INDIANAPOLIS - The American Athletic Conference and the NCAA have announced that former Cincinnati track and field student-athletes Loretta Blaut and Annette Echikunwoke are the conference’s nominees for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
Blaut and Echikunwoke are among a total of 148 student-athletes chosen by NCAA conferences and a selection committee who advance as nominees for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year Award. The women were selected from a pool of 585 school nominees.
The nominees represent college athletes from 20 sorts spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of the nominees, 64 competed in Division I, 33 competed in Division II and 51 competed in Division III.
Nominees competing in a sport not sponsored by their school’s core conference were placed in a separate pool to be considered by a selection committee. Up to four independent nominees could be selected to move forward in the process with the conference nominees.
Blaut, the 2019 American Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's indoor track & field, saw her collegiate career come to a close at the end of the 2019 indoor season where she finished third in the high jump at the NCAA Championships to earn her fifth USTFCCCA All-America First Team honor and the sixth All-America certificate of her career after earning second-team honors at the 2016 indoor meet. The 2018 NCAA indoor and outdoor runner-up in the high jump, Blaut also was a five-time American champion as she won the last five conference meets she entered, sweeping the 2017 and 2018 high jump titles at the indoor and outdoor competitions before claiming the 2019 indoor crown in her final season of eligibility.
Echikunwoke, who completed her eligibility after the 2019 outdoor season, had an equally stellar career, one that included her capturing the 2017 NCAA indoor weight throw title, the first national championship won in the history of the Cincinnati program. A three-time USTFCCCA All-America First Team honoree indoors in the weight throw, including a national runner-up showing at the 2018 competition, Echikunwoke recently capped her career as the first Bearcat woman to qualify to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in two individual events as she competed in the hammer before placing ninth in the shot put to earn USTFCCCA All-America Second Team honors for her first career award. On a conference level, Echikunwoke was an eight-time American champion as she won the indoor weight throw and outdoor hammer three times each and added one shot put crown indoor and out.
The Top 30 honorees, comprising 10 women from each division, will be named by the Woman of the Year selection committee in September. The selection committee will then narrow the pool to nine finalists — with three from each division — in early October. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics will select the 2019 Woman of the Year.
The 2019 Woman of the Year will be named, and the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated, at the annual banquet Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.
The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.