USC Track & Field's Anna Cockrell Named Co-Winner Of 2021 Pac-12 Woman Of The Year Award
Olympian and 2021 NCAA 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles champion Anna Cockrell was named co-winner of the 2021 Pac-12 Woman of the Year Award, presented annually to a graduating student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate career in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, community service and leadership. The Pac-12 announced Cockrell and Sage Hurta of Colorado as the co-Woman of the Year winners today (Aug. 20) and Cockrell becomes USC's second student-athlete to earn this honor, joining Anika Apostalon (swimming) who was chosen in 2017. Cockrell is now nominated by the Pac-12 to be considered for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Cockrell, a 12-time All-American, represented USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and reached the finals of the women's 400m hurdles. She finished third in the event at the U.S. Olympic Trials by breaking her own school record with a time of 53.70 to advance to the Tokyo Games. Reaching the Olympic finals capped an amazing season in which Cockrell won the NCAA 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles to help lead USC to its second team title in the last three seasons. She also became just the second woman athlete to ever win the 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles in the same season (Queen Harrison of Virginia Tech, 2010). Cockrell originally set the school 400m hurdles record with a time of 54.68 in the NCAA finals.
The Charlotte, N.C. native also won the Pac-12 100m hurdles and 400m hurdles titles which helped lead USC to its third consecutive conference team championship. Cockrell won her third consecutive Pac-12 400m hurdles title after taking second as a freshman and she finished in the top three all four years in the 100m hurdles at the conference meet.
Cockrell also repeated as both CoSIDA Academic Team Member of the Year for Track & Field and Academic All-America first team. She is the only Trojan to be named Team Member of the Year since the inception of the honor in 1996. The four-year captain was also named the 2021 Pac-12 Woman's Track and Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Cockrell also was named the 2021 Honda Sports Award winner for Track and Field and was a 2021 Pac-12 Tom Hansen Medal winner.
Cockrell earned a Master's in Public Policy, Certificate in Public Policy Advocacy (4.00 GPA), after earning undergraduate degree in Communication with a minor in Political Science (3.98 GPA).
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their schools, then each conference office reviews the nominations from its members and submits a conference nominee to the NCAA. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will now choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division — from the conference-level nominees. The Top 30 honorees will be announced in September. The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30, and the nine finalists will be announced this fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year.
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