Women's Soccer | 6/27/2017 12:55:00 PM

Rock Hill, S.C.----Wingate University 2017 graduate and women's soccer standout Kaitlyn Brunworth (Littleton, Colo.) has added another prestigious award to her trophy case, being named the South Atlantic Conference Woman of the Year on Tuesday afternoon. The two-time Academic All-America® honoree earned the SAC Presidents Award earlier this month. The SAC Woman of the Year Award recognizes academics, athletics, service and leadership.  

Along with being named the league's Woman of the Year, Brunworth is a nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year. She is one of 543 nominees across all of the NCAA to be nominated for the award. Brunworth joins 116 NCAA Division II student-athletes as NCAA Woman of the Year nominees.

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.

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.

After her incredible career at Wingate, Brunworth will be moving on to the next chapter of her life. She is on her way to medical school at the University of Colorado after scoring in the 98th percentile on her Medical College Admission Test (MCAT).

NCAA Woman of the Year

Established in 1991 and now in its 27th year, 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 school nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, with 229 from Division I, 117 from Division II and 197 from Division III. The nominees competed in 21 different women's sports, and 122 were multi-sport athletes during their time in college.

The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.

Next, conferences will select up to two conference nominees each from the pool of school nominees. The Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will then choose the top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.

From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three honorees from each division and announces the nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year from those nine.

The top 30 honorees will be recognized and the 2017 NCAA Woman of the Year will be announced at the annual award ceremony Oct. 22 in Indianapolis.

WINGATE UNIVERSITY
 
Wingate University, consistently ranked as a top 10 "best value" in the South by U.S. News & World Report, serves more than 3,200 students on three campuses in Wingate, Charlotte and Hendersonville, N.C. Founded in 1896, the University offers 35 undergraduate majors, 35 minors, 12 career concentrations, nine pre-professional programs, master's degrees in accounting, business, education, physician assistant studies and sport management and doctorates in education, pharmacy and physical therapy.
 
With a 14 to 1 student/teacher ratio, Wingate students gain the tools and support needed to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. To view current news, video and story ideas, visit www.youtube.com/wingateuniversity. 
 
In addition to a robust intramural athletics program, Wingate student athletes compete in 22 NCAA Division II sports. The University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past 11 years. For more information, go to www.wingate.edu.
 
Wingate is first among NCAA Division II Academic All-America®-producing colleges in the 2000's with 96 selections. Among North Carolina's colleges and universities, Wingate is number one in this millennium with 96 Academic All-America® honorees. Wingate is tops among all SAC schools with 105 lifetime Academic All-America® picks. For more information on WU athletics, go to www.wingatebulldogs.com.