4 Swimmers Honored as Top 30 Honorees in 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year Program

The NCAA has announced the Top 30 honorees for the 2019 NCAA Woman of the Year award. The 30 were selected from the opening pool of 585 school nominees and include 10 from each division. The group consists of 10 athletes each from the NCAA’s 3 divisions. Established in 1991, the NCAA Woman of the Year award recognizes graduating female college athletes who have exhausted their eligibility and distinguished themselves in academics, athletics, service and leadership throughout their collegiate careers.

In early October, the selection committee will announce 9 finalists (3 from each division). The top 30 will all be celebrated and the winner will be announced at a ceremony in Indianapolis on October 20th.

13 sports are represented in the Top 30, including for the first time Top 30 finishers from the sports of rifle and equestrian. Among the honorees are 4 swimmers from among 37 swimming nominees; no water polo players advanced from the group of 3 that were nominated. Only track & field and volleyball had more Top 30 honorees with 7 and 6, respectively.

The swimmers chosen for the Top 30 honor include Anelise Diener from the University of Texas, Colleen Doolan from Division III Tufts University, Hannah Orbach-Mandel from Division III Kenyon College, and Franzi Weidner from Hawaii.

Brief Bios on each swimmer:

• Anelise Diener is a five-time Big 12 Champion, three-time All-American and three-time NCAA Championships qualifier. In 2019 NCAA Championships, the San Antonio, Texas, native placed 19th in the prelims of the 100 freestyle and tied for 26th in the 50 freestyle prelims. She teamed with Claire Adams, Julie Cook and Grace Ariola to place fourth in the 400-freestyle relay at the NCAA Championship. Diener was part of two Big 12 freestyle titles, winning the 200- and 400- freestyle relays. Additionally, the senior finished third in the 100 free and fourth in the 50 free and 200 free. Those performances by Diener helped the Longhorns clinch their 17th Big 12 title. Additionally, Diener is three-time Academic All-Big 12 First Team honoree (Courtesy: University of Texas)
• A biology and community health major, Colleen Doolan graduated early with summa cum laude honors. She is currently working in clinical research at Boston Children’s Hospital and will enter the Tufts University School of Medicine in the fall. The scholarship will be put towards her Medical Doctor and Master of Public Health tuition at Tufts Medical School. A three-time NCAA qualifier and honorable mention All-American during her career on the Tufts swimming team, Doolan was part of the 800-freestyle relay whose ninth-place finish at the 2019 NCAA Championships was the best relay finish in the Tufts program’s recent history. She also swam with the 400 freestyle relay which had a school-record time of 3:28.22 at NCAA’s. Doolan was 21st individually in the 200 butterfly (2:05.24) at the national championships. (Courtesy: Tufts University)
• Orbach-Mandel is the fourth Kenyon swimmer to make the Top-30 in the past four years and is the seventh since 2003. Orbach-Mandel is a 25-time All-American and three-time NCAA event champion. In March, she won two of her three national event titles and helped the Ladies to a runner-up team finish at the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championship. In May, Orbach-Mandel graduated summa cum laude with high honors in economics. She was named Kenyon’s female North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) Scholar-Athlete Award winner and was the recipient of an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. She was a two-time College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) Google Cloud Academic All-American, a four-time College Swimming & Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-American and a three-year member of the NCAC Academic Honor Roll. She was a mainstay on Kenyon’s Merit List and inducted into both Phi Beta Kappa, a national honors society, and Pi Mu Epsilon, a mathematics honors society. (Courtesy: Kenyon College)
• Weidner finished her eligibility in the 2017-2018 season. The German native won 3 straight MPSF conference Swimmer of the Year honors from 2016-2018 and is also a 3-time MPSF All-Academic honoree.

By Sport

• Indoor/Outdoor Track & Field – 7
• Volleyball – 6
• Swimming and Diving – 4
• Soccer – 3
• Basketball – 3
• Cross Country – 2
• Golf – 2
• Field Hockey – 2
• Golf – 2
• Equestrian – 1
• Lacrosse – 1
• Ice Hockey – 1
• Rifle – 1

Note: some athletes participate in more than one varsity sport

All 2019 Top 30 Honorees