Kristen Maloney is going to have to make a little more room on
what must be an already award-cluttered mantle at home.
After receiving the Gymnast of the Year award everywhere from
“Sports Illustrated on Campus” to the West Region, the
first-team All-American was presented with the Honda Award for
gymnastics, which is annually awarded to the nation’s top
gymnast. The award was voted on by 1,000 NCAA member schools as
part of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards program.
The two-time all-around U.S. champion dominated the competition
this past gymnastics season, holding the top national ranking for
the final 10 weeks. This past season, Maloney came away with the
all-around title at the Pac-10 meet and vault, beam and floor
titles at the West Regional meet.
At the NCAA Championships, Maloney put an exclamation point on
the season and her collegiate gymnastics career by earning beam and
vault crowns and finishing second in the all-around
competition.
The former U.S. Olympian accomplished several rare feats
throughout the season, becoming the first Bruin ever to record a
10.0 on all four events throughout her career at UCLA, an
accomplishment only three other gymnasts in the history of NCAA
competition can lay claim to.
“She is a legend,” coach Valorie Kondos Field said.
“Both her toughness and integrity have been impeccable
throughout her entire gymnastic career.”
A fifth-year senior, Maloney showed the collegiate gymnastics
world what it will be missing by dazzling the NCAA Championship
crowd at Auburn, Ala., with the first-ever double layout full-out
in NCAA history on floor exercise.
She also performed a laid-out double-twisting Yurchenko on
vault, a skill which had been displayed only once before.
But Maloney hopes not to be remembered solely for her rare
talents, but also for the simpler aspects that make her the gymnast
she is.
“Hopefully people will remember me as someone who trains
hard, takes her gymnastics seriously, loves to compete, and would
do anything for her team,” Maloney said.
By winning the Honda Award, Maloney is automatically entered
into the running for the Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year
Award, which includes the Honda winners for basketball, volleyball,
field hockey, soccer, cross-country, swimming, golf, lacrosse,
softball, tennis and track and field.