Ashley Miles Named National Collegiate Gymnast of the Year
5/4/2006 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
Ashley Miles, a University of Alabama senior, has been chosen the nation’s top collegiate female gymnast for 2006. The honor was based on the results of national balloting among 1,000 NCAA member schools as part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, now in its 30th year.
Miles’ victory will earn her the Honda Award, given annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports, along with automatic nomination for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year. She was voted over three other nominees: Courtney Kupets, a freshman at The University of Georgia, Ashley Postell, a sophomore at The University of Utah, and Kate Richardson, a senior at The University of California at Los Angeles. The candidates were selected by the National Association of Collegiate Gymnastics Coaches.
Miles won her third NCAA vault title this year, making her only the second gymnast in NCAA history, and first in over twenty years, to win a trio of vault titles. It was her fourth overall NCAA title (vault 2003, 2004 and 2005; floor exercise 2004). As a senior, Miles earned All-American honors in the all-around, vault and floor exercise, pushing her career total to 12, all of which are first team honors. She also won the NCAA West Region floor exercise and vault titles in 2006, closing out her career with four consecutive regional wins on both those events.
By winning the Southeastern Conference floor exercise championship last month she became the first gymnast in SEC history to win a single event four years in a row. As the 2006 NCAA Central Region Gymnast of the Year, she finished her career with twenty postseason championships, including four NCAA, six SEC and ten NCAA Regional championships.
Previously announced Honda Award recipients include Seimone Augustus of Louisiana State University for Basketball, Mary DeScenza and Christine Sinclair of the University of Portland for swimming and soccer respectively, Courtney Thompson of the University of Washington for volleyball, Caroline Bierbaum of Columbia University for cross-country and Paula Infante of the University of Maryland for field hockey. Honda Award winners in golf, lacrosse, softball, tennis, and track and field will be announced in the coming months.
The Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year will be determined by separate balloting involving all NCAA-member institutions and the winner will receive the Honda-Broderick Cup in New York in late June 2006.
American Honda Motor Co., Inc. sponsors the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Program.
