Wingate's Kaitlyn Brunworth Moves on to Top 30 for NCAA Woman of the Year Award
NCAA Woman of the Year Final 30
Indianapolis, Ind.----Wingate University 2017 graduate Kaitlyn Brunworth (Littleton, Colo.) is one of 30 remaining candidates for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Award, officials announced Wednesday afternoon. A record 543 women from NCAA Division I, II and III were originally nominate for the honor. Brunworth was named the SAC Woman of the Year in June.
"I am honored and humbled to be recognized as one of the top 30 nominees for NCAA Woman of the Year!" Brunworth says. "While I may not be in a Wingate soccer jersey anymore, I'm so excited for the opportunity to continue to represent our excellent university and athletics program in this unique way. I am forever grateful to my coaches for their endless patience, support and genuine belief that all of the time I spent away from soccer with academics and community service leadership would, at the end of the day, actually make me a much more valuable teammate and player. In addition to my coaches, I am incredibly thankful for my amazing professors, teammates and athletic staff. I would not be where I am today without the support, encouragement and expectations of excellence that are upheld by my Wingate family. People always ask me how on earth I had time to do everything I did in four short years at Wingate…I can honestly answer that it's because of the support and optimism of those around me. At Wingate, the answer was never "no," it was always "well, I don't see why not!" For example, when I asked my professors if they thought it was possible for me to spend a semester studying abroad and still complete my biology major and double minor, they immediately helped me set up a four-year plan that would work. Then the next year when I told my teammates about this awesome organization called MEDLIFE, instead of telling me I was insane for thinking that we'd have time to start up a student organization during season, they jumped right on board and together we created a Wingate chapter!"
The Top 30 honorees — including 10 from each of the three NCAA divisions — have demonstrated excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership. They represent 12 sports and a wide range of academic majors, including neuroscience, communication, biomedical engineering, sport management, political science and art.
"We are extremely proud of this much-deserved recognition for Kaitlyn," Wingate University Vice President and Director of Athletics Steve Poston says. "The NCAA Woman of the Year is one of the top awards given by the NCAA and goes only to the very best among the young women who participate in collegiate athletics. Kaitlyn's achievements as a student-athlete at Wingate University are nothing short of remarkable. This will be an exciting weekend for her in Indianapolis. We extend our hardiest congratulations for a job well done!"
In late September, the selection committee will announce three women from each division as the nine finalists. From the finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will select the 2017 Woman of the Year, who will be named Oct. 22 at a ceremony in Indianapolis.
"This is a great honor for Kaitlyn and Wingate University," head coach Chip Wiggins says. "It just goes to show how much a student at Wingate can achieve during their time here if they reach out and utilize all that our university has to offer each and every one of the students. A great education, travel abroad, study abroad, leadership roles, volunteer opportunities, community service fundraising/work and the opportunity to play college athletics at the highest level."
Brunworth has been piling up the awards on and off the field since her arrival at Wingate. The two-time SAC Scholar-Athlete is a four-time All-SAC honoree and three-time All-Region selection. Brunworth was named a second team All-American by the NSCAA in 2015 to go along with third team Academic All-America® recognition. She followed by earning first team Academic All-America® accolades as a senior, after leading the Bulldogs to their seventh consecutive SAC Tournament championship match.
"The Top 30 honorees are remarkable representatives of the thousands of women competing in college sports each year," Sarah Hebberd, chair of the Woman of the Year selection committee says. "They have seized every opportunity available to them on the field of play, in the classroom and in the community, and we are proud to recognize them for their outstanding achievements."
A member of the President's List every semester at Wingate, Brunworth was a member of the University Honors Program. She earned Academic All-District accolades during each of her final three seasons, while being named the SAC Scholar-Athlete as a sophomore and a senior. A member of the SAC Honor Roll every year of her career, Brunworth earned the SAC Elite 18 Award in 2016, while also being named an NSCAA Scholar All-American.
Brunworth collected several impressive awards on the Wingate campus, including earning the Geddings Award as the top overall student-athlete as a junior and a senior at the WUSPYS. She also earned the Haskins Award at the 2017 WUSPYS, joining three other senior student-athletes with a perfect 4.0 GPA. She earned the C.C. Burris Outstanding Senior Award, the Dr. Patricia Williams Plant Award for Excellence in Biology and the Helen E. Cowsert Award for Excellence in Spanish. Brunworth was also one of two Wingate students that received the GlaxoSmithKline Women in Science Scholarship recipient.
With all of her honors on the field and in the classroom, Brunworth has had just as big of an impact on campus, in the community and even traveling to other countries. A Biology lab assistant and Gateway Peer Mentor at Wingate, she also spent time as a Spanish tutor. The two-year team captain worked with United Way Day of Caring and also spent two years volunteering at local medical clinic, translating and scheduling appointments for Spanish speaking patients. Brunworth spent a week in Honduras building a school for kids in an impoverished neighborhood. She also led a group of eight Wingate students on a service trip to Peru to assist in local medical clinics and help with community development projects. Brunworth was the chapter president of Wingate MEDLIFE.
"Our assistant coach, Jack Vundum, would always tell us during training, you're only going to get out of this session as much as you put into it," Brunworth says. "The same thing applies to life in general. I have found that when I approach each day with enthusiasm and passion, the same things are reflected back towards me. And it's not always about the big things. In fact, it almost never is, it's just about little habits. It was never about being an All-American; it was just about putting in the effort at training each day, focusing on good soccer habits and creating a positive environment for my teammates. It was never about having a perfect GPA; it was just about doing my best work on that day's assignment and studying a little bit every night. The idea of simple habits can be applied to life as well. It's about every day, smiling at the people you see. Being kind and treating every single person with respect. These may seem like small things, but I can't even begin to tell you how many doors these habits have opened for me."
After her incredible career at Wingate, Brunworth is moving on to the next chapter of her life. She is currently at medical school at the University of Colorado after scoring in the 98th percentile on her Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).
Courtesy of Wingate University Athletics