Official CoSIDA Release
LYNCHBURG, Va. - Liberty senior swimmer Alicia Finnigan has been named to the 2019 Google Cloud Academic All-America® Women's At-Large second team as announced by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) today. Finnigan is one of five Liberty female student-athletes all-time to earn Academic All-America® at-large honors, and the first to receive the award twice in Liberty Athletics department history, as she received second-team honors last year.
The Google Cloud Academic All-America® Women's At-Large program honors student-athletes in the following sports: beach volleyball, bowling, crew, fencing, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, ice hockey, lacrosse, rifle, skiing, swimming & diving, tennis and water polo. A total of 45 student-athletes earned inclusion on the 2019 Academic All-America® Women's At-Large Team.
Finnigan is among the list of 33 members of the team to earn a 4.0 GPA or higher. In total, 11 swimming & diving student-athletes made the squad. Stanford junior water polo player Makenzie Fischer was named the Division I Women's At-Large Academic All-American of the Year.
Finnigan is one of two Liberty swimmers to receive this award all-time, as Natalie Beale was named to the 2016 CoSIDA Academic All-America® Women's At-Large second team.
A native of Sugar Land, Texas, Finnigan is a highly-decorated student-athlete. She was recently voted the winner of Liberty's Rock Royer/Mac Rivera Award. Finnigan was named the 2018 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Women's Swimmer of the Year. She also received the NCAA's most prestigious academic award, the ELITE 90 Award, given to the one student-athlete at the 2018 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming & Diving Championship with the highest GPA. She graduated with her Bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary studies in May with a 4.0 GPA. Later this summer, she will be named to the CSCAA Scholar All-America team for the fourth time in her career.
Finnigan set a program record with 10 career CCSA podium appearances, including three straight victories at the conference championships in the 200 fly. A two-time NCAA Championships participant, Finnigan concluded her career as the program's record holder in the 200 fly (1:55.58). She also scored three times at USA Swimming national meets, including a program-best fifth-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly at the 2018 USA Swimming Winter National Championships. A 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials participant, she has already qualified for the 2020 Olympic Trials.