INDIANAPOLIS – Eastern Illinois student-athletes Kelly Iden and Chloe Wong were named the Panthers nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award presented annually. Iden and Wong were among the 544 student-athletes across all three NCAA Divisions that were nominated for the award.
Iden was a four-year member of the Panthers tennis team ending her career ranked in the top ten for career victories at Eastern Illinois. She was named a first team All-Ohio Valley Conference selection this season after twice earning second team All-OVC honors. She finished her academic career with a 4.00 GPA in Accounting and annually was named to the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll while earning the OVC Academic Medal of Honor. She earned the Earl S. Dickerson Award and the Marketing Faculty Excellence Award. Iden was active as a member of the EIU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and Delta Sigma Pi Professional Business Fraternity. She helped out at 5K races, community gardens and nursing homes during her time at EIU. Following graduation she has moved to Indianapolis to start a career as an auditor for CliftonLarsonAllen public accounting firm.
Wong was a three-year member of the Panthers golf team ranking second on the team in stroke average during her senior season. She posted three career top ten finishes with back-to-back top ten finishes her junior season. In the classroom Wong posted a 3.96 GPA in Sport Management. She was an annual member of the OVC Commissioner's Honor Roll and winner of the OVC Academic Medal of Honor. In 2016 she was named the EIU winner of the Distinguished International Student Award. As a senior she was selected to represent the OVC at the NCAA Leadership Summit. Wong was active on the EIU Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the EIU Intercollegiate Athletics Board (IAB). She volunteered with the Mark Twain Elementary HollyDay Breakfast, EU Blue Madness and Fit-2-Serve Garden Event. Following graduation she is pursuing a career in the sports industry in the field of sports marketing and sponsorship.
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.
This pool of school honorees marks the largest in the 27-year history of the award. Of the nominees for the national award, 229 competed in Division I, 117 competed in Division II and 198 competed in Division III athletics. The nominees also represent 21 different women's sports, and 122 of the nominees competed in more than one sport in college. As a collective group the nominees for the NCAA Woman of the Year award had a cumulative 3.69 grade point average.
The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award. A school may submit more than one nominee if they have a qualified candidate who is classified in a minority group.
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 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year.
The top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced at the annual award ceremony October in Indianapolis.
