Track, cross country claim two-thirds of NCAA Woman of the Year finalists
Posted Thursday, 26 October, 2006
Track and cross country produce more than their share of outstanding student-athletes. People associated with the sports have known this for years.
But it’s nice when the larger sports world takes notice.
The NCAA has done just that with its list of nine finalists for the 2006 NCAA Woman of the Year. Six of the finalists competed in collegiate track and field and/or cross country.
The NCAA award recognizes standout female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics and community service and leadership. This year’s NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced Saturday, Oct. 28, at an awards dinner in Indianapolis.
Finalists include:
• Anne Bersagel, Wake Forest University (cross country and indoor and outdoor track);
• Angela Homan, Auburn University (cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field);
• Jennifer Irwin, Ferris State University (cross country and indoor and outdoor track and field);
• Adrianne Musu Jackson-Buckner, State University College at Oneonta (field hockey and indoor and outdoor track);
• Angela Pfeiffer, Concordia College, Moorhead (indoor and outdoor track), Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference; and
• Christyn Schumann, Trinity University (indoor and outdoor track).
The remaining finalists are Janelle Engle, Old Dominion University (field hockey); Bethany Rehm, Texas Women’s University (gymnastics); and Greta Trotman, Barry University (tennis).
Bersagel graduated with honors from Wake Forest in December with a double major in economics and political science. An Atlantic Coast Conference champion in the 10,000-meter run (2004), Bersagel was selected to the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association All-American Team.
She was named Wake Forest's Edwin G. Wilson Student-Athlete of the Year in 2003, 2004 and 2005. While in college, Bersagel served an internship in the United States Embassy in Oslo, Norway. She also served as vice president and treasurer of the Wake Forest Chapter of Amnesty International.
Homan graduated from Auburn last spring with a degree in exercise science. A seven-time USTFCCCA All-American, she was named the Southeastern Conference’s cross country athlete of the year three times.
Homan received Auburn’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award in 2006, which recognizes students and others who exhibit excellence in character, service to humanity, scholarship and other qualities. Homan was involved in a variety of community service activities, including Project Uplift.
Irwin graduated from Ferris State last spring with a degree in plastics and rubber engineering technology. She was a six-time All-American in cross country, indoor track and outdoor track. Irwin placed fourth in the 1,500 meters at the 2006 NCAA Division II Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Irwin received the 2005-06 Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Scholar-Athlete of the Year Award and did volunteer work for Habitat for Humanity.
Jackson-Buckner won the 200-meter dash at the 2006 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships. She earned All-America honors two times in indoor track and four times in outdoor track. She also played field hockey.
A Dean’s List honoree while at Oneonta State, Jackson-Buckner is currently pursing her degree in business administration at Syracuse University.
Pfeiffer graduated from Concordia-Moorhead last spring and is currently attending the College of Dentistry at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
She finished third in the 400 meters at the 2006 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships and won 10 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference individual championships during her collegiate career.
Pfeiffer was active in many outside organizations. She spent four weeks in Costa Rica volunteering in an orphanage as part of the Cross Cultural Solutions program.
Schumann was a three-time NCAA Division III outdoor champion in the women’s high jump at Trinity. She also won a pair of NCAA indoor titles and holds the school record of 5 feet, 9¼ inches.
A business management major, Schumann received Trinity University’s Presidential Award of Excellence prior to graduating last spring. Her volunteer activities included serving as a mentor in the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program.
Lauryn McCalley, a former diver at the University of Tennessee, was the 2005 NCAA Woman of the Year.
For more information on the award, see www.ncaa.org.
Facebook 
Twitter
i