UCLA gymnast Mohini Bhardwaj, who captured the NCAA championship on the floor exercise (9.9630), while leading the Bruins to a second consecutive NCAA team title, has been named winner of the Honda Award as the top woman collegiate athlete in her sport for the 2000-2001 collegiate year, according to the results of national balloting among NCAA-member schools.
As the Honda Award winner for gymnastics, Bhardwaj, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio (Alexander Smith Academy), clinched the NCAA title for her team with a 9.9 on the beam, while ranking third in the all-around and fifth on the uneven bars. Her phenomenal 2001 season saw the 11-time All-American and winner of the AAI American Award for the nation's top senior gymnast put her name in UCLA's record books by scoring a 39.975 in the all-around, which was the second-highest all-around score in NCAA history. She reached perfection several times this past season, setting school marks for most 10s in a season (eight), most career perfect 10s (eight), and most 10s in a meet (three). Bhardwaj also won the all-around titles at the Pac 10 Conference and Western Regional meets and led UCLA with 23 individual victories. She was named the gymnast of the year in the region and conference.
Previous Honda Award winners for gymnastics include Oklahoma's Kelly Garrison-Steves (1987, 1988), Utah's Missy Marlowe (1992), Kentucky's Jenny Hansen (1994, 1995, 1996) and Georgia's Kim Arnold (1997, 1998). Marlowe is the only gymnast ever to win the Honda-Broderick Cup, honoring the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year.
Bhardwaj will be joined later this year by other women collegiate athletes voted as the most outstanding in the sports of golf, lacrosse, softball, tennis, and track & field, plus previously announced winners Greichaly Cepero (volleyball) of Nebraska, Marina DiGiacomo (field hockey) of Old Dominion, Kara Grgas-Wheeler (cross country) of Colorado, Meredith Florance (soccer) of North Carolina, Misty Hyman (swimming and diving) of Stanford, and Jackie Stiles (basketball) of Southwest Missouri State. All Honda Award winners are automatically nominated for Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year honors.
The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year will be determined by separate balloting involving all NCAA-member institutions. The announcement of the winner and presentation of the Honda-Broderick Cup will be made at the 25th annual Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year banquet, June 11 at Salt Lake City, Utah, site of the 2001 National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Convention.
American Honda Motor Co., Inc. sponsors the awards program.
