INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Jenny Tracy on the North Carolina Central University softball team is one of a record-setting 480 nominees for the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year award announced by the National Collegiate Athletic Association on Friday.

Tracy, who concluded her third season as a middle infielder for the Lady Eagles in the spring of 2015, is one of 207 NCAA Woman of the Year nominees from Division I programs.
 
Tracy was having an excellent season on the diamond for the Lady Eagles before being sidelined for the final full month due to injury. The La Grande, Oregon, resident finished her season batting .291 in 26 starts. Tracy scored 16 runs, drove in nine more and tallied six extra-base hits including four doubles, one triple and one home run. She tallied a seven-game hit streak and had a .956 fielding percentage as a busy middle infielder.
 
Away from the field, Tracy accumulated a perfect 4.0 GPA studying in business administration on her way to earning Capital One Academic All-District honors. Tracy was only one of two NCAA Division I District 3 honorees to boast 4.0 GPA out of the award winners as a Thurgood Marshall Leadership Institute Scholar. She earned Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Academic All-Conference praise all three years for the Maroon and Gray.
 
Tracy is the President of NCCU's Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC), Co-President of the Entrepreneurship Club at NCCU and a member of both NCCU's Honors Program and Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society as NCCU's Chapter Vice President. She was a student ambassador for the School of Business Dean's Global Speaker Series and individual giving chair for Globe Mead.
 
"This year, the importance of collectivism was made more apparent than ever to me," said Tracy. "I learned to value and appreciate the individuals that accompanied me through my college journey. Whether it be my classmates, softball teammates, the Entrepreneur Club, or the SAAC members, each group had similar goals that they were striving to achieve: earning good grades, winning a championship, starting a business, or improving the student-athlete experience while engaging with the community. I have applied a noteworthy African proverb often in my practices this year: If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
 
Now in its 25th year, the Woman of the Year award honors graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves throughout their collegiate careers in academics, athletics, service and leadership.
 
The NCAA encourages member schools to honor its top graduating female student-athletes each year by submitting their names for consideration for the Woman of the Year award.
 
Then, conferences assess each nominee's eligibility and select up to two conference nominees. All conference nominees are forwarded to the Woman of the Year selection committee, which chooses the top 30 honorees – 10 from each division.
 
From the top 30, the selection committee determines the top three nominees from each division and announces the top nine finalists in September. The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics then chooses from among those nine to determine the 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year.
 
The 2015 NCAA Woman of the Year winner will be announced, and the Top 30 honorees celebrated, at the annual award ceremony Oct. 18 in Indianapolis.
 
To view the list of school nominees, click here.