Abby McCulloh Lone Aquatic Finalist for NCAA Woman of the Year
Georgia’s Abby McCulloh is the lone aquatic athlete to be named among the 30 finalists for NCAA Woman of the Year announced this week.
McCulloh won the NCAA title in the 1,650 freestyle last year in her home pool. She was also the SEC champion in the event, to go with a silver and two bronze medals at the conference meet.
A team captain, she represented swimming on the UGA Athletic Association board of directors, with a role in advocating for the preservation of non-revenue sports in Washington. She founded the Performance and Wellness Support Committee in Athens for mental healthy programming and advocacy.
A two-time SEC Women’s Swimming and Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, she received the SEC H. Boyd McWhorter Women’s Scholar-Athlete of the Year award as well as the Rose Bowl Keith Jackson Postgraduate Scholarship. She majored in journalism.
Her community service work included at local churches and with Swim Across America and Special Olympics. She was named to the SEC Community Service Team and nominated for the Allstate National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics Good Works Team.
The award, established in 1991, recognizes distinguished female athletes in their community and academics as well as athletics. This year include 631 nominees, reduced to 167 at the conference level. The top 30 honorees include 10 from each division across 14 championship sports and two emerging sports. They will go to the Woman of the Year Selection Committee, with the winner to be declared in January.
“These honorees represent the very best of what it means to be a student-athlete, and the character-building potential that is inherent in all athletic pursuits. They have distinguished themselves among the many thousands of collegiate athletes who find and surpass their limits every day on the journey to becoming their best selves, not just in sport, but in life,” said Marion Terenzio, chair of the Woman of the Year Selection Committee and president of SUNY Cobleskill. “I congratulate all of the remarkable women named to the Top 30 and applaud their demonstrated ability to create positive change in themselves and in the world around them.”
A swimmer won last year’s award, Alexandra Turvey of Pomona College. Other recent aquatics winners include Kentucky’s Asia Seidt in 2020, Margaret Guo of MIT in 2016 and Clarion University’s Kristin Day in 2015.
Georgia has won the award four times, tied for the most. It includes swimmers Lisa Coole (1997), Kristy Kowal (2000) and Kimberly A. Black (2000). Its last winner was track and field athlete Keturah Orji in 2018.
Among the higher profile athletes nominated this year are UConn (now professional) basketball player Paige Bueckers and ACC cross country champion Grace Hartman of NC State.
