Kniesly Named NCAA Woman of the Year Nominee
Findlay, Ohio - The NCAA has announced its' candidates for the 2022 Woman of the Year and University of Findlay women's golfer Kristina Kniesly is named as a nominee. In total, there were 577 total nominees, 127 of which came from the Division II ranks.
Established in 1991, the award recognizes female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.
As 2022 marks the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year program is an important opportunity to honor and reflect on the impact of women on intercollegiate sports.
This honor comes after a laundry list of awards have been earned by Kniesly this season, one of the most impressive seasons by any athlete in the history of Findlay athletics. A native of Logansport, Ind., Kniesly earned first-team all-American honors from the Women's Golf Coaches' Association (WGCA) and was also named all-East Region, G-MAC Player of the Year, and first-team all-G-MAC. Her single-season scoring average of 73.89 and her career scoring average of 76.21 both established new school and G-MAC records and she leaves Findlay as a winner of five tournaments, three of which came this past spring where she earned medalist at the SVSU Spring Invite, the Findlay Spring Invite, and the G-MAC Championship.
Her talent was most on display at the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championship in Gainesville, Georgia where she led the Oilers to the program's first national title, battling through three rounds of medal match play to claim the championship. At that event, Kniesly's average score was 72.67 over six rounds and included a perfect 3-0 record in medal match play.
These achievments were enough to make Kniesly the University of Findlay and Great Midwest Athletic Conference Female Athlete of the Year.
On top of the athletic success, Kniesly was named academic all-conference and academic all-American this season and, in her career at UF, has volunteered her time at The First Tee, various junior golf clinics, and the American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk.
This year's Woman of the Year nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 248 from Division I, 127 from Division II and 202 from Division III. Of the 577 nominations, 23 sports are represented, with 125 student-athletes competing in multiple sports.
The conference offices will now select up to two student-athletes from their member school nominations. (If two are chosen, one must be an international student-athlete or student-athlete of color.) Nominees who compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be picked to advance by a selection committee. The Woman of the Year Selection Committee will then select 10 student-athletes from each division, determining the Top 30 honorees.
Of the Top 30, the Woman of the Year Selection Committee will announce nine finalists, three from each NCAA division. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will review the finalists and name the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.
For the first time in the award's history, the Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the Woman of the Year will be named at the NCAA Convention. The 2023 Convention will take place in January in San Antonio.