Shreveport – Seniors Dorothy Mims of gymnastics and Kyra Montes of women's soccer have been nominated for 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year, it was announced by the organization on Tuesday.
Mims (Huntsville, Ala.) and Montes (Shreveport) are two of a record 605 female college athletes nominated for the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year Award by NCAA member schools. Rooted in Title IX, the NCAA Woman of the Year Award was established in 1991 to recognize graduating female student-athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.
The nominees represent all three NCAA divisions, including 259 nominees from Division I, 126 from Division II and 220 from Division III. Nominees competed in 24 sports, with multisport student-athletes accounting for 128 of the nominees.
Member schools are encouraged to honor their top graduating female college athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year Award. Schools can recognize two nominees if at least one is a woman of color or international student-athlete.
Conference offices will select up to two nominees each from their pool of member school nominees. All nominees who compete in a sport not sponsored by their school's primary conference, as well as associate conference nominees and independent nominees, will be considered by a selection committee. Then, the Woman of the Year selection committee, made up of representatives from the NCAA membership, will choose the Top 30 honorees — 10 from each division.
Mims finished her successful gymnastics career with the Ladies by picking up several prestigious individual awards this year as she named to the 2020 Women's Collegiate Gymnastics Association DIII regular season All-America Team as she earned Second Team All-America honors on the beam. She was also selected as the Midwest Independent Conference's "MIC Woman of the Year" in a blind vote by an independent committee, was named a MIC Scholar Athlete, and named to the USA Gymnastics Women's Collegiate National Senior All-Star Team. She was also named a USA Gymnastics Scholar Athlete, as she was recognized for having a 3.5 or higher cumulative GPA
Montes completed her stellar career by being named First-Team All-SCAC for the third-consecutive season, the only player in the division III era in to do so. She was named to the United States Coaches All-West Region Team (first team selection), one of just 11 SCAC student-athletes to receive the honor. Montes holds the division III era program records for goals in a career (28), game-winning goals in a career (12), career assists (17) and career points (73). She was named to the 2019 SCAC Championship All-Tournament Team and the 2019 Louisiana Sports Writers Association All-Louisiana Women's Soccer Collegiate Team. Montes also represented the country of Nicaragua in two matches as part of the Central American Qualifying Stage of the 2020 Concacaf Women's Olympic Qualifying Championship in Alajuela, Costa Rica in early October at the Estadio Alejandro Morera Soto.
From the Top 30, the Woman of the Year selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division and announce nine finalists. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then will choose the 2020 NCAA Woman of the Year, who will be named this fall.
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