NCAA All-Around Champion Jeana Rice has been named a finalist for the Honda Award for Gymnastics, given annually to the nation's top gymnast.

Rice is coming off a senior season second to none. In addition to winning the national all-around title, she also won her second consecutive Southeastern Conference All-Around Championship and her third NCAA Regional All-Around title in four years. The Longwood, Fla. native set the NCAA record for career All-American honors this past weekend when her five 2004 honors bumped her total to 18, bettering the previous mark held jointly by Alabama's Dee Foster and Kentucky's Jenny Hansen.

"Jeana has enjoyed a tremendous career," head coach Sarah Patterson said. "And she is obviously highly deserving of this recognition. She really took it to another level this year and that showed in her high level of competition from the season's first week through Saturday night."

Other finalists for the 2003-04 Honda Award for gymnastics are Jeanette Antonlin from UCLA, Melissa Vituj from Utah and Lindsay Wing from Stanford. Of the finalists, Rice is the only gymnast to win an individual national title.

Three Alabama gymnasts have previously won the Honda. Penney Hauschild won in 1985 and 1986, Dee Foster in 1990 and Andree Pickens took home the 2002 award.

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