Complete Release
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/2016-ncaa-woman-year-nominees-named
 
Complete Listing
http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/events/awards/2016-ncaa-woman-year-nominees
 
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – North Dakota State University second baseman Cheyenne Garcia is one of a record number 517 student-athletes vying for the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year award.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
 
Garcia, a native of Vista, Calif. (Rancho Buena Vista H.S.), graduated this May with a bachelor's degree in human development and family science. She maintained a 3.397 grade-point average and plans to attend graduate school at NDSU.
 
Garcia batted .335 with 20 doubles, five home runs, two triples and 40 runs batted in this season. She scored 48 runs, stole 20 bases, and added four sacrifice flies and a pair of sacrifice bunts. Garcia earned all-Summit League honors four straight years including the league's 2015 Player of the Year award. She was a three-time NFCA All-Midwest Region pick including first team honors in 2015, and a three-time Summit League all-tournament selection.
 
Starting in all 213 games during her career, Garcia ranked among the top 30 active NCAA career leaders in doubles (4th / 61), runs scored (12th / 198), total bases (24th / 402) and at bats (27th / 695).
 
North Dakota State finished with a 39-15 record including 17-0 in the Summit League to claim its fifth straight regular season championship. The Bison won their third straight Summit League tournament title to advance to the NCAA tournament for the seventh time over the past eight seasons. The Bison reached 30 wins for the 10th straight year.
 
One of 30 candidates for the Senior CLASS Award, Garcia took an active role in hometown of Vista, Calif., and her campus community of Fargo-Moorhead. She volunteered at the Rosewood on Broadway Nursing Home in Fargo during her junior year, where she would play cards and be involved in the residents' rehab routines and meals. The Bison softball team twice has participated in Special Olympic Hockey with disabled children, where the kids have had the upper hand in sled hockey on both occasions. Bison Athletics hosts a Food Pantry, where each sport attends events to solicit donations. At home, Garcia and her family adopt a child every Christmas and deliver their gifts on Christmas Eve. She also participates in the annual Toy Drive and Blanket Run sponsored by motorcycle clubs with her dad, Paul, and her mom, Gina.
 
This pool of school honorees marks the largest in the 26-year history of the award. Of the nominees for the national award, 231 competed in Division I, 117 competed in Division II and 169 competed in Division III athletics. The nominees also represent 21 different women's sports, and 127 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college.
 
Next, conferences assess their member school nominees and select up to two conference nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division.
 
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year.
 
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 16 in Indianapolis.