Swimming & Diving | 4/9/2021 10:34:00 AM
MINNEAPOLIS – Redshirt senior and four-time NCAA Champion Sarah Bacon has been named a finalist for the Honda Sport Award for swimming and diving as announced by the Collegiate Women Sports Award (CWSA) Friday morning.
“I am so honored to be a finalist for the Honda Sports Award,” said Bacon. “Being nominated for this amongst other tremendous female student-athletes is an amazing honor!”
The group of 2021 finalists she’s among is an impressive bunch, as the four finalists consist of Bacon, Michigan’s Maggie MacNeil, NC State’s Sophie Hansson and Virginia’s Paige Madden.
The Honda Sports Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 45 years to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics”. The winner of the sport award becomes a finalist for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the prestigious 2021 Honda Cup, which will be presented on a telecast on CBS Sports Network on Monday, June 28 at 8 p.m. CT.
Bacon earned her first career finalist nod for the award due largely to her incredible performance at this year’s 2021 NCAA Championships, where the Indianapolis, Ind. native set history on multiple levels. The first of which came when she claimed gold on the one-meter springboard, effectively winning her third straight title in the event and becoming only the third Minnesota student-athlete in history to accomplish a three-peat at the national level.
Securing her second title of the championships a day later on the three-meter springboard, Bacon became only the second member in the history of the Minnesota Swimming & Diving program to win multiple events in one year’s NCAA Championships. Most impressively, Bacon’s pair of titles brings her NCAA Championship title count up to four over her tremendous career, making her the winningest woman in any sport in Minnesota history.
“This is a huge honor for Sarah and our program,” said head coach Kelly Kremer, “as has been the case with her since we’ve known her. She has earned everything that comes her way and we couldn’t be more proud.”
Apart from the finalist nod for this top award, Bacon had also been previously named both the Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) and Big Ten Conference Diver of the Year for her performance on the national stage.
With Bacon’s collegiate career now wrapped up, the former Minnesota diving captain has her eyes set on representing the United States at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics later this summer. She will graduate from the University of Minnesota this spring with a degree in Kinesiology.
The swimming & diving finalists were selected by a panel of coaches and experts from the Collegiate Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA). The Honda Sport award winner for swimming & diving will be announced next week after voting by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools has commenced.
