The Honda Sports Award acknowledges athletic achievement as well as scholastics and community involvement, and is given to female athletes in 12 different NCAA-sanctioned sports throughout the year.
In the fall, athletes are honored for their achievements in sports including soccer, volleyball and cross country. In winter, gymnastics, basketball, swimming and diving, and in spring, lacrosse, softball, golf, tennis and track and field.
Each Honda Sports Award winner is recognized as the top collegiate female athlete in her sport, and the award is considered by many as one of the highest honors a female college athlete can receive in the nation.
Sun Devil Athletics has had eight winners. Read about each winner below.
Melissa Belote Ripley, swimming (1973-77)
Melissa Belote Ripley was the first Sun Devil recipient of the Honda Sports Award. She majored in communications at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and is regarded as one of the greatest American swimmers of all time for her accomplishments in both collegiate and Olympic competition. While at Arizona State, she won six individual National Collegiate Swimming Championships, leading the university to two national championships. A four-year All-American, she earned the esteemed Broderick Award in 1977 as the most outstanding women’s collegiate swimmer in the country. She earned three gold medals for the United States swim team at the 1972 Olympics and set an American record for the 200-meter backstroke. She was later selected to the U.S. Swimming “Team of the Century” in 1999.
Kellee Booth, women's golf (1995-98)
Kelle Booth was the 1997 Honda Sports Award winner for women’s golf. Kellee majored in Management at the W. P. Carey School of Business. She was an integral part of the Arizona State team that won three National titles during her time (1995, '97, '98). Booth was inducted into the 2010 Sun Devil Athletics Hall of Fame and is one of only two Sun Devils to be named a four-time All-American. Booth represented her country as a member of the 1996 and 1998 U.S. Curtis Cup and World Amateur teams. She got it done on and off the field, as she was a three-time Academic All-American (1996-98) and four-time Pac-10 All-Conference First Team selection. She left Tempe as one of the most decorated golfers to ever wear the Maroon and Gold.
Jeri Cameron-Vanyek, gymnastics (1980-83)
Jeri Cameron-Vanyek is the lone Honda Sports Award winner in the history of Sun Devil Gymnastics. She earned her degree in physical education from the College of Education. She led the Sun Devils to their first women’s gymnastics national championship in 1983, competing in her best event, the uneven bars. She competed in women’s gymnastics from 1980-83, earning All-American honors in each of her three seasons. A four-time All-WCAA selection, Cameron-Vanyek won WCAA championships in four events in 1982 and the floor exercise title in 1983.
Maggie Ewen, track and field (2015-18)
Maggie Ewen won the 2018 Honda Sports Award for Women’s Track and Field. She majored in Exercise and Wellness (Fitness and Wellness Specialist) and minored in Nutrition and Healthy Living from the College of Health Solutions. In her first season of competition, Ewen earned All-Conference honors in the weight throw and shot put indoors, and the discus, shot put, and hammer throw outdoors before advancing to the NCAA Championships in the discus and shot put. She earned her first two first-team All-America honors the following year in the spring of 2016 when she scored in the discus and finished fifth in the hammer throw, while taking 19th in the shot put.
She is a four-time NCAA champion in discus throw, outdoor shot put, indoor shot put, and hammer throw. She held four Arizona State records and broke national records in both hammer throw and outdoor shot put. Ewen was an 11-time conference champion across five events. Maggie went on to win a gold medal in shot put and a bronze medal in discus at the 2018 NACAC Championships in Toronto. Her collegiate career showcased one of the most historically dominant stretches in Arizona State athletics.
Jacquelyn Johnson, track and field (2004-07)
Jacquelyn Johnson earned the Honda Sports Award in 2008. She majored in Kinesiology from the College of Health Solutions. The five-time NCAA champion was also the Pac-10 Track and Field Newcomer of the Year and earned six All-America honors in three years.
She competed in ten separate Track and Field events during her time at ASU, posting many top scores across her events. She was a multi-sport athlete who earned a spot on the women’s basketball team in her second year with Arizona State. The two-time Maroon and Gold Scholar-Athlete is one of the most decorated Track and Field athletes in ASU history.
Grace Park, women's golf (1997-99)
Grace Park was the third golfer in program history to win the Honda Sports Award in the 1998 season. She attended Arizona State from 1997 to 1999 before graduating from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, South Korea, in 2003. During her time at ASU, the two-time first team All-American turned in top 10 finishes in 16 of the 19 tournaments she appeared in with a 72.75 stroke average. She was the 1998 Rolex/Dudley College Player of the Year and helped ASU to its second straight NCAA Championship.
Monica Vaughn, women's golf (2013-17)
Monica Vaughn represents the latest female athlete for ASU to be commended with the Honda Sport Award for golf (2017). Monica majored in Communication at The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She set the program record for most individual championships in women’s golf. At the PING/ASU Invitational, she posted a record low round of 8-under 64.
Vaughn completed her senior season with a 71.53 stroke average and finished her career with five top-three finishes in her last six tournaments. She ended her career as the Pac-12 Women’s Golfer of the Year alongside numerous other performance and academic awards.
Wendy Ward, women's golf (1993-95)
Wendy Ward was the first Sun Devil women’s golfer to be honored as a Honda Sports Award, and the only two-time recipient of the prestigious award in ASU history (1994-95). Wendy majored in management at the W. P. Carey School of Business.
She is a three-time All-American and helped lead ASU to three consecutive national titles in the mid-’90s. Ward became the eighth Sun Devil to be inducted into the NGCA Hall of Fame after being awarded the NCGA Player of the Year in ‘94 and ‘95. She won her first LPGA event in 1997 and now ranks 36th on the tour’s all-time money list.