NCAA Release

CHAMPAIGN, Il. – Illinois women's golf graduate Tristyn Nowlin has been named a nominee for NCAA Woman of the Year, the organization announced.

Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award is rooted in Title IX and recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

Nowlin was among 535 female student-athlete nominees that competed in 24 sports across all three NCAA divisions, including 251 nominees from Division I, 107 from Division II and 177 from Division III. Multisport student-athletes account for 141 of the nominees.

The Richmond, Kentucky native finished her career with a 73.40 scoring average, the best career mark in Fighting Illini history. She was a five-time All-Big Ten selection – highlighted by first-team honors in 2020 when she recorded the second-lowest single-season stroke average in school history (72.58) – along with four second-team accolades. Nowlin won two tournaments as an Illini, capturing medalist honors at the 2018 Cardinal Cup and 2019 Schooner Fall Classic.

Nowlin was selected as the 2021 recipient of the prestigious Big Ten Conference Medal of Honor and was a five-time WGCA All-American Scholar and Big Ten Distinguished Scholar as well as a four-time academic All-Big Ten selection. Nowlin graduated with a kinesiology degree and minor in psychology, and is on track to earn a master's degree in recreation, sport and tourism in August.

Most recently, Nowlin earned victories at the Michigan PGA Women's Open - just her second professional event - and at the 26th Annual Phil Kosin Illinois Women's Open. 

The NCAA encourages member schools to honor their top graduating female college athletes by nominating them 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.

Next, conferences 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 10 women from each division to make up the Top 30.

The selection committee will determine the top three honorees in each division from the Top 30, and the nine finalists will be announced this fall. From those nine finalists, the NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics will choose the 2021 NCAA Woman of the Year later this fall.

For more Fighting Illini women's golf news, stay tuned to FightingIllini.com and follow @IlliniWGolf on social media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook.