Caitlin Clark Wins ESPY Award

Iowa Basketball Star Named Best College Athlete, Women's Sports

Iowa's Caitlin Clark is interviewed by ESPN's Christy Winters Scott after the Hawkeyes' NCAA Tournament victory against Georgia on March 19, 2023 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, Iowa. (Rob Howe/HawkeyeNation.com)

LOS ANGELES - Junior guard from the University of Iowa, Caitlin Clark, was named the ESPY award winner for Best College Athlete, Women's Sports on Tuesday night.

Clark was named the winner over fellow nominees Jordy Bahl (Oklahoma, softball), Izzy Scane (Northwestern, lacrosse), and Trinity Thomas (Florida, gymnastics).

Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year as by THE Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA). She also won the 2023 Naismith, Wooden and Wade Trophies along with the Associated Press and USBWA Ann Drysdale Player of the Year honors. Clark was a finalist for the Female Breakthrough Athlete of the Year at the ESPYS.

She is also a two-time winner of the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard Award and is the first-ever three-time winner of the Dawn Staley Award. She also won the Honda Sport Award for Basketball in April.

Clark led her team to its first-ever NCAA Championship game and helped post the Hawkeye’s most wins in a single season. During the NCAA Tournament, she posted the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA Tournament history (men’s or women’s) and broke the NCAA single-tournament records for most 3-point FG made (24) and most points scored (191). This season, she is the only player in the nation with 1,000 points, 240 rebounds, 310 assists and 45 steals.

Overall, Clark became the first player in Division I women’s basketball history to record more than 1,000 points and 300 assists in the same season and was fastest Division I player (men’s or women’s) to reach 1,500 career points over the last 20 seasons.

Off the court, she is a two-time First Team Academic All-American and was named the 2023 CSC Academic All-America of the Year.