Lee Named Co-Pac-12 Woman of the Year
July 31, 2018 | Gymnastics
UCLA gymnast Christine Peng-Peng Lee has been selected by the Pac-12 Conference as its Co-Woman of the Year award winner, along with Stanford track and field's Valarie Allman. This is the first time in the history of the award that the conference has selected co-winners. The women become the Conference's candidates for the NCAA Woman of the Year, presented annually to a graduating student-athlete who has distinguished herself throughout her collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletic excellence, community service and leadership.
Lee won the Honda Sport Award for gymnastics after a remarkable 2018 season in which she captured the Pac-12 and NCAA balance beam titles and clinched UCLA's seventh NCAA team title by scoring a perfect 10 on the balance beam on the last routine of the night. The perfect 10 marked her second in as many events at the Championships, as she also scored a 10.0 on the uneven bars. She finished her career with 10 perfect 10s, including seven in 2018, nine All-America honors and a multitude of individual honors, including 2017 Pac-12 Specialist of the Year and 2017 West Region Gymnast of the Year.
She excelled in the classroom as well, graduating with a 3.48 GPA in Sociology with minors in Theater and Entrepreneurship. Lee was selected the 2018 Pac-12 Gymnastics Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as well as a two-time NACGC/W Scholastic All-American and four-time Pac-12 All-Academic selection.
In addition to her athletic and academic accolades, Lee volunteered her time at the Prime Time Games, Dribble for the Cure, I'm Going to College and Mattel Children's Hospital and served one year on the Bruin Athletic Council.
Lee is just the second Bruin and second gymnast to earn the Pac-12 Woman of the Year honor, joining fellow Canadian Bruin Kate Richardson, who won in 2006.
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. From that pool, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee selects the Top 30 – 10 from each division. From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three nominees from each division and announces those nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.
The top 30 honorees will be recognized, and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be named, at the annual award ceremony on Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.
Players Mentioned
