Georgia's Abby McCulloh Wins 2nd Straight SEC Women's Scholar Athlete of the Year Award
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By Madeline Folsom on SwimSwam
2025 SEC Championships
- Dates: Tuesday, February 18–Saturday, February 22
- Prelims: 9:30 am EST/ Finals 5:30 pm EST (Tuesday-5:00 EST)
- Location: Gabrielsen Natatorium — Athens, GA
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- Teams: Alabama, Arkansas (women), Auburn, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, LSU, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas*, Texas A&M, Vanderbilt (women)
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Courtesy UGA Athletics:
ATHENS, Ga. – University of Georgia senior Abby McCulloh was named the 2025 Southeastern Conference Women’s Swimming & Diving Scholar-Athlete of the Year, as announced by the conference Friday evening prior to the fifth night of the SEC Championships at Bauerle Pool at Gabrielsen Natatorium.
McCulloh, who shared the honor last season with Chloe Stepanek of Texas A&M, is the eighth Georgia woman and 11th Bulldog overall to receive the honor. Since the award was instituted in 2005, Georgia has won more times than any other SEC women’s swimming and diving program. She joins Lisa Caprioglio (2009, 2010) as the only repeat winners in program history.
McCulloh, a senior from Lilburn currently carrying a 4.0 GPA in Journalism with a minor in Sport Management, adds Friday’s honor to a host of previous accolades. This week, she was named to the SEC Community Service Team and was nominated for the Allstate/NACDA Winter Good Works Team. In January, she received the Keith Jackson Rose Bowl Game Postgraduate Scholarship and participated in a specialized work-study program at the Ohio State-Oregon College Football Playoff quarterfinal.
McCulloh was bestowed the 2024 Joel Eaves Scholar-Athlete Award for the UGA female senior student-athlete with the highest GPA entering the school year and currently serves as the female student-athlete representative to the UGA Athletic Association Board of Directors. She was named to the 2024 College Sports Communicators Academic All-America Team and has twice been named to the CSC Academic All-District Team. She has also been named to three CSCAA Scholar All-America First Teams, three SEC Winter Academic Honor Rolls, and the J. Reid Parker Director of Athletics Honor Roll in every semester.
In the water, she won the 2024 SEC and NCAA championships in the 1,650-yard freestyle, along with bronze medals in the 500y free (2024) and 1,650y free (2022). She has earned four CSCAA First Team All-America honors and a place on the 2024 All-SEC First Team and 2022 SEC All-Freshman Team. She currently ranks second in program history in the 1,000y and 1,650y freestyle and holds Bauerle Pool records in both events. This season, she has already finished fifth in the 500y freestyle at the SEC Championships and is seeded second in tomorrow’s mile final. She finished first in the event at the UGA Fall Invitational and turned in the second-fastest 1,000y freestyle time in program history at Texas in December.
Georgia Women’s Swimming & Diving – SEC Scholar-Athlete of the Year Winners
2009 – Lisa Caprioglio
2010 – Lisa Caprioglio
2012 – Wendy Trott
2014 – Shannon Vreeland
2017 – Chantal Van Landeghem
2021 – Courtney Harnish
2024 – Abby McCulloh
2025 – Abby McCulloh
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