June 21, 2016

Former track and field athlete Catherine Cloetta has been nominated for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year award. She is one 517 honorees, the most ever in the history of the program, representing multiple sports across NCAA Divisions I, II and III honored by their athletics conferences and by independent schools.

Now in its 26th year, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female student-athletes for their achievements in academics, athletics, service and leadership. The honorees represent student-athletes from 21 different sports. By division, 231 honorees competed in Division I conferences, 117 competed in Division II, and 169 competed in Division III. Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its member schools and submits its conference nominee to the NCAA.

The NCAA Woman of the Year committee will select the top 10 honorees in each division from this pool to be recognized. These top 30 honorees will be announced in early September. The selection committee will then choose and announce the top nine finalists (three from each division) at the end of September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will vote from amongst those nine finalists to determine the 2016 Woman of the Year.

The top 30 honorees will be honored and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual ceremony in Indianapolis on October 16.

A native of Jackson, Wyo., Cloetta has been named a MW Scholar Athlete twice in each sport and graduated with a 4.0 grade-point average in chemistry and physiology this spring. Recently, she was selected to the Academic All-District VII Track & Field/Cross Country Team and advanced to the ballot for Academic All-America honors, which will be announced in late June. She was also a finalist for this year's Rosemarie Martha Spitaleri Award, which is annually awarded to UW's top graduating female.

A three-year member of both the track and field and cross country programs, she broke into the Cowgirls' all-time top 10 in the steeplechase last season and this season ran the fourth-fastest time in program history with a personal-best 11:00.77 on April 9. Cloetta helped the Cowgirls to a second-place finish indoors and fourth-place outdoors at the 2013-14 Mountain West Championships. Both were bests in UW history. In cross country, she helped the Wyoming women place a program-best third at the 2014 MW meet.