Georgia women’s track and field added another round of recognition to its record-setting season with multiple honors from the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association and The Collegiate Women Sports Awards. The news was announced on Thursday and Friday.
Aaliyah Butler, a junior sprinter for the Bulldogs, was named the winner of the Honda Sport Award for Track & Field. Butler becomes just the second Bulldog ever to win this award and was selected by administrators from over 1,000 NCAA member schools.
“I am so honored to receive this award and have my name mentioned with winners of the past, including the great Bulldog Kendell Williams,” Butler said. “This helps show me the hard work and dedication that I’ve put in is paying off”
The CWSA has been awarding the Honda Sports Award to the top female athlete in 12 NCAA-sanctioned sports for 49 years, and the winners of each sport become finalists 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 on June 30, at 7 p.m. on CBS Sports Network.
After winning the program’s first NCAA outdoor team title and its first SEC championship since 2006, the Bulldogs had senior high jumper Elena Kulichenko named South Region Women’s Field Athlete of the Year, Caryl Smith Gilbert selected as Women’s National Coach of the Year, and Karim Abdel Wahab honored as Women’s Assistant Coach of the Year.
Kulichenko played a key role in Georgia’s national title run, winning her third career NCAA high jump championship and her first outright. At the national meet in Eugene, Oregon, she cleared 1.96 meters on a perfect series of five attempts, separating herself from the field in one of her most efficient performances to date. The senior from Odintsovo, Russia, also finished second at the SEC Championships and posted one of the nation’s top marks earlier in the season at the Tiger Track Classic in Auburn, Alabama.
While Kulichenko was racking up points on the field, Smith Gilbert was steering the entire operation. In just her fourth year in Athens, she led Georgia to 73 points at nationals, a 26-point margin over the next closest team. She also oversaw four individual NCAA champions and 10 total scorers at the national championship meet. Smith Gilbert added the 2025 championship to her trophy case, which included two prior national titles at the University of Southern California in 2018 and 2021.
Abdel Wahab’s sprint and hurdle group scored nearly half of Georgia’s points at nationals, demonstrating the exceptional performance of his athletes across multiple events. He joined the Bulldogs’ staff in 2023 after five years coaching at South Carolina, where he built one of the nation’s top sprint programs. His extensive experience developing sprinters and hurdlers has been a key part of Georgia’s rise to its championship level this season. For his efforts, he was named Women’s Assistant of the Year by the USTFCCCA.