INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. --- Natalie Novotni, a recent 2021 Moravian graduate from the cross country and track & field programs, has been selected as the Greyhounds 2021 nominee for the NCAA Woman of Year Award.
Rooted in Title IX and directed by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics, the NCAA Woman of the Year program celebrates the accomplishments of female college athletes across all three NCAA divisions. Over 220,000 women are competing in college sports, and the NCAA received 535 nominations for this prestigious award.
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. Then, in September, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee identifies the Top 30 – 10 from each division – and from there selects three finalists from each division. The Committee on Women's Athletics then selects the winner from the nine finalists.
Member schools are urged to submit two nominations if at least one of the nominees is a student-athlete of color or international student-athlete. The nomination form is completed by the member school and student-athlete and submitted via the NCAA Program Hub.
All conference-level nominees are forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee. The selection committee will choose the top 10 honorees in each division. From among those 30 honorees, the selection committee will determine the three finalists in each division. Finally, the members of the Committee on Women's Athletics will vote from among the top nine finalists to determine the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year.
In three seasons, Novotni was a two-time Landmark Conference Women's Cross Country Champion, winning the conference meet in both 2018 and 2019 to earn Landmark All-Conference First Team honors while being selected as the Landmark Conference Performer of the Year. She had a winning 6,000-meter time of 22:58.6 as a sophomore and a first-place time of 23:03.5 as a junior. As a team, the Greyhounds finished third in her freshman season when Novotni was 30th in the meet, and then runner-up in 2018 and 2019. She was a pair of Top 70 finishes at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional with a 32nd in 2018 and a 67th in 2019.
Novotni also competed on Moravian's Track & Field Teams. She won the 2020 Landmark Women's Indoor Track & Field titles in the 3,000-meter run and 5,000-meter runs, and Novotni was also the conference champion in the 5,000-meter run in 2019 and the runner-up in the 3,000-meter run at the same meet. As a sophomore, she earned Landmark Women's Outdoor Track & Field All-Conference Second Team honors in the 5,000-meter run with a runner-up finish.
Outside of the course and track, Novotni maintained a 3.94 GPA in nursing at Moravian. Novotni was an eight-time Landmark Conference Academic Honor Roll selection, and she is a two-time member of the Chi Alpha Sigma National College Athlete Honor Society. She's made the Dean's List eight times during her time with the Greyhounds. Novotni is also a two-time selection for the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Cross Country All-Academic (3.30 GPA or higher and top 25% finish in NCAA Regional).
All school and conference nominees receive an NCAA certificate and will be recognized on ncaa.org. The top 30 honorees will be honored, and the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced in November.
