BATON ROUGE – LSU Gymnastics senior Aleah Finnegan was named a finalist for the 2025 Honda Sport Award for the first time in her career, announced on Friday by Chris Voelz, the Executive Director of The Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA).
The Honda Sport Award has been presented annually by the CWSA for the past 49 years, recognizing the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and symbolizing “the best of the best in collegiate athletics.”
The award has become a symbol of excellence in the sport, something that Finnegan has been nothing short of during her time with the Tigers.
Finnegan is joined by Oklahoma’s Jordan Bowers and Audrey Davis and Oregon State’s Jade Carey as the four finalists for the Class of 2025 Honda Sport Award for Gymnastics.
She is now the seventh LSU gymnast to be named a finalist for the Honda Sports Award, joining Haleigh Bryant (2024), Ashleigh Gnat (2016-17), Rheagan Courville (2012-13), Susan Jackson (2009-10), Ashleigh Clare-Kearney (2008-09), and Rachel Fruge’ (1989-90) as the previous finalists. Bryant and Jackson are the only LSU gymnasts to win the award in school history.
The gymnastics finalists were chosen by a panel of experts and coaches from the Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association (WCGA). The Honda Sport award winner for gymnastics will be announced later this week after voting by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools. Each NCAA member institution has a vote.
The recipient of the sport award will become a finalist for the prestigious Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year and the 2025 Honda Cup, which will be presented during the live broadcast of the Collegiate Women Sports Awards Presented by Honda on Monday, June 30 at 6 pm CT on CBS Sports Network.
A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Finnegan was previously finalist for this year’s AAI Award, which is presented to the top senior gymnast in the nation, as she adds another recognition to her resume.
The senior has not only had a stellar season in 2025, but she has been a huge piece of success to the LSU Gymnastics program during her career over the last four years. A national champion, floor champion, Olympian – she symbolizes greatness in her sport.
The senior clinched the Tigers first ever national championship on beam last year, where she was also named the 2024 NCAA Floor Champion. She only continued to be one of the top all-arounders in the country in her final season at LSU.
This year, Finnegan has been consistent in every lineup for LSU, competing in the all-around in all but two meets. She has put up season highs of 9.950 on vault and bars, 10.0 on beam, 9.975 on floor and 39.725 in the all-around.
She finished the regular season ranked nationally amongst the best – No. 10 on vault, No. 9 on beam, No. 14 on floor and No. 9 in the all-around. She claimed a total of five All-America honors for her performance in 2025, four WCGA Regular Season All-America honors and one NCAA honor, moving her career total to 13, which is tied for the eighth-most All-America honors in LSU history.
Finnegan kicked off her final postseason run with the Tigers at the 2025 SEC Championships, where she helped lead LSU to their sixth conference championship title and won her first individual SEC title on beam. She took home All-SEC honors on vault, beam and the all-around for her performance in the conference championship meet this year, moving her career total to four. This year marked her second time making the All-SEC team.
The Missouri native went on to become an NCAA Regional Beam Champion, her second straight individual regional title, after winning a share of the Penn State Regional Beam title with her 9.950 performance in the second round. She shared the title with Kentucky’s Isabella Magnelli and Maryland’s Maddie Komoroski.
The senior wrapped up her career in the 2025 NCAA Championship Semifinals, where she finished amongst the top five performers on floor across both sessions of competition.
Finnegan owns eight perfect scores in her career, with the most recent coming this season on beam. She was the first Tiger this year to earn a perfect 10 and it was only the third perfect score on beam in the country. Her eight career perfect 10’s is the sixth most in LSU history, including the second most on floor.
She finished her career with 43 titles, the 13th most in program history. She owns 17 titles on floor, 13 on beam, six on vault, six in the all-around and one on bars. Her 17 career floor titles is the sixth most in LSU history.
On top of her collegiate success, Finnegan has managed to be a great representative of LSU across NCAA Gymnastics and the world stage. She became the first LSU Gymnast to represent the Tigers in the Olympics when she competed in the qualifying rounds of the 2024 Paris Olympics with Team Philippines.
Stay up to date with all things LSU Gymnastics by following the team’s social media channels @LSUgym on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
Finnegan’s Career Accolades:
2025 Honda Award Finalist
2025 NCAA All-American (FX)
2025 AAI Award Finalist
2025 NCAA Penn State Regional Beam Champion
2025 All-SEC (VT, BB, AA)
2025 SEC Beam Champion
2025 WCGA Regular Season All-American (VT, UB, BB, AA)
2024 Paris Olympian (Team Philippine)
2024 NCAA National Champion (Team)
2024 NCAA Floor Champion
2024 NCAA All-American (FX)
2024 NCAA Fayetteville Regional Floor Champion
2024 WCGA Regular Season All-American (FX)
2023 NCAA All-American (UB, FX, AA)
2023 WCGA Regular Season All-American (BB, FX, AA)
2023 All-SEC (FX)
8 Perfect 10’s (5 FX, 2 BB, 1 VT)