SAINT LEO, Fla. – Senior Colett Rampf of the Saint Leo women's cross country and track programs was named one of two Sunshine State Conference nominees for the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year. NCAA conferences and a selection committee have nominated 154 women from a program-record 581 school nominees for the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year Award across the three divisions.
 
Rampf is just the fourth Saint Leo student-athlete since 2006 to earn the distinction of being an SSC nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year honor joining Katie Heintz (2006), Virginia Davenport (2008) and Marie Coors (2017).
 
The nominees represent college athletes from 18 different sports spanning all three NCAA divisions. Of those recognized, 58 nominees competed in Division I, 34 in Division II and 62 in Division III.
 
Nominees competing in a sport not sponsored by their school's core conference were placed in a separate pool to be considered by a selection committee. Up to four independent nominees could be selected to move forward in the process with the conference nominees.
 
The Top 30 honorees, comprising 10 women from each division, will be named by the Woman of the Year selection committee in September. From there, the selection committee will narrow the pool to nine finalists — with three from each division — in early October. One of those finalists will then be named the 2018 Woman of the Year by the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics.
 
The Top 30 honorees will be celebrated and the 2018 NCAA Woman of the Year will be named at the annual banquet Oct. 28 in Indianapolis.
 
The NCAA Woman of the Year program has recognized graduating female student-athletes for excellence in academics, athletics, community service and leadership since its inception in 1991.
 
Rampf, who is currently completing her Master of Business Administration at Saint Leo, is one of just two student-athletes in Saint Leo University history to earn three Academic All-American honors from the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) dating back to the Lions first honor in 1972. Rampf was named to the Google Cloud Academic All-America Second Team this past season following her third team selection in 2017 and her second team honor in 2016.
 
Rampf, a Premnitz, Germany native, finished first in every race in which she competed during the cross country season except the NCAA Championships where she placed eighth overall. She won both the Sunshine State Conference and NCAA South Regional Championships. She broke her own program 5K record (17:05.0) at the Queens Royals Challenge midway through the season.
 
In track, she helped set the school record in the distance medley relay early in the season at the UT Track Classic as her and her three teammates won the event in 12:37.34. A few weeks later, she set the program mark in the 5,000m at the Jesse Owens Track Classic in Columbus, Ohio as she finished third in the event at 16:32.91. She then broke her school mark in the 3,000m steeplechase at the 2018 NCAA Outdoor Championships as she took third overall at 10:00.96, lowering the record by nearly four seconds. She qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in both the 3,000m steeplechase and the 5,000m. Due to her third place finish in the steeplechase, Saint Leo finished t-40th in the team race at the NCAA Championships.
 
Rampf was named a 2017 USTFCCCA NCAA Division II Cross Country All-American. She also earned 2018 USTFCCCA First Team Outdoor Track & Field All-American status (3,000m SC). She was the 2017 Sunshine State Conference Women's Cross Country Runner of the Year, her fourth-straight honor. She became the first athlete to be named the Runner/Player of the Year four times in their respective sport in SSC history. She was the 2017 USTFCCCA South Region Women's Athlete of the Year for the third-straight season. She became the first three-time runner of the year selection of either gender in the history of the South Region. She also earned USTFCCCA All-South Region honors in both the 3,000m steeplechase and the 5,000m.
 
In total, Rampf is a seven-time All-American at Saint Leo over both cross country and track and holds 12 school records.
 
For the latest news, updates, and information on the Saint Leo cross country and track teams be sure to visit SaintLeoLions.com. Fans can also stay up-to-date on the latest Lions news by following Saint Leo Athletics on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.