Utah State’s Grace McGuire nominated as Mountain West’s NCAA Woman of the Year

LOGAN, Utah – Utah State’s Grace McGuire has been named the Mountain West’s nomination for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year, moving on from an initial pool of 585, an NCAA record, to a pool of 149 across the nation. That group will further be whittled down to the top 30 that will be announced in early September. McGuire, a member of the USU soccer team, recently graduated from Utah State with both an undergraduate and master’s degree in business management.

McGuire led all keepers a season ago by playing more than 1,400 minutes in goal and led the Aggies with 80 saves, the ninth-most in a single season in Utah State history. McGuire started between the posts in each of USU’s victories last season and ranks sixth in school history with a 1.13 career goals against average.

Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

Outside the field of competition, McGuire served as the Mountain West’s NCAA representative for the conference’s Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and the president of Utah State’s SAAC. McGuire also worked as an intern in Washington D.C., as a member of Representative Mia Love’s staff during the summer of 2017.

The initial field of nominees competed in 23 different sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 262 from Division I, 131 from Division II and 192 from Division III. Multisport student-athletes accounted for 144 of the nominees.

During the next step, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the top-30 honorees — 10 from each division.

The selection committee will determine the top-three honorees from each division from the top 30 and announce the nine finalists in September. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics then will choose the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year.

The Top-30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual award ceremony Oct. 20 in Indianapolis.

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