Gilles Named SLIAC Woman of the Year Nominee
Chelsea Gilles, from Greenville College, is the 2016-17 NCAA Woman of the Year nominee from the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. The NCAA Woman of the Year Award honors graduating student-athletes who have distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in the areas of academic achievement, athletics excellence, service and leadership. Student-athletes are nominated only once in their career by their institution.
Gilles recently completed her Physical Education degree at Greenville College with a 3.60 grade-point average and was a four-year member of the Panthers track and field program. Howard leaves Greenville as one of the most decorated student-athletes in school history, earning SLIAC All-Academic team honors three times and NCAA Academic All-American honors three times while also qualifying for nationals multiple times where she capped her career as a three-time All-American. Gilles was also active in the community serving as an academic mentor, after school care assistant, and residental advisor.
Eligible female student-athletes are nominated by their member school. Each conference office then reviews the nominations from its core member schools (and sponsored sports) and submits its conference nominee(s) to the NCAA. All nominees that compete in a sport that is not sponsored by their core conference, associate conference nominees and independent nominees will be sent to a separate pool to be considered by a committee. Then, the NCAA Woman of the Year selection committee selects the Top 30 – 10 from each division and then three finalists from each division. The Committee on Women's Athletics selects the winner from the Top 9.
All 30 Woman of the Year honorees will be recognized, and the 2017 Woman of the Year announced, at an awards dinner at the JW Marriott Indianapolis on Sunday, Oct. 22, 2017.
