Conference Nominees for 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year

11 swimmers have been selected as conference nominees for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year award. A total of 161 conference nominees from 21 different sports have been selected from the pool of 605 school nominees.

Notable swimming names include Silja Kansakoski, PAC-12 100 breast champion at ASU and member of the Finnish National team, Asia Seidt, the most decorated student-athlete in the history of University of Kentucky’s swim and dive team, and Raena Eldridge, the 2020 recipient of the Arthur Ashe, Jr. Female Sports Scholar of the Year award.

In 2018 Kansakoski earned the Bill Kajikawa award for her excellence in and out of the pool. Now graduated with a degree in chemistry, she holds four event records at ASU including all of the top ten best times for both the 100 and 200 breast.

Seidt is a two-time Olympic trial qualifier and two-time USA National Team member. During her time at UK she earned not only a degree in Kinesiology, but 21 All-America honors, 15 SEC Championships, and four conference titles.

Eldridge just graduated with a degree in animal science and genetics, with a business minor. During her swim career as an Aggie she was a two-time team captain and she started a nonprofit organization that teaches swimming and swim safety called SPLASH.

Another recognizable nominee is Alison Gibson, a diver at the University of Texas at Austin who represented the US at the FINA World Championships in 2017 and 2019. Gibson also holds the title of 2017 NCAA Champion in the 1-meter. Off the board, Gibson is a three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree. She is one of two divers nominated, alongside Talisa Lemke, a four-time qualifier for the NCAA Diving Zones from Bowling Green State University who holds a total of five conference titles. This past season, Lemke was selected as MAC Diver of the Year and MAC Distinguished Scholar-Athlete. 

Among the aquatic athlete nominees are also two water polo players. Victoria Wilson, a 2020 Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year, finished first on the Cal State University Northridge team with 32 goals and 35 steals. Tara Prentice, also a 2020 Big West Scholar Athlete of the Year honoree, who led the University of California, Irvine water polo team with 57 goals in the shortened 2020 season.

Moving forward, the NCAA will announce the Top 30 honorees, 10 from each division, in September. The nominees will be narrowed down to 3 women from each division before the NCAA will announce the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year in the fall, based on her academic achievements, athletics excellence, community service, and leadership.

FULL LIST OF AQUATIC ATHLETE NOMINEES

• Raena Eldridge – Texas A&M University, College Station Swimming
• Rebecca Erwin – Birmingham-Southern College Swimming
• Alison Gibson – University of Texas at Austin Diving
• Emily Hageboeck – Washington and Lee University Swimming
• Asimina Hamakiotes – Baruch College Swimming
• Madelyn Hoying – Duquesne University Swimming
• Mary Johnson – Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania Swimming
• Silja Kansakoski – Arizona State University Swimming
• Alexa Kutch – Drexel University Swimming
• Talisa Lemke – Bowling Green State University Diving
• Teresa Narduzzi – Saint Francis University (Pennsylvania) Swimming
• Tara Prentice – University of California, Irvine Water Polo
• Asia Seidt – University of Kentucky Swimming
• Malavika Vishwanath – Drew University Swimming
• Victoria Wilson – California State University, Northridge Water Polo

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES