INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- NCAA member schools have nominated a record 605 female college athletes for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award including Moravian College's Carly Danoski.

Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

The nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 259 nominees from Division I, 126 from Division II and 220 from Division III. Nominees competed in 24 sports, with multisport student-athletes accounting for 128 of the nominees. The Landmark Conference had nine nominees including Danoski, and for the first time in conference history, each member school submitted a nomination. See the full list of 605 nominees at http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-schools-announce-nominees-2020-ncaa-woman-year.

Member schools are encouraged to honor their top graduating female college athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year Award. Schools can recognize two nominees if at least one is a woman of color or international student-athlete.

Conference offices will select up to two nominees each from their pool of member school nominees. All nominees who compete in a sport not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be considered by a selection committee. Then, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.

From the Top 30, the Woman of the Year selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division and announce nine finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named this fall.

Danoski captured three Landmark Conference Indoor Championships in 2020, winning the 800-meter run, the mile run and as part of the 4x400-meter relay team. She was selected as All-Mideast Region in all three events by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for being in the top five in each of the individual events and the top three in the relay among all of the competitors in the region. Danoski was set to run in the mile at the 2020 NCAA Division III National Championships on Friday, March 13 when the championship was cancelled by the NCAA due to COVID-19. In May, Danoski was honored as a USTFCCCA All-American in the mile as all qualifiers for the meet were named All-Americans with the meet cancelled.

Danoski was an eight-time Landmark Conference Indoor Champion, capturing the title in the 800-meter run in 2018, 2019 and 2020, the mile run in 2019 and 2020 and the 4x400-meter relay in 2018, 2019 and 2020. She earned All-Conference Second Team honors as a freshman in the 4x400-meter relay in 2017 when she also finished third in the 400-meter dash and the 11th in the 800-meter run at the Landmark Championship meet.

Danoski made her first trip to the NCAA DIII Indoor Championships in 2019 where she finished 16th in the 800-meter run preliminaries. Danoski had four Landmark Outdoor titles – the 800-meter run in 2018 and 2019, the 1,500-meter run in 2019 and the 4x400-meter relay in 2019, and she is a three-time All-Conference Second Team honoree in the 1,500-meter run in 2018, the 4x400-meter relay in 2018 and the 800-meter run in 2017. Danoski also competed at the NCAA DIII Outdoor Championships twice in the 800-meter run, finishing 18th in 2019 and 19th in 2018. She earned a pair of Landmark All-Conference Second Team accolades in cross country with tenth place finishes in 2018 and 2019.

Off the track, Danoski graduated in May with a 3.92 GPA while majoring in environmental science with a minor in French, and she was named the 2020 Landmark Conference Women's Indoor Track & Field Senior Scholar-Athlete and was selected to the 2020 Landmark Conference Spring All-Sportsmanship Team.. Danoski made Moravian's Dean's Honor List seven times, and she was a three-time selection to the Landmark Conference Fall, Winter and Spring Academic Honor Rolls. Danoski was a member of Moravian's Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society, and she was also selected to the 2019 CoSIDA Academic All-District Team for Women's Track & Field and Cross Country.

Parts of release courtesy of the NCAA