PAC selects THS grad as Woman of Year nominee
Former Bethany College track and field standout Lauren Simpson, a Washington native and Trinity High School graduate, has been selected as the Presidents’ Athletic Conference nominee for this year’s NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the league announced Tuesday.
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
Simpson was a four-time member of the PAC Spring Honor Roll, a former two-year starter for Bethany’s women’s basketball team and also a middle-distance runner on the track and field team. She was the president of the Bethany Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, 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 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 in May and was accepted to Illinois State University, where she will pursue a degree in sport management while completing a graduate assistantship in the Redbirds’ 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.