(Story courtesy of Colorado College Athletics Communications)
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Recent Colorado College graduate Kendall Accetta, a two-time All-American on the women's track and field team and reigning SCAC Woman of the Year, has been named a Top 30 honoree for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
Established in 1991, the award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes female student-athletes who have completed their undergraduate studies and distinguished themselves in their community, in athletics and in academics throughout their college careers.
The selection committee will determine three honorees from each NCAA division, for a total of nine finalists. From those finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2024 NCAA Woman of the Year.
At the NCAA Convention in January, the NCAA Woman of the Year will be named, and the Top 30 will be celebrated.
Accetta is the first Colorado College athlete to be named a Top 30 honoree for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
A native of Portland, Ore., Accetta graduated with a 3.95 cumulative grade-point average as a double major in English and Political Science and was named the 2024 SCAC Woman of the Year.
Accetta produced an outstanding 2023-24 campaign in both cross country and track & field, including being named the SCAC Runner of the Year after winning the 2023 individual cross country title and helping the Tigers to a Top 25 result at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championship Meet, where she placed 44th individually out of 292 runners.
She followed that up this past spring by finishing 12th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships, earning her second All-America honor in that event. Accetta was named the SCAC Women's Track Athlete of the Year after winning the steeplechase and the 1,500-meter races at the league meet and she holds the school record in the steeplechase (10:38.73). She finished seventh in the steeplechase at the 2022 NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Accetta, who was named the recipient of the Laura Golden award as Colorado College's top female student-athlete among the 2024 graduating class, was very active in the campus community, such as Co- Community Engagement Officer for SAAC, volunteering with TESSA and organizing student volunteers to help out every other week.
