Sarah Bacon from the University of Minnesota, NC State University’s Sophie Hansson, Maggie MacNeil of the University of Michigan and Paige Madden from Virginia University are the four finalists for the Class of 2021 Honda Sport Award for Swimming & Diving as announced by Chris Voelz, Executive Director of THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) today.

The Honda Sport 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 June 28^th, at 9 pm ET.

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. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.  

Bacon, a redshirt-senior diver from Indianapolis, Ind., is the two-time Big Ten Diver of the Year and was named the 2021 CSCAA Division I Women’s Diver of the Year. She is a four-time NCAA diving champion, including sweeping the springboard diving events at this year’s championship meet. The eight-time CSCAA All-American, she finishes her career as the winningest woman in Minnesota school history in any sport.

Hansson is a junior hailing from Helsingborg, Sweden, and was the 2021 NCAA Champion in the 200 and 100-yard breaststroke. Overall, she is a four-time NCAA champion including her two relay titles. She led NC State to a runner-up finish at the NCAA Championship which is the best finish in program history. She is a 17-time CSCAA All-American and a 12-time ACC Champion.

MacNeil is a two-time Honda Award finalist and the two-time Big Ten Swimmer of the Year. The junior from London, Ontario, Canada, was also recently named the 2021 CSCAA Swimmer of the Year. She captured two titles at the 2021 NCAA Championships and set a NCAA record in the 100-yard butterfly, becoming the first woman in history under 49 seconds. She boasts 19 CSCAA All-American titles.

Madden, a senior from Mobile, Ala., is a two-time ACC Swimmer of the Year and of the Meet. She led Virginia to its first-ever NCAA Championship title in 2021 after capturing three individual races and one relay title, the most of any swimmer at the meet. She holds 14 CSCAA All-America honors and is a 13-time ACC Champion. Recently, she was named the 2021 Weaver-James-Corrigan ACC Postgraduate Scholarship Award recipient.

The CWSA, celebrating its 45th anniversary year, has honored the nation’s top NCAA women athletes for their superior athletic skills, leadership, academic excellence and eagerness to participate in community service.  Since commencing its partnership in 1986, Honda has provided more than $3.4 million in institutional grants to the universities of the award winners and nominees to support women’s athletics programs.