Las Vegas Review-Journal

U.S. swimming star Honda Cup winner

Manuel top collegiate female athlete

- The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Olympic champion swimmer Simone Manuel of Stanford won the Honda Cup on Monday night for collegiate female athlete of the year.

It’s the second time Stanford has had back-to-back winners. Katie Ledecky, Manuel’s Olympic and collegiate teammate, won last year. Swimmer Tara Kirk won the award in 2004, followed by volleyball player Ogonna Nnamani the next year.

Manuel, of Sugar Land, Texas, received the trophy at the Galen Center on the Southern California campus.

She became the first black woman to win an individual Olympic gold medal in swimming at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, where Manuel also won another gold and two silvers.

She finished her collegiate career with six American records and seven NCAA records and was a member of two NCAA championsh­ip teams and two Pac-12 Conference title squads. Manuel won 14 NCAA titles over her career, including six at this year’s championsh­ips.

In the classroom, Manuel was a two-time Pac-12 Academic honoree and a COSIDA firstteam Academic All-american as a communicat­ions major.

Manuel, track and field star Maggie Ewen of Arizona State and basketball star A’ja Wilson of South Carolina, now with the Las Vegas Aces, were the top three finalists from a field of 12. They were selected in voting by nearly 1,000 NCAA member schools.

The Honda Inspiratio­n award was presented to cross-country runner Megan Cunningham of Missouri. The Division II Athlete of the Year award went to cross-country runner Caroline Kurgat of Alaska-anchorage, and the Division III Athlete of the Year was tennis player Eudice Chong of Wesleyan.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States