INDIANAPOLIS, IND. – Former Queens University of Charlotte women's swimmer Kayla Tennant has been named a finalist for the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year, as officially announced by the NCAA on Thursday afternoon. After graduating last May, Tennant becomes the first Royal in Queens Athletics history to reach the final nine of this prestigious honor.
 
"Kayla has an amazing story of overcoming adversity, never giving up, and GRIT," said Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Planning and Leadership Development and Director of Swimming Operations, Jeff Dugdale. "Kayla is a leader built for life."
 
Kayla Tennant was a three-time individual national champion, winning the 400-yard freestyle relay in 2022 and the 200 and 400 medley relays in 2021. She led her team to three national championships and earned 11 Coaches Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America All-America honors, including seven first-team recognitions. The 18-time All-Bluegrass Mountain Conference honoree won six individual conference titles, helping her team claim four conference championships. Tennant holds the school record for the 100-yard butterfly.
 
A summa cum laude graduate, Tennant received two first-team College Sports Communicators Academic All-American At-Large recognitions. Tennant was a finalist for the 2022 NCAA Walter Byers Graduate Scholarship and a recipient of a 2022 NCAA Elite 90 Award, presented to the student-athlete with the highest grade-point average competing at an NCAA championship finals site. 
 
The 2022 Queen's Outstanding Student in Biology and Outstanding Student in Psychology has published research on student-athletes' social supports during the pandemic and the genome annotation of novel bacteriophages. Tennant was a team captain and served as secretary of Unified Royals, promoting inclusion for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. As a volunteer, she assisted with care for children with developmental disabilities and behavioral disorders, patients in pediatric cardiac intensive care and adults in a medically underserved area needing specialty cardiac care. 
 
Of 577 student-athletes nominated for this award, 156 student-athletes were selected as conference-level nominees. That pool of student-athletes was narrowed to the national Top 30 honorees. On Jan. 12, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated during a luncheon at the NCAA Convention in San Antonio. There, the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named.

Fans can read more about the other finalists by visiting the NCAA website.