer, managers of the Vanguard Wellesley Income fund (VWINX). The fund, managed by Malvern, Pa.-based Vanguard and sub-advised by Radnor, Pa.-based Wellington Management, has gained an annualized 7.7 percent through 2015, placing second out of 140 peers in Morningstar’s  conservative allocation category.

Another Vanguard team won honors on Tuesday, with James Troyer, Michael Roach and James Stetler winning Alternatives Fund Manager of the Year for managing the Vanguard Market Neutral Fund. Since Vanguard obtained full management of the fund in 2010, it has consistently been a top performer in its category, according to Morningstar, placing in the top decile for total returns over trailing three- and five-year periods. The fund notably posted a 7 percent gain in the third quarter of 2015, while the S&P 500 was off 6.4 percent and the market-neutral category as a whole was flat.

This is the 29th year that Morningstar has presented the awards, acknowledging managers who delivered impressive performance and excellent returns, and who demonstrated technical skills in their field across the year.