Finn Chosen as Honda Award Finalist
11/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Nov. 28, 2016
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Senior Erin Finn of the national runner-up University of Michigan women's cross country team was recognized as one of four finalists for the Honda Award, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA) announced on Monday (Nov. 28). Finn looks to become the second Wolverine to earn the honor, following Katie McGregor in 1998-99. Tiffany Ofili (2008-09) has also won the award as part of Michigan's track and field program.
For Finn, this recognition comes by virtue of her runner-up finish at the NCAA Championships. By finishing second in 19:44.2, she led U-M for the 21st consecutive race to finish her career and helped the team match its best-ever placing with a second-place team finish, concluding one of the most decorated careers in Michigan cross country history. She won 12 races during her career and is only the second woman to ever lead U-M in all three postseason meets (Big Ten Championship, Regional Championship, NCAA Championship) in each year she competed in them.
Earlier this fall, Finn collected her first career individual honor at the regional level when she became the program's first regional champion since Danielle Tauro in 2011. That recognition produced her Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year accolade, the first in her career, and came after Finn collected her third career Big Ten Athlete of the Year award.
She is the only Big Ten woman to have ever won multiple championships at 6,000 meters (three), and she is the first repeat champion of any kind in the Big Ten since 1999-2000. She is the first and only competitor to win three non-consecutive titles at the Big Ten Championships -- at any distance.
The West Bloomfield, Michigan, native, and biochemistry major is also Michigan's first repeat conference champion since Katie McGregor (1997-98) and the first Wolverine to win the individual Big Ten title while leading Michigan to a team win since Rebecca Walter in 2003.
The four finalists are determined by top-four finishes at the 2016 NCAA Cross Country Championship. The winner will automatically become a finalist for the Collegiate Woman of the Year and the 2017 Honda Cup, which will be presented in a live telecast on Monday, June 26, 2017, in Los Angeles, California.
During the week, more than 1,000 administrators from NCAA member schools will vote for one of the four finalists and the Honda Sport Award winner will be announced later in the week.
Communications Contact: Chad Shepard
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