NEWTOWN, Pa. (August 5, 2024) – Laura Mathews '23 of the Stevens Institute of Technology women's track and field team was selected as one of three nominees from the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Award, the league office announced Monday.
Mathews was chosen alongside Alvernia track and field student-athlete Shinelle Felix, York women's lacrosse student-athlete Bella Garabo, and DeSales basketball student-athlete Catie McGrath. The league can select up to two nominees to represent each of the three conferences (MAC Freedom, MAC Commonwealth and MAC) that constitute the Middle Atlantic Conference. Mathews, representing Stevens Women's Track and Field, earned the nod to represent the MAC alongside Felix, while Garabo and McGrath were nominated on behalf of the MAC Commonwealth and the MAC Freedom, respectively. The nomination is aligned with the conference affiliation of the student-athlete's primary sport.
The three nominated student-athletes will be forwarded by the conference office to the NCAA's Woman of the Year selection committee, who will determine the top-30 honorees - 10 from each division - before announcing the top nine finalists (three per division), which is expected to be announced later in the fall.
Mathews' selection marks the fifth straight year that a Stevens student-athlete advanced in the Woman of the Year process as a conference nominee. The Denville, New Jersey native is the tenth student-athlete since 2007 to earn the right to represent Stevens and its respective conference alongside the top female student-athletes in the country. It is the second straight year she has been nominated for this award. Only her and program alumna Gina Dello Russo have been named as Woman of the Year conference nominees to represent Stevens Track & Field since the program joined the Middle Atlantic Conference prior to the 2019-20 academic year. Mathews is believed to be the first to earn the award twice. She became the fifth member of the program to earn the conference-level nomination last season, as she joined Dello Russo, Amy Regan, Laura Barito and Allison Donnelly.
The pillars of the Woman of the Year award are academics, athletics, service and leadership. Mathews has an accomplished resume in all four areas.
Mathews dominated during both the indoor and outdoor Stevens for the women's track and field team. She earned five All-American honors, three in the winter and two in the spring, which culminated in a national championship in the 100-meter hurdles in May. In addition, she was named the Metro Region and Middle Atlantic Conference Track Athlete of the Year for both indoor and outdoor track. The Denville, New Jersey native leaves Stevens holding 12 school records, and eight conference records.
In addition to her regional accolades, Mathews has shined at the MAC Championships, earning four Track Athlete of the Year honors and a pair of Rookie of the Year awards, while earning 29 All-Conference honors. The 2024 Gear & Triangle Award winner, as well as both the 2023 and 2024 Irvin "Buzz" Seymour Award Winner for Stevens' Female Athlete of the Year, Mathews owns three MAC records, eight MAC championship meet records and has rewritten the program record book in the 60-meter and 100-meter hurdle events, while also owning 12 school records.
In the classroom, Mathews has achieved a 3.95 cumulative grade-point average as an industrial and systems engineering major. She is a four-time Academic All-MAC selection and an eight-time MAC Academic Honor Roll recipient. In 2024 she was named the Middle Atlantic Conference Indoor and Outdoor Track & Field Senior Scholar Athlete. Mathews was named to the Stevens President's List four times and is a member of the Tau Beta Engineering Honor Society.
All conference nominees are forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee, which chooses the top 30 honorees—10 from each Division in October. From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three nominees from each Division and announces the top nine finalists in November. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named in January at the 2025 NCAA Convention in Nashville.
Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
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