The Shadow
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – Virginia swimmer Gretchen Walsh (Nashville, Tenn.) earned the Mary Garber Award as the ACC’s most outstanding female athlete for the 2024-25 season, as announced Wednesday (July 9) by the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is Walsh’s second-straight year earning the award.
Walsh is the only swimmer, male or female, to be voted the ACC’s top athlete. She is the seventh female to be a repeat winner, joining Julie Shea (1980-81, NC State track & field), Dawn Staley (1991-92, Virginia basketball), Mia Hamm (1993-94, North Carolina soccer), Jen Adams (2000-01 Maryland lacrosse), Alana Beard (2003-04 Duke basketball) and Charlotte North (2021-22 Boston College lacrosse). This is the fifth time a Cavalier has earned the honor: Staley (1991-92), Morgan Brian (2015), Walsh (2024-25). The award is voted on by a select media panel (55 voters).
Walsh was named the 2025 Collegiate Woman Athlete of the Year, claiming the prestigious Honda Cup, the Collegiate Women Sports Awards (CWSA), presented annually to the top women athletes in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports and signifies “the best of the best in collegiate athletics”. She was the first student-athlete from the ACC to win the award since 1994.
Walsh helped lead Virginia to the team title at the 2025 NCAA Women’s Swimming & Diving National Championships, her fourth team title in her four seasons at UVA. She was named the CSCAA Women’s Swimmer of the Year for the second straight year after winning three individual titles at the NCAA Championships (50 free, 100 free, 100 fly) and setting three NCAA and American records. She was also a part of all four of the Cavaliers’ first-place relay teams, including the 200 medley relay team that set the meet, NCAA, American and US Open records.
Walsh also garnered ACC Women’s Swimmer of the Year honors for the second straight year after earning three individual and four relay titles at the 2025 ACC Swimming & Diving Championships, where she also claimed the ACC Women’s Swimming Most Valuable Swimmer Award.
She closed out her collegiate career as a 25-time NCAA Champion, 23-time ACC Champion, 28-time All-ACC honoree and 28-time All-American.The Anthony J. McKevlin Award for the ACC Male Athlete of the Year went to Cooper Flagg from Duke.
The ACC Athlete of the Year Awards are given in memory of two distinguished journalists. McKevlin was a sports editor of the Raleigh (North Carolina) News and Observer, while Garber, of the Winston-Salem (North Carolina) Journal, was a pioneer as one of the first female sports journalists in the nation.
