TOLEDO, Ohio – The Mid-American Conference has selected former Toledo cross country and track & field student-athlete Stephanie Sherman as the conference's nominee for the 2022 NCAA Division I Woman of the Year Award. The NCAA announced its complete list of nominees on Monday.

NCAA member schools nominated 577 women for the national award. Conference offices then reviewed all nominees from their member schools, and the MAC selected Sherman as its nominee because of her outstanding achievements in her collegiate career. Nationally, conference offices submitted 151 nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year.

This past season, Sherman earned second-team All-MAC accolades following her runner-up finish in the 10,000m at the 2022 MAC Outdoor Championships. She went on to compete in two races of the NCAA East Regional Prelims, and finished 13th in the 10K and 32nd in the 5K. Sherman recorded two all-time Toledo records this season: fifth in the outdoor 5000m (16:15.79) and fourth in the 10,000m (33:59.39).

Academically, Sherman was a 10-time Academic All-MAC selection in cross country and track & field, named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team in 2021, and was an USTFCCCA All-Academic honoree in 2022. She held a 3.94 GPA while earning her bachelor's degree in bioengineering in May of 2021, and completed her MBA in May 2022. A team captain, Sherman also served as vice president on the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) and was a mentor in the "Girls on the Run" program.

This year's conference nominees include 53 student-athletes from Division I, 39 from Division II, and 59 from Division III. Of the 151 nominations from conference offices, 17 sports are represented, with 42 student-athletes competing in multiple sports. The average GPA of this year's nominee pool is 3.8.

For the first time in the award's history, the award ceremony will take place during the NCAA Convention in January, giving the Top-30 honorees a chance to celebrate their achievements alongside their families, coaches, and administrators attending the 2023 NCAA Convention.

Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers. The four pillars of Woman of the Year Award are academic, athletic, service and leadership.