World-record holder Tara Kirk of Stanford University, who won four straight NCAA 100-yard breaststroke championships and a total of 11 collegiate career titles, was named the 28th recipient of the Honda-Broderick Cup June 21.

The award, sponsored by the Honda Motor Co., Inc., honors the collegiate woman athlete of the year, and balloting involves all NCAA member institutions. Kirk was selected from among 12 women chosen as the most outstanding in their sports during the school year.

Kirk became the first woman to win four straight titles in a breaststroke event at the Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, and her 2:20.70 victory in the 100-meter breaststroke at the 2004 championships (the championships are contested in short-course meters in Olympic years) established a world record and clinched a 35-0 collegiate career record in the event.

She also won three straight 200-yard breaststroke crowns and also swam on four Stanford championship medley relay teams. Kirk is the first Stanford student-athlete to win the Honda-Broderick Cup.

"I really believe in women's sports, so it's a huge honor to win this award and a real thrill for me," Kirk said during a news conference at Columbia University's Low Library.

"Tara Kirk had an outstanding collegiate career and has proven to be one of the elite swimmers in the world," said Ted Leland, Stanford director of athletics. "We're honored that she has been recognized with such a prestigious award. The seletion speaks volumes of her accomplishments, especially when considering the many outstanding female student-athletes who have represented Stanford."

The four other finalists for the 2003-04 Honda-Broderick Cup were soccer student-athlete Catherine Reddick of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; volleyball player April Ross of the University of Southern California; basketball student-athlete Diana Taurasi of the University of Connecticut; and softball player Jessica van der Linden of Florida State University. Honda also honored distance runner Zoila Gomez of Adams State College as the Division II athlete of the year, and tennis player Mary Ellen Gordon of Emory University as the Division III athlete of the year.

Gomez swept the indoor and outdoor Division II 5,000-meter runs and also won the 10,000-meter run at this year's outdoor championships to lead Adams State to second-place finishes at the indoor and outdoor meets.

Gordon repeated as singles and doubles titlist at the Division III Women's Tennis Championships in leading Emory to its second straight team title. She became the first person in any division to win four doubles titles, and finished her career with six individual crowns.

The Honda-Broderick Cup is part of the year-long Collegiate Women Sports Awards program, originated in 1976 to recognize outstanding achievements by collegiate women athletes.