Florida’s Kytra Hunter is among final four for 2015 Honda Award
Tuesday, April 21, 2015 | Gymnastics
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – University of Florida senior Kytra Hunter is among the final four candidates for gymnastics' Honda Award. She became the first Gator in 30 years to receive the Honda Award for gymnasts as a freshman in 2012.
| 2015 Honda Award Nominees (Gymnastics) | |
| Georgia Dabritz | Utah |
| Kytra Hunter | Florida |
| Lindsay Mable | Minnesota |
| Samantha Peszek | UCLA |
Hunter closed her senior season last weekend in memorable fashion, winning a national title each day of the three-day meet. She opened NCAA Championship action Friday by tying with UCLA's Samantha Peszek for the NCAA all-around title. Then Saturday, she helped the Gators win their third consecutive NCAA team title. She finished the weekend – and her collegiate career – with a stellar routine Sunday to claim the NCAA floor exercise crown.
Here's some more highlights from Hunter's 2015 season:
· The two individual NCAA event wins along with her pair of wins as a freshman gives her the Florida record for career NCAA event titles (4).
· First Gator to repeat as NCAA all-around champion (2012, 2015). First Gator to win NCAA floor title since Maria Anz in 1985.
· At NCAA Championships, added four All-America honors to bring her career total to 25 All-America honors (15 NCAA / 10 NACGC Regular Season). The 15 All-America honors in NCAA competition is a school record.
· Southeastern Conference Gymnast of the Year – first such honor for UF since 2000
· NACGC Southeast Region Gymnast of the Year
· Led team with 24 event titles (nine all-around, floor, four vault, two beam)
· Shared SEC vault (9.95) and floor exercise (9.975) titles. Seven league titles is UF career record. One of five in 35-year history of SEC Championships to win league event titles every year of collegiate career.
· No. 3 all-time among Gators in career event titles (83). All-time leader in vault (21) and floor (32) wins. All-around wins total (21) is third all-time among the Gators.
The Honda Sports Award is presented annually by the CWSA 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 2015 Honda Cup. The nominees were chosen by a group of experts representing the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches/Women (NACGCW).
The CWSA presents the Honda Sports Award annually to top women student-athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports. Honda Sports award winners will be presented with the honor during on-campus presentations throughout the year and all Honda Sports award winners become a finalist for the prestigious 2015 Honda Cup award. The Cup is presented on a live televised broadcast from Los Angeles on June 29.
The Collegiate Women Sports Awards has honored the nation's top NCAA women athletes for 39 years, recognizing superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service. Since commencing its sponsorship in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women's athletics programs at the institutions.
Three different Gator gymnasts have received the sport's Honda Award – Ann Woods (1982), Hunter (2012) and Bridget Sloan (2013).
