Aliyah Boston continues her dominance through collegiate sports. She is already the consensus 2022 National Player of the Year, 2022 unanimous first-team All-American, won the Naismith Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year award and now she’s the Collegiate Women’s Sports Award Honda Cup award winner.
Boston along with eleven other nominees all won the Honda Award in their respective sports throughout the year.
The four fall sport Honda Award winners:
Senior Jill Bolton, Liberty University field hockey
Senior Jaelin Howell, Florida State University soccer
Senior Whittni Orton, Brigham Young University cross country
Senior Dana Rettke, University of Wisconsin volleyball
The three winter sport Honda Award winners:
Junior Aliyah Boston, University of South Carolina basketball
Junior Kate Douglass, University of Virginia swimming & diving
Senior Trinity Thomas, University of Florida gymnastics
The five spring sport Honda Award winners:
Redshirt senior Jocelyn Alo, University of Oklahoma softball
Senior Jamie Ortega, University of North Carolina lacrosse
Senior Abby Steiner, University of Kentucky track & field
Sophomore Peyton Stearns, University of Texas tennis
Freshman Rose Zhang, Stanford University golf
The top three candidates for the Honda Cup were Jocelyn Alo, Trinity Thomas, and Boston.
Alo finished her 2022 season with 34 home runs in 62 games as well as 84 runs on 85 hits. She averaged .515 on the season. Alo has completely written the books for collegiate softball and her legacy will live on forever.
Thomas holds the University of Florida record in the vault, bars, beam, floor, and All-Around (AA) scores having recorded perfect 10.0 twenty times in her collegiate career. She also recorded the highest AA score in the nation in 2022 and the fifth-highest all-time with a score of 39.90. Thomas was the only competitor with five All-Ameican first-team honors at an NCAA meet while winning the NCAA team final vault with a 9.975, bars with another 9.975, floor with a 10.0, and the all-around competition with a score of 39.8625. Thomas also revealed that she will be returning to the University of Florida for her fifth year.
Boston led South Carolina to their second-ever national championship after defeating the University of Connecticut 64-49. She averaged 16.8 points per game, 12.5 rebounds per game, and 2.0 assists per game.
Boston has absolutely dominated college basketball the past two years and seeing her win yet another award is no surprise. She is the first basketball player to win the Honda Cup since Breanna Stewart in 2016.
The CWSA also gives out awards to the Division II and Division III best collegiate athletes.
The DII Honda Athlete of the Year was Shippensburg field hockey player Jazmin Petrantonio.
Petrantonio scored 37 goals and recorded 10 assists on Shippensburg’s way to their fifth DII National Championship. She scored 106 career goals with the Raiders putting her third all-time in NCAA Division II history. Petrantonio is also a two-time Longstreth/NFHCA National Player of the Year in 2018 and 2021.
The DIII Honda Athlete of the Year was Middlebury field hockey player, Erin Nicholas.
Nicholas scored 28 goals and 8 assists while leading her team to their eighth national championship. She has scored 65 goals and recorded 31 assists in her career and racked up 161 points. She is the two-time NFHCA National Player of the Year in 2019 and 2018 while also being the three-time NESCAC Player of the Year in 2021, 2019, and 2018.
The CWSA also recognized the Class of 2022 Honda Inspiration Award winner Lauren Thibodeau of University of Louisville golf. Thibodeau overcame multiple medical struggles that forced her into the hospital.
She had been diagnosed with celiac disease and when going home for Thanksgiving in 2020, things turned even worse. Thibodeau was admitted to the hospital in December where she was told she has ulcerative colitis which is a chronic disease of the large intestine. She was given two options: try one more medication or remove her colon. Thibodeau chose the medication but had some unusual reactions to it leading to one last resort known as electroconvulsive therapy where you shock the brain to trigger a seizure. She was able to return to competing at Louisville for her senior season.
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