NDSU softball second baseman Cheyenne Garcia is one of 517 student-athletes vying for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
The award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
Garcia graduated in May with a bachelor’s degree in human development and family science. She maintained a 3.397 grade-point average and plans to attend graduate school at NDSU.
She earned All-Summit League honors four straight years, including the league’s 2015 Player of the Year award. She was a three-time NFCA All-Midwest Region pick including first team honors in 2015, and a three-time Summit League all-tournament selection.
One of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, Garcia took an active role in her hometown of Vista, California, and her campus community of Fargo-Moorhead. She volunteered at the Rosewood on Broadway Nursing Home in Fargo during her junior year. The Bison softball team twice has participated in Special Olympic Hockey. Bison Athletics hosts a food pantry, where each sport attends events to solicit donations. At home, Garcia and her family adopt a child each Christmas and deliver their gifts on Christmas Eve. She also participates in the annual Toy Drive and Blanket Run sponsored by motorcycle clubs with her father, Paul, and her mother, Gina.
The pool of school honorees marks the largest in the 26-year history of the award. Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division.
From the top 30, a selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year is scheduled to be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.
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