Jeana Rice Wins Honda-Broderick Gymnastics Award
4/27/2004 12:00:00 AM | Gymnastics
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For the fifth time since 1985, an Alabama athlete has earned the Honda Award for Gymnastics.
Senior Jeana Rice, who won the NCAA All-Around title at the recent national championships, earned the award that denotes the nation’s top gymnast. The Longwood, Fla. native is now eligible for the Honda-Broderick Cup, given annually to the nation’s top female student-athlete. Rice and 11 other sports winners, will gather in New York, NY June 21 when the Cup winner will be announced.
“It tops of this season and my career,” Rice said. “I’ve been doing this since I was little and I finally feel I can step away from gymnastics because I’ve accomplished everything that I wanted to accomplish. I feel complete in this aspect of my life. I can move on without looking back.”
“It’s pretty amazing to look at the list of winners from all the sports,” Rice said. “To realize that this award has gone to people like Mia Hamm and Jackie Joyner, it’s really amazing. And it’s great to recognized with athletes from the different sports, I think that’s pretty neat.”
Alabama’s five Honda Award for gymnastics winners is tied for the most by one school in the 28 year history of the award. Previous Alabama winners include Penney Hauschild (1985 and 1986) and Dee Dee Foster (1993) and Andre? Pickens (2002).
“We are extremely proud of Jeana and what she has accomplished,” assistant head coach David Patterson said. “She has competed at the highest level throughout her career. She leaves Alabama with an NCAA team championship, an individual NCAA championship and an NCAA record 18 All-American honors; to be honored with the Honda Award is a fitting end to a truly great four years.”
In addition to earning Alabama’s fifth Honda Award, Rice captured the school’s 15th individual NCAA title and fifth NCAA All-Around title.
“Jeana Rice has enjoyed a tremendous career at Alabama and we are very proud of her latest accomplishment,” Alabama Director of Athletics Mal Moore said. “She continues the Crimson Tide’s long standing tradition of highly successful gymnasts, and we appreciate the positive national recognition that she has brought to herself, her family and The University of Alabama.”
This season, Rice earned a postseason ‘triple crown’, winning the all-around at the Southeastern Conference Championships, the NCAA West Region Championships and the NCAA Championships. She also earned five All-American honors on the season and set an SEC Championship record in the all-around with a career best 39.850. Rice was second on the balance beam at the NCAA Championships and won the SEC vault and uneven bars titles as well as the NCAA West Region uneven bars championship. She was named Alabama’s MVP and co-captain in 2004.
For her career, Rice earned an NCAA record 18 All-American honors in addition to leading Alabama to the 2002 NCAA Championship and the 2003 SEC Championship. She finished in the top-6 of the NCAA All-Around competition each of her four years and finished in top-3 of the balance beam competition as a sophomore, junior and senior.
She collected six individual SEC titles, including back-to-back all-around titles as a junior and senior. In NCAA Regional Championship competition Rice won seven individual titles including three all-around championships.
