After previously being named Central College’s nominee, Kate Patton (Murray) was announced as the Iowa Conference’s nominee for the NCAA Woman of the Year Award.
The award recognizes senior student-athletes that have excelled in academics, athletics, community service and leadership throughout their college careers. Each conference office reviews nominations from its member schools and submits its league nominee to the NCAA’s selection committee. The committee chooses the top 30 nationally—10 from each division—and then three finalists from each division are picked. The Committee on Women’s Athletics then selects the winner, announced at a banquet in Indianapolis, Ind. Oct. 28.
Patton was selected as the Iowa Conference’s nominee over Luther College softball player Anna Strien and Wartburg College track and field athlete Ashlyn Bagge.
“It is truly an honor to be a school nominee, but to be a conference nominee is beyond humbling,” Patton said. “The Iowa Conference is filled with dedicated and determined women who focus on not only athletics but also academics, which leads to great success in both. I am one among many of these women, so to be selected as the conference’s woman of the year nominee is truly humbling. This honor reflects on the numerous professors, coaches, and teammates who helped me all throughout my four years at Central.”
She’s a two-time All-American having earned the honor at the 2015 indoor and 2016 outdoor national meets. Patton also earned all-Iowa Conference honors five times, most recently at the 2018 indoor meet. Scoring 13 points at the indoor league meet and 11 outdoors this year, she was named the team’s Most Valuable Performer. A decorated trophy case for Patton was topped off this spring when she was named a Google Cloud/CoSIDA Academic All-American for the 2018 track and field season.
A psychology major, Patton graduated with a 3.93 GPA. Patton is working for Mid-Iowa Family Therapy Clinic as a service support worker. Patton’s responsibilities include working with the Department of Human Services on cases of abuse or neglect inside of Des Moines-area homes and ensuring the families and children receive the required levels of support and resources.
Patton is the seventh student-athlete from Central to earn the league’s nomination for the award and the first since Jill (Ziskovsky) Halcomb was chosen in 2011 for women’s track and field. Prior to 2006 honorees were chosen by state rather than conference.
Central’s Iowa Woman of the Year honorees
1995 Emilie Hanson, women’s basketball
2001 Candace Wilson, volleyball
2002 Angie Nielsen, volleyball
2004 Reagan Schultz, women’s track and field
2006 Katie Pederson, volleyball, women’s track and field
2011 Jill Halcomb, women’s track and field
2018 Kate Patton, women’s track and field