Six swimmer have been announced as finalists for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year award, the most swimming & diving honorees since 2011, where five swimmers and a diver were nominated.
Brooke Forde (Stanford), Emma Nordin (Arizona State), Kayla Tennant (Queens), Savannah Brennan (Florida Tech), Ellen Gilbert (Illinois Wesleyan), and Macy Klein (St. Catherine University) were all named Top 30 honorees. They were among 17 swimming-or-diving athletes who were pushed forward in the process by their conferences, and 46 who were nominated by their institutions.
This 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.
The top 30 semifinalists consist of 10 athletes from each NCAA division. They were selected from a pool of 535 school nominees which was narrowed down to 30 by a committee of representatives from the NCAA membership. Student-athletes must have exhausted their eligibility to be eligible.
Next, the NCAA will determine the top 3 honorees from each division. The 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year will be chosen from the group of those 9 finalists and announced on November 9th.
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.
2022 Top 30 Honorees, By Sport
- Cross country/track & field – 9*
- Swimming & Diving – 6
- Soccer – 3
- Field hockey – 3*
- Basketball – 2*
- Gymnastics – 2
- Volleyball – 2
- Tennis – 1
- Softball – 1
- Fencing – 1
- Lacrosse – 1*
- Golf – 1
* – One nominee competes in both field hockey and lacrosse, one nominee competes in both basketball and outdoor track & field.
PAST SWIMMING AWARD WINNERS, NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR WINNERS – SWIMMING & DIVING
2020
Asia Seidt
Swimming and Diving
University of Kentucky
Swimming & Diving Nominees
To read more about all 30 semi-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.
Emma Nordin
- Division I
- School: Arizona State University
- Conference: Pac-12 Conference
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Major: Biological sciences, with a concentration in neurobiology, physiology and behavior
Emma Nordin was a 10-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American, with six second-team recognitions in 2022 and 2019. She was the 2020 Pac-12 500-yard freestyle champion and runner-up in the 200 and 1,650 freestyle, and she holds six school records. She was named to the 2021 USA Swimming National Team, finishing fifth in the 400 freestyle at the 2021 U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials. In 2022, Nordin was Arizona State’s female recipient of the Pac-12’s Tom Hansen Conference Medal of Honor and Arizona State’s Kajikawa Award, which recognize senior student-athletes for achievements in athletics, academics and leadership. A summa cum laude graduate, Nordin was a 2019 first-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-District At-Large honoree and a three-time CSCAA Scholar All-American. She received a Pac-12 Postgraduate Scholarship in 2021. A two-year Student-Athlete Advisory Committee member, Nordin led the development of an LGBTQIA+ group for student-athletes as part of Sun Devils United. She also helped create EmpowHER, a program for female empowerment within Arizona State athletics, and she received a 2022 Pac-12 ImPACt leadership grant to attend the Global Women in STEM Leadership Summit.
Savannah Brennan
- Division II
- School: Florida Institute of Technology
- Conference: Sunshine State Conference
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Majors: Genomics and molecular genetics; biomedical science
Savannah Brennan is a three-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches of America All-American, earning first-team honors for the 1000-yard freestyle and second team for the 400 individual medley and 500 free in 2022. Brennan was a four-time Florida Tech Female Swimmer of the Year and holds 10 school records, including one she set with her fifth-place finish in the 1000 free. She was named the 2021-22 Florida Tech Female Athlete of the Year. A two-time College Sports Communicators Academic All-American, Brennan was named to the first team in 2022 following third-team honors in 2021. She was the Sunshine State Scholar-Athlete of the Year for three consecutive years. On campus, Brennan was a four-year team captain and a four-year member of the TriBeta biological honors society, serving as chapter president. She also served as secretary for the Florida Tech chapter of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. In 2020, Brennan volunteered in the emergency department of Health First Holmes Regional Medical Center to provide support during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was a two-year volunteer with Team IMPACT, which matches children facing chronic illnesses with collegiate sport teams.
Ellen Gilbert
- Division III
- School: Illinois Wesleyan University
- Conference: College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin
- Sport: Swimming and diving
- Major: Psychology
Ellen Gilbert was a five-time College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-American, earning first-team honors in 2022 for her sixth-place finish at the 2022 NCAA Division III Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships. The 2022 and 2020 CCIW Swimmer of the Year and CCIW Championship Meet MVP was an eight-time CCIW individual champion and two-time CCIW Cup champion, recording wins in the 100- and 200-yard butterfly and the 500 freestyle. Gilbert was the Illinois Wesleyan Female Athlete of the Year in 2022 and the team’s MVP for four years. The summa cum laude graduate received three College Sports Communicators Academic All-America At-Large honors, including first team in 2022 and 2021 and third team in 2020. She was inducted into the Psi Chi and Phi Kappa Phi national honor societies in 2021. On campus, Gilbert served on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and was co-president of the Rehabilitation Therapy Club and vice president of the Circle K International club. She also volunteered as a tutor for Teaching Buddies, a nonprofit created to help low-income Chicago students with pandemic-induced learning difficulties.
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.
