The 2012-2013 collegiate season brought many memorable swims to the table, with quite a few women making a strong impact in the sport. Each year, the NCAA nominates women for the official NCAA Woman of the Year Award. This honor is awarded to a senior female student-athlete, who has been exemplary throughout her collegiate career. This honor not only includes athletic excellence, but also academic achievement, service, and leadership. This award has been given by the NCAA since 1991.
The larger list of nominees has recently been released, but because the athletes weren’t listed with their corresponding sport, we had to do our best to pick out the names that we recognized. From the list, we recognized a few notable names of outstanding women.
- Cortney Jordan, from California Lutheran University, has been a big name in the Paralympic swimming world. Jordan was a team member and medalist in both the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games.
- Notre Dame’s Kim Holden has come a long way since her shoulder surgery, focusing mainly on backstroke and butterfly. Along with her NCAA swims, Holden has competed at both the US Olympic Trials and the US Open.
- Nora Cunningham of Mount Holyoke College is also on the list. Cunningham represented Mount Holyoke as the swimming & diving team’s captain, and was avid in her volunteer work with swim lessons.
- Southern Connecticut State’s Amanda Thomas was named the “Swimmer of the Meet” at the DII NCAA Championships in March. This was her second time winning this honor. Thomas is an 18-time All-American swimmer.
From the (long) list of NCAA nominees (there’s 455 women on this list!), 30 will go on to the “finals”, representing 10 from each division. The winner will then be announced on October 20, 2013 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Because we only included names that we recognized, we (obviously) could not include all of the swimmers on the nominee list. If any reader would like a certain athlete added to this post, please comment below and they will gladly be added.
The full list of 455 nominees can be found at the link below:
http://ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/ncaa/pdfs/2013/2013+ncaa+woman+of+the+year+nominees
So exciting to see Paralympian, Cortney Jordan’s name on the list. She is a such an inspiration to Paralympic and able-bodied swimmers alike. She is such a gracious, enthusiastic, and humble elite athlete. Congratulations to Cortney, and all of the deserving female athletes nominated for the award!