PAC selects Simpson as NCAA Woman of the Year nominee

INDIANAPOLIS (Aug. 1) – Former Bethany College track & field standout Lauren Simpson (Washington, Pa./Trinity) has been selected as the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) nominee for this year's NCAA Woman of the Year Award, announced the PAC on Tuesday.

The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.

Simpson was a four-time member of the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Spring Honor Roll, a former two-year starter on the Bison Women's Basketball team and also a middle-distance runner on the Bethany Women's Track & Field team. She was the president of the Bethany Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), the vice-president of the PAC SAAC, a member of the Phi Mu sorority and worked in a variety of facets as a work study in the Bethany sports information office.

A NCAA Ethnic Minority and Women's Enhancement Postgraduate Scholarship recipient, Simpson recently attended the 2017 NCAA Career in Sports Forum and was able to network and learn about careers in intercollegiate athletics in Indianapolis.

Simpson received her bachelor's degree in communications and media arts from Bethany this past May and was accepted to Illinois State University, where she will pursue a degree in sport management, while completing a graduate assistantship in the Redbird Athletics Communications Office.

The Woman of the Year selection committee will next select the top 10 honorees in each division. These top 30 honorees will be announced in September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics (CWA) will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2017 Woman of the Year.

The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony in October in Indianapolis.

NCAA WOMAN OF THE YEAR NOMINEE QUICK FACTS:

• 145 conference nominees
• Four pillars of the Woman of the Year award: academics, athletics, service and leadership
• Breakdown of honorees by NCAA division:
  • DI: 58    
  • DII: 34
  • DIII: 53
• Average GPA for the nominees: 3.88
• Athletes who played multiple sports:
  • Two sports: 24
  • Three sports: 22
  • Four sports: 2
  • Five sports: 1
  • Note: Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field are counted separately for our purposes, so a student competing both would count as a dual sport athlete.