Swimmers Brooke Forde, Kayla Tennant and Macy Klein are among the nine finalists for 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year, the selection committee announced Thursday.
Forde (Stanford), Tennant (Queens) and Klein (St. Catherine) were among six swimmers who were announced as Top 30 semifinalists last month, joined by Emma Nordin (Arizona State), Savannah Brennan (Florida Tech), and Ellen Gilbert (Illinois Wesleyan).
The award “recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers,” according to the NCAA.
A total of 577 student-athletes were initially nominated for the award, and the list was whittled down to 156 conference-level nominees before the Top 30 was announced in October.
Last year, Johns Hopkins’ Mikayla Bisignani was the lone swimming & diving athlete who was named a finalist.
The 2020 NCAA woman of the year was Kentucky’s Asia Seidt, the 13th swimmer in history to win the award since its inauguration in 1991.
The nine finalists consist of three representatives from each NCAA division.
Note: Although Queens has now moved up to Division I, Tennant is a representative of Division II since that’s the only division in which she competed in during her collegiate career.
NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR FINALISTS
Division I Finalists
- Brooke Forde, Stanford – swimming & diving
- Jaeda Daniel, NC State – tennis
- Victoria Tran, Navy – soccer
Division II Finalists
- Kayla Tennant, Queens – swimming & diving
- Hanna Thrainsdottir, Georgian Court – basketball/outdoor track & field
- Zoe Baker, Colorado School of Mines – cross country/outdoor track & field/indoor track & field
Division III Finalists
- Macy Klein, St. Catherine – swimming & diving
- Karenna Groff, MIT – soccer
- Erin Nicholas, Middlebury – field hockey/lacrosse
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated during a luncheon at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio on Jan. 12, where the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named.
PAST SWIMMING AWARD WINNERS, NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR WINNERS – SWIMMING & DIVING
- 2020 – Asia Seidt, University of Kentucky
- 2016 – Margaret Guo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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2015 – Kristin Day, Clarion University of Pennsylvania
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2011 – Laura Barito, Stevens Institute of Technology
- 2010 – Justine Schluntz, University of Arizona
- 2009 – Lacey Nymeyer, University of Arizona
- 2007 – Whitney Myers, University of Arizona
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2005 – Lauryn McCalley, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
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2003 – Ashley Jo Rowatt, Kenyon College
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2001 – Kimberly A. Black, University of Georgia
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2000 – Kristy Kowal, University of Georgia
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1997 – Lisa Ann Coole, University of Georgia
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1992 – Catherine Byrne, University of Tennessee
SWIMMING & DIVING NOMINEES
To read more about the nine finalists, click here.
BROOKE FORDE
- Division I
- School: Stanford University
- Conference: Pac-12 Conference
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Major: Human biology
Five-time individual national champion Brooke Forde was a member of two NCAA championship teams (2019, 2018) and was a 19-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American, including 18 first-team honors. A six-time Pac-12 champion, she ranks second all-time at Stanford in the 500-yard freestyle. Forde has represented the U.S. in international competition, winning a silver medal in the 800 free relay at the 2020 Olympic Games and competing in the 400 individual medley at the 2019 FINA World Championships. She was the 2021 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America NCAA Division I At-Large Team Member of the Year and earned first-team recognitions in 2020 and 2022. Forde was named 2021 Pac-12 Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year. She was the co-president of the Stanford Student-Athlete Sustainability Committee and created the Pac-12 Sustainability Committee. She also assisted in creating a sustainability in athletics course at Stanford that has been recognized by the United Nations. Forde received Stanford’s 2022 James Lyons Award for Service, recognizing her commitment to environmental sustainability efforts and her volunteer work with the Special Olympics. In 2022, she accepted a two-year assignment with the Peace Corps as a public health officer in rural Peru.
MACY KLEIN
- Division III
- School: St. Catherine University
- Conference: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Major: Exercise and sport science
Macy Klein was a 10-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American, recording eight first-team honors and two second-team honors. She helped lead her team to 2020 and 2022 MIAC championships and a 10th-place finish in the 2022 NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. An 18-time MIAC all-conference honoree and 12-time MIAC champion, Klein holds six records at St. Catherine. She was selected as a 2020 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America At-Large third-team honoree and was the 2020 MIAC Elite 22 recipient for the highest cumulative grade-point average at the conference championships. She was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa in 2022 and was a member of Chi Alpha Sigma, a national honor society that recognizes student-athletes for their success in athletics and the classroom. A member of St. Catherine’s Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps since 2018, Klein became the Minnesota Detachment 410 Cadet Wing vice commander and professional development officer in 2021. Klein received the 2022 Air Force ROTC Distinguished Graduate Award, given to the top 10% of graduates nationally, and was selected for a 10-year service commitment as a pilot and commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force.
KAYLA TENNANT
- Division II
- School: Queens University of Charlotte
- Conference: Bluegrass Mountain Conference
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Majors: Biology; psychology
Kayla Tennant was a three-time individual national champion, winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 2022 and the 200 and 400 medley relays in 2021. She led her team to three national championships and earned 11 Coaches Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-America honors, including seven first-team recognitions. The 18-time All-Bluegrass Mountain Conference honoree won six individual conference titles, helping her team claim four conference championships. Tennant holds the school record for the 100 butterfly. A summa cum laude graduate, she received two first-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-American At-Large recognitions. Tennant was a finalist for the 2022 NCAA Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship and a recipient of a 2022 NCAA Elite 90 Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average competing at an NCAA championship finals site. The 2022 Queens Outstanding Student in Biology and Outstanding Student in Psychology has published research on student-athletes’ social supports during the pandemic and the genome annotation of novel bacteriophages. Tennant was a team captain and served as secretary of Unified Royals, promoting inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a volunteer, she assisted with care for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral disorders, patients in pediatric cardiac intensive care and adults in a medically underserved area needing specialty cardiac care.
